(Address)
                              (Date)




Senator Ben Nighthorse-Campbell, Chairman
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
838 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.   20510

          RE:       Supporting Request for an Immediate Investigation into the Eastern Regional BIA Office and Mr. Franklin Keel
          and Mr. Kevin Gover Concerning the Catawba Nation's Enrollment Procedures.


Dear Senator Nighthorse-Campbell

     I have been reading about the legal problems that the Catawba Indians of South Carolina and their
descendants who have been having problems  with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and in particular with Mr. Franklin
Keel of the Eastern Regional BIA Office.    As a member of the public I am appalled by this apparent lack of concern
for objective reviewing of individuals seeking to be federally recognized Indians.

     I am lending my full support to the call for a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs inquiry into the conduct of
both Mr. Kevin Gover and Mr. Franklin Keel.  No individual nor group of individuals should be denied their
Constitutional rights of due process and right to notice.  It is apparent that these people, both enrolled Catawbas and
those who have sought tribal enrollment, have been denied these basic American rights.

     It is my hope that the US Constitution still stands for something and that no federal agency nor federal
employee has the right to take these rights away from any member of the public.   Mr. Keel's and Mr. Gover has
ignored years of pleas from those who sought tribal enrollment for an objective review.  Instead they were reviewed
by Mr. Keel and his staff in which Mr. Keel has stated repeatedly that he in effect will not allow these people to be
enrolled.  How is it then possible that in March 2000 his office to objective review the appeals of individuals denied
tribal enrollment by the Catawba Executive Committee Members?   It simply could not have been an objective and
unbiased review of their request for consideration.

     Furthermore, Mr. Keel's recent public statement that he will seek to rush to publication the Final Catawba
Tribal Roll is further evidence of this hostile views towards these people.   Rather than trying to work with these
people who have been denied as well as with the federal court system, he has decided upon a course of action that will
be time consuming and extremely expensive for these people and the public.  Isn't Mr. Keel required not to waste the
public funds under his control with unwarranted litigation costs?   Doesn't he have duty to the taxpayers as well as to
the Indian population that he is being paid to serve to do what is the legal and correct actions to take?   

     Mr. Keel is already involved in a federal law suit in South Carolina.   Hasn't he learned that his conduct and
actions have and will continue to be called into question by the people that he harms by his acts and/or inactions?   

     I believe that the abuse from the Eastern Regional Office warrants an full scale Senate Committee on Indian
Affairs investigation.  As a member of the public, I fully support and request that such a hearing be conducted as
quickly as possible.

     I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

                              Sincerely,