CHAPTER 21

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

SECTION 1.

This Ordinance shall be referred to as the Oglala Sioux Tribal Freedom of Information Ordinance .

SECTION 2.

As used in this ordinance:

(a) The term "Tribal entity" shall mean any committee, office, program or project of the Oglala Sioux Tribe established by the tribal council for the benefit of the Oglala Sioux people. This shall include all chartered organizations except privately chartered profit and non- profit corporations chartered for individual tribal members.

(b) The term "tribal member" shall mean any Indian person who is eligible for enrollment .

(c) The term "non-enrolled member" shall mean any Indian person who is not enrolled and not eligible for enrollment in the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

(d) The term "non-Indian member" shall mean any Indian person who is not enrolled and not eligible for enrollment in the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

(e) The term "non-Indian" shall mean any non-Indian person.

(f ) The term "maintain" includes maintain, collect, use or disseminate.

(g) The term "record" means any item, collection, or grouping of information about the Oglala Sioux Tribe and an individual that is maintained by the OST Council or any tribal program, committee, and office, but not limited to, enrollment, land ownership, leasing and sale of lands, education, financial transactions, medical history, and criminal or employment history that contains his or her names, or an identifying number, symbol or other identifying particular assigned to the individual, such as a finger or voice print or a photograph.

SECTION 3.

It is the official policy of the Oglala Sioux Tribe that all tribal members shall have access to all tribal records, including, but not limited to, resolutions and ordinances, tribal minutes, all transactions involving tribal loans, descriptions of tribal lands, the leasing, exchanges of Tribal lands, and records regarding the tribe and any tribal contractor as permitted by 25 CFR Section 271.48. This shall include records maintained by-the OST Council, Tribal Secretary, Tribal Treasurer, all Council Committees, all tribal programs, district governments and non-profit chartered organizations. The basis for this policy is that all tribal members have property interests in the tribe and as owners of these interest have a right to review these records.

SECTION 4.

A non-enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe shall not have a right to any items included in Section 3 except enrollment records of his family and/or relative.

SECTION 5.

Non-Indians and non-member Indians shall not have a right to any item included in Section 3 except upon the written permission of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council or its Executive Committee.

SECTION 6.

The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, Oglala Sioux Executive Committee, or any Committee of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, or any officer and program thereof shall not disclose any record by any means of communication to any person, including a tribal member, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains when the information requested involves an individual, unless the disclosure of the information would be:

(a) To those officers and employees of a tribal program which maintains the record of who have need for the record in the performance of their duties.

(b) To a recipient who has provided the tribal program with written assurance that the record will be used solely as a statistical research or reporting record, and the record is to be transformed in a form that is not individually identifiable.

(c) To the tribal archives at the Oglala Lakota College or to the United States National Archives as a record which has sufficient historical or other value to warrant its continued preservation by the Tribe or United States Government.

(d) To the Oglala Sioux Public Safety Commission or an instrumentality of the United States Government for a criminal law enforcement activity if the activity is authorized by law, provided that the request must be made in writing and specify the particular information desired and the law enforcement activity for which the record is sought.

(e) Pursuant to an order of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court or federal court in a proceeding where the Oglala Sioux Tribe is a party.

SECTION 7.

All individuals shall have access to their personnel records maintained by the Oglala Sioux Tribe or a program thereof upon written request. Such individuals shall also have a right to request amendment of a record pertaining to him or her and shall have the right to appeal the denial of a request for amendment to the Tribal Executive Committee, which shall hear the appeal within ten (10) days in Executive Session, if appropriate. The decision of the Executive Committee shall be final.

SECTION 8.

Any person who is aggrieved by a final decision of the Executive Committee may bring a civil action in the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court within thirty (30) days of the issuance of such decision to compel the tribal program or director and employees thereof to grant access to records or permit amendments to records; no individual shall be permitted to sue for damages in such action, the Tribal Court shall be permitted, however, to grant any equitable relief necessary to finally determine the action.

SECTION 9.

All records shall be reviewed during regular business hours.

Hist: Ordinance 84-06