by Pat Kossan
The Arizona Republic
Kevin Gover, an Arizona State University law professor, is the talk of Indian communities across the country.
But not all of the talk is good.
Gover recently was named director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the nation’s premier center of Native American history and art, which sits on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Gover is a scholar and a once successful lobbyist on behalf of Indian communities. But he has no experience running a museum and was caught up in a mini scandal when he worked at the Interior Department in the late 1990s.
That has led some Indian leaders and opinion makers to criticize his appointment, saying it hints of favoritism. His supporters maintain he is an intelligent, gifted leader who will elevate the museum to a new level.
Gover, 52, is the son of an Oklahoma Pawnee and graduate of Princeton University. He worked the halls of the U.S. Capitol lobbying for better housing and establishing water rights for Indian communities. He also campaigned for Bill Clinton and, in between lobbying stints, served in the Clinton administration as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Gover won acclaim there for his eloquent apology to America’s native people for the country’s racism and violent treatment. He won money for Indian communities to hire more and better-trained police officers and to replace crumbling BIA schools.
But his time as BIA chief also tarnished his reputation. A federal judge found Gover in contempt of court for withholding documents vital to a class-action lawsuit. The suit was filed on behalf of Native Americans and demands an accounting of money from the use of Indian land and resources, which the suit claims the federal government mismanaged. A federal judge called the action “a shocking pattern of deception.” In 1999, he fined Gover and his then-boss, Interior Secretary and former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, as well as Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
“It wasn’t like I had them locked in my desk,” Gover said about the documents during a phone interview last week from Washington, D.C. “It’s not an excuse. We’re talking about records and transactions that go back literally over 100 years.”
The most stinging criticism has come from Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the still-unsettled case. Cobell also is a trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian. In an opinion published in the national newspaper Indian Country Today, Cobell said the Smithsonian was “thumbing its nose at the representatives of Indian country” with Gover’s appointment. Several trustees joined Cobell in complaining that they were not consulted about the appointment.
Indian Country Today also said that Gover lacks museum experience and his appointment smacks of cronyism. He will follow Richard West, the museum’s founding director and Gover’s former law partner.
The negative reaction will not deter Gover from taking the position. He called his critics “a minority of one” but said he sympathizes with the trustees’ anger about being left out.
“It’s really my practical experience in dealing with Indian tribes and Indian people that qualifies me for the job,” Gover said. “That’s what I’ve spent my life doing, and that’s what I know best.”
Washington, D.C., lawyer and lobbyist Loretta Tuell is Gover’s former colleague and a friend. Tuell, a Nez Perce from Idaho, said the negative stories about Gover don’t paint a full picture of his respected position among Native American communities. He has overcome struggles and used his career to improve his community, she said.
Gover, who joined ASU in 2003, calls himself an Indian activist and scholar, as well as a man who nearly lost his career to alcoholism. Gover said he stopped drinking in 1993.
“We really do have to cast light on this, because to my mind the greatest challenge the tribes face is substance abuse and alcoholism,” Gover said. “It holds us back from incredible things these communities can accomplish and will accomplish when we’ve dealt with it.”
A far better memory came in 2004 when Gover marched with thousands of fellow Indians into the just opened National Museum of the American Indian and laid claim to their own space on the National Mall.
“When I walked in, I looked around and thought, ‘Wow. This is a monument to us,’ ” Gover said. “This big beautiful edifice says we’re here and we’re going to stay here.”
He envisions his new job as sending that thrill of pride to native people from Canada to South America who will never get the chance to walk through the museum’s doors. It will mean continuing to send out traveling exhibitions, as well as re-creating the museum through technology and books and films.
The deepest imprint he hopes to make on the museum is turning it into a center of scholarship.
“I’m talking about a library,” Gover said. He envisions a collection of documents, films, microfiche, whatever is out there for scholars to examine. “I think this museum can and should be the place where people go, and particularly scholars, to dig deeply into issues that affect Native Americans,” he said.
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