Ex-BIA official linked to tribal trust fund

Associated Press

BOSTON — Five months after ruling that the Chinook Indians of Washington state should have federal status as a tribe, the former head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs became the co-beneficiary of a $50,000 trust along with one of the Chinook’s earliest casino advocates, The Boston Globe reported Monday.

The trust was established by a different tribe, the Fallon Paiute Shoshone of Nevada. Kevin Gover said he was unaware of it, but his legal associates say it was a reserve fund intended as a legal retainer for future work. An unnamed tribal council member also said the money was for a legal retainer, the newspaper said.

Gover is now a subject of congressional inquiries into decisions in the last weeks of the Clinton administration that gave more tribes the power to open casinos.

Now a lawyer-lobbyist for tribes, Gover maintains he received nothing that benefited him from tribes for his official decisions. And he has received no legal fees or other payments from the Chinooks.

But he and Dennis G. Chappabitty, a longtime friend and law school classmate, are listed in Nevada as co-beneficiaries of the $50,000 Paiute trust, the newspaper said. Chappabitty’s wife, Linda C. Amelia, is a Chinook who was a leader in the tribe’s fight for federal recognition.

Chappabitty says the fund is tied to work he and Gover are doing on behalf of the Fallon Paiute Shoshone.

Gover, in an interview with the Globe, said he knew nothing about it.

"I have not asked for a $50,000 fee and would not accept one," he said. "My bill is not close to that."

Chappabitty said he had assumed the trust account was for their future fees.

The tribe’s lawyer, Todd Plimpton, told the Globe the Fallon tribe’s council voted to put the money in a trust for Gover and Chappabitty, and also said his own fees could be paid from the fund.

"This $50,000 is nothing more than a retainer, and it will be drawn down only upon work performed," Plimpton said.

The Chinooks have long wanted to build a casino near their ancestral lands along the Columbia River. But their plans were halted when investigators determined they hadn’t been an organized tribe since the 1880s, and did not merit federal recognition.

On Jan. 3, Gover’s last day as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he rewrote the findings of his research staff and granted the Chinooks the recognition.

In March the Globe reported that Gover’s top deputy, Michael J. Anderson, had waited until Jan. 19 — his last day in office — to give preliminary recognition to the Nipmucs in Massachusetts and the Duwamish of Washington state. The authenticity of both tribes had also been rejected by the bureau.

The Fallon Paiute Shoshone is a poor, small tribe, based on a desert reservation about 60 miles east of Reno.

Gover declined to detail his fee arrangement, but Plimpton said he asked for and received $10,000. A check for that amount was written to Plimpton and marked for Gover on June 6, according to records cited by the Globe.

Chappabitty received a check for $3,400 on that same day, and $5,000 on May 31, the newspaper reported.

An additional $50,000 check was dated June 8 and used to set up the trust account. Plimpton said he asked the tribal council to put that much into the account to cover any additional fees that might be owed to Gover and Chappabitty. He said he told Gover about the trust account only after it was authorized.

Plimpton himself received $42,757 in legal fees from the tribe for May and June. In all, the tribe spent $111,157 for Plimpton, Gover and Chappabitty in May and June, the newspaper said.