Friday,  June 15, 2012 • Vol. 12--No. 337 • 18 of 34 •  Other Editions

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security facility.
• The Corrections Department says it's conducting an internal investigation into Friesen's escape.
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American Indian tribes alarmed by IRS tax audits
SUZANNE GAMBOA,Associated Press

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- John Yellowbird Steele, chief of the Ogalala Sioux Tribe, said the Internal Revenue Service is failing to recognize tribal sovereignty by trying to tax government-funded assistance such as housing, school clothes and burial aid that tribes give their members.
• Speaking to a Senate panel Thursday, Steele invoked the treaties between the

U.S. and his South Dakota tribe as he criticized the IRS for what seems to be a stepped-up effort to tax tribal assistance.
• "We fix houses, and they want us to put a value on how much that lumber cost to patch a hole in a roof or a floor, put shingling on, they want us to put a value on that and give the person a 1099" tax form to possibly be taxed on the help, Steele said. "The next year, where are those people going to find the money to pay the IRS?"
• The IRS over the years has narrowed

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