From William Claiborne, "Tribe PR Drive Targeted BIA Head", The Washington Post, Aug. 16, 1999:

A dispute between members of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe of central Michigan and Kevin Gover, who heads the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has intensified with allegations that the tribe's ousted council paid $100,000 to a Washington media consultant to launch a campaign to force Gover from office.

Gover's spokesman, Rex Hackler, criticized a "media outreach tactics" proposal drafted in June by McCarthy Communications Co., a small Washington public relations firm, that promised to contact reporters at national media outlets to promote stories on the "failings of the current Bureau of Indian Affairs leadership."

The strategy memo said the objective was to "eliminate interference from the Bureau of Indian Affairs into the legal goals of the tribe" and to introduce the media to the bureau's failings in order to "bring increasing pressure on Assistant Secretary Gover's administration."

Calling the media campaign "shameful and unethical," Hackler said, "I've never seen in Indian Country an attempt to drive someone out of office on behalf of a client." Hackler said Gover is willing to accept criticism, but when faced with unfair criticism, he was "prepared to shoot back."

Jim McCarthy, president of McCarthy Communications, said Gover's counterattack "went beyond the pale" on Friday when Hackler faxed to reporters copies of McCarthy Communications' confidential consulting contract with the Saginaw Chippewa tribal council, along with a copy of a voucher request for $100,000 to be paid by the council to the public relations firm for services through Sept. 30. The contract called for an additional $20,000 a month to be paid through June 30, 2000, for a total of $280,000.

McCarthy said BIA officials also had begun telephoning other tribal leaders as part of a "campaign of fear and intimidation" that he believes already has led to one tribal client firing his firm. He declined to name the client.

"I run a small PR shop, and we have been hired by Indian Country clients to bring issues to the fore and encourage the media to scrutinize the BIA for its failings," McCarthy said. "The BIA is an enormous federal agency, and apparently they'll go to any lengths to blame the messenger."

Replying to Hackler's assertion that he had never seen such tactics, McCarthy said, "I say to Mr. Hackler, welcome to the Beltway. I doubt there is a public relations firm in town that hasn't been asked to devise a media strategy to publicize the shortcomings of a senior administration official or agency."