If you follow my blogs, I hope you are not tired of the drum I keep beating — and the song I beat is… the Manh Choh mining project has been of no benefit to the Native Village of Tetlin. The fact is, the only folks making money are John Brad Juneau (Juneau) and his people. Juneau, is the architect of the 2008 Tetlin Mineral Lease that is the floorplan for the Manh Choh mining project.
Money (that we know of) Juneau has made, and it’s a LOT, is from peddling Tetlin’s land that he got from Chief Adams for free. Yes, I said FREE. Unlike the financial per-acre considerations Juneau and his assignees pay the State of Alaska and other landowners in their mining projects, the Tetlin Mineral Lease has no stipulation for rent payments. I don’t even know why Juneau and Adams used the word “lease” because it clearly does not meet the textbook definition.
Since 2008, not one red cent has been paid to the Native Village of Tetlin Tribe from the intruders who have turned the Tribe’s once plush forested 643,147 acres into mulch and filled our fish-ladened waterways with silt. The Mineral Lease provides Juneau 100% control of all of Tetlin's land. The Tribe must have written permission from him should we want to use our own land for tribal purposes. As a real kick to Tetlin's head, Juneau holds an Ace, a “Sole Discretion Clause” which is typically held by the Lessor. Juneau, the Lessee, gave himself the right, to at his sole discretion, assign the Mineral Lease and Tetlin’s land to whoever he wants to, whenever he wants to, and Tetlin, the Lessor, can’t do a thing about it.
ARTICLE 6 ASSIGNMENT 6. 1 Assignment by Juneau. Juneau shall have the right at any time and from time to time, in its sole discretion, to assign, transfer or encumber all or any portion of its interest in this Lease and/or the Subject Property on such terms and conditions and for such consideration as Juneau shall determine[d] in its sole discretion...
It did not take Juneau long to use his “sole discretion" to start cashing in on his free Tetlin land. So the Mineral Lease began to bounce from one hand to another…
LET'S FOLLOW THE BOUNCING MINERAL LEASE
2008, Mr. Juneau and his friend, Chief Adams, sign the Mineral Lease without the Council or the Tribe's knowledge or consent. Adams hands over all of Tetlin’s land to Juneau for $0.00, zilch, nada, goose eggs, zip, a month, a year, whatever. Juneau however did pay Adams $50,000 for his signature.
2009 In exchange for selling them a piece of Tetlin’s “free land”, Juneau gets paid $1,000,000 and crowned President of the brand-new company Contango Ore.
2010 Juneau as Contango Ore is off to a flying start peddling his Mineral Lease on Wall Street at about $29 a share. But all was quiet in Tetlin because Chief Adams hasn't shared the gruesome Mineral Lease details with Tetlin's Council or tribe. Adams is rewarded (or was it bribed) by Juneau with a $5,000 a month contract working directly under the due influence of Contango Ore. Afterall, Juneau had more Mineral Lease documents to be signed. To make certain no one from Tetlin knows about what is going on, Juneau and Adams move their dealings down to Juneau's home, Houston, Texas.
2011 – 2013 Contango Ore boldly promotes the Mineral Lease with Tetlin’s free land and the tribal Chief Juneau has bought. You can’t make this stuff up, my friends. It is all published in federal Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
Juneau had not even recorded the Mineral Lease in the state of Alaska, but he published it in his SEC filings, blatantly showing off broken tribal laws, false statements, and misrepresentations...
The tribe granted Juneau the Mineral Lease in 2008 is FALSE. Juneau was never approved by the Tetlin Village Council or the Tetlin tribal membership as an official voting body. Council members present at the 2008 gathering all say the same; Juneau was never told he could mine on Tetlin's land.
Tetlin holds fee simple title to surface and subsurface estates in its former reservation lands pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)… FALSE. No land held by Tetlin is pursuant to ANCSA
Tetlin granted Juneau an estimated 780,000 acres… FALSE. Tetlin has never owned that much land, and Juneau was never granted the 643,147 acres Tetlin does own.
Tetlin gave Juneau a waiver to its sovereign immunity. NOPE, never happened. Neither Adams nor the Council can waive sovereign immunity without the confirmation of 70% of the tribe’s qualified voters, by Tetlin tribal law and no such meeting was ever held.
Juneau and Adams complied with all governmental laws. FALSE. Juneau and Adams broke several tribal laws.
“…the TETLIN VILLAGE COUNCIL (“Tetlin”), [is] an Alaska Native Village corporation organized pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, ("ANCSA"),… FALSE. Tetlin Native Corporation is the one and only ANCSA village corporation for the Tetlin Tribe.
Back to Juneau handing off the Mineral Lease and Tetlin's free land for more money. Here comes the next big bounce...
2014 starts with Adams scaring the heebie-jeebies out of his friend and cohort, Juneau. Adams wrote a public letter in support of Alaskan tribes finally being able to put their land into federal trust. Ouch, that had to hurt. The last thing Juneau wanted was for Big Brother to have authority over his free Tetlin land. They would likely say “what the &%$#@ is this Mineral Lease? How is it a lease if they don’t even pay Tetlin attention much less rent? Juneau's free-land deal stops here! This fella has obviously taken America's "Free-Enterprise system” way to far". Juneau, however, wasn’t too scared to not bounce his Mineral Lease and free Tetlin land to Royal Gold. Royal Gold of Denver, Colorado, a much bigger player than Contango Ore paid Juneau $6,000,000 and royalties for their piece of his Tetlin cash-cow. Royal Gold was now ready to form a joint-venture of a lifetime, Peak Gold, LLC after Juneau jumped through some major hoops. Royal Gold knew Juneau’s Mineral Lease had broken Tetlin laws that could make the agreement unenforceable if some clever Tetlin tribal member tried to take them to court. As I imagine it, Royal Gold told Juneau to fix the infractions and Juneau told Chief Adams to earn his pay and get his tribe in line. According to the SEC filings, Juneau made his $6,000,000 deal with Royal Gold on September 29, 2014 and just a few days later October 2, 2014 Chief Adams, in obedience to Juneau, rallied a couple of tribal members to do Juneau’s dirty work for Royal Gold. What was this dirty work? Well, this story deserves its own blog that I will share later. But I can tell you, that Juneau, Contango Ore, and Royal Gold put some seriously sharp cleats on when they ran the tribe over with their piles of bogus paper on October 2, 2014. To give you an idea how much they needed to get these new blinders pulled over Tetlin’s eyes, Royal Gold hired one of Alaska’s biggest law firms in Native Law, Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry to make sure Contango Ore (Juneau) secured “the validity of all actions taken by the Tetlin Village Council and the tribal members of Tetlin” . This command was for about 5 more agreements... the master agreement is called the 2014 Stability Agreement.
Now, I ask you this important question, my friends, IF JUNEAU'S 2008 MINERAL LEASE WAS VALID — in 2014, why would Contango Ore and Royal Gold need to hire a herd of attorneys to make sure the Tetlin Tribe validated a bunch of NEW AGREEMENTS ? Sounds real iffie doesn’t it?
Another question is, even in the learned and surely able legal hands of Royal Gold’s uber attorneys, how could Juneau get the majority of 30% of the voting Tetlin Members to vote and consent to Contango’s ridiculous agreements without a formal official Membership meeting? Remember, the 2014 gathering was thrown together in just a few days when tribal law says...
Tetlin Code of Tribal Ordinances Chapter 6 MEETINGS Section 5. Notice shall be posted in at least two (2) public places, thirty days (30) prior to tribal membership meetings.
Juneau and Adams had executed the Mineral Lease by by falsely saying a small group of Tetlin members, not an official voting body approved it. Would they make the same smooth move with the new agreements and again, leave the Tetlin tribe in the dark?
Ahhh, but as I said, this Stability Agreement beast will have to be tackled in another blog. I promise after a little more research, I will share what I find. In the meanwhile, I have linked the Stability Agreement here for you to read ahead of time.
Please carefully read the highlighted part of page 5, where Contango uses Tetlin's Ordinances, to create an Ordinance, that says, the Mineral Lease does not have to apply to (obey) Tetlin's Ordinances or laws.... I'm not making this stuff up, folks. It's for REAL.
Now, back to the bouncing Mineral Lease and Tetlin's free land.
2020 rolls around. The Mineral Lease has been recorded in Alaska and has bounced to KINROSS GOLD who takes the lead with 70% of Juneau's "Tetlin Cash Register". Stock market money flows in and even Alaska's Governor dropped $10,000,000 into Juneau’s partners coffers from our Permanent Dividend Fund.
Now, 2024 is just as is was back in 2008... the Tetlin tribal membership, as a whole, know little to nothing of what is happening to Tetlin's land, Tetlin's laws, or even Tetlin's rights. And as for the Manh Choh, It seems as though everybody in the world has gotten an invitation to own a piece of Tetlin — everybody but Tetlin members. And everybody who owns a piece of Tetlin is making money — everybody except Tetlin members.
My purpose for researching and publishing information about the Manh Choh is to reveal all that has been hidden from us as Tetlin Tribal members. I hope that enough Tetlin tribal members will agree, as a valid voting body under Tetlin laws, to tell the mining intruders what has not been told to them up to now... what the Native Village of Tetlin WANTS — not what THEY say we want.
The Tribe wants our land to be returned under its Constitutional rights and Congressional ANCSA protections. The Tribe also wants compensation for all that was taken from us since 2008 under the wrongful Mineral Lease, to include rent for our land.
I call out the KINROSS JV partners to PROVE that they were given rights to mine our land by the Tetlin Tribal membership. How could the Tetlin tribal membership have ratified the Mineral Lease, the Stability Agreement or any of the the other so-called agreements when there has never been a formal tribal membership meeting held for the purpose of the Mineral Lease or the Manh Choh?
Show us the document(s) that proves the Native Village of Tetlin tribal membership, held official meetings and the majority of our voting membership said YES.
Show us — the Native Village of Tetlin Tribal Membership, your PROOF, that we gave you permission to cheat us for 16 years and more to come.
Friends, so long as the Tetlin Native Corporation lets me, I will use my blogs to; call out all the wrongdoing of Juneau, Contango Ore, Royal Gold, the Peak Gold JV, the KINROSS JV and even the Tetlin Council members who support the miners because the miners support them.
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Please email comments on Kevin's blog to: David Flenaugh dflenaugh@tetlincorp.com
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