Today NC Policy Watch publicly retracted and apologized for its false reporting on January 9 about Cultural Heritage Partners and our tribal clients. The article stated that our firm is a big energy developer (that we were managing the $7B Atlantic Coast Pipeline project), and that we represented other big developers for whom we were bullying vulnerable Native American tribes into forfeiting their cultural heritage.
Today NC Policy Watch admitted that the opposite is true: it was the tribes who hired our firm to assert and defend their rights in negotiations opposite the pipeline developer.
Below we post NC Policy Watch’s apology in its entirety, and also a statement from our firm that highlights tribal leaders’ views of just how wrong NC Policy Watch got their story.
NC Policy Watch has posted the following apology: This story contained some important and inadvertent factual errors that NC Policy Watch deeply regrets.
The first error stated, incorrectly, that the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners acted on behalf of Dominion Energy in approaching Native American tribes and offering them the proposed settlements described in the story. This was incorrect. Cultural Heritage Partners represents tribes, not Dominion Energy.
The second error included Cultural Heritage Partners in a list of “project managers” for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. This too was incorrect. As noted above, Cultural Heritage Partners is a law firm that represents Native American tribes.
The third error characterized Cultural Heritage Partners as one of the “parties to the agreement” between the pipeline owners and the tribes. This was also incorrect. Again, Cultural Heritage Partners represents potential parties to the agreement referenced in the story.
Finally, the story incorrectly characterized Cultural Heritage Partners as having “ties to the natural gas industry” and “aiding the energy industry” on the MVP Southgate pipeline project. In fact, Cultural Heritage Partners represents the Saponi [sic] Tribe in proceedings regarding MVP Southgate. Although Cultural Heritage Partners worked with the natural gas industry to form a nonprofit known as Leaders in Energy and Preservation (LEAP), it has assured Policy Watch that “LEAP is a charitable nonprofit organization that develops best practices for energy companies to identify historic properties that may be in the path of their development and to avoid impacting them.”
A statement from Cultural Heritage Partners has been appended at the end of the story.
We sincerely apologize to Cultural Heritage Partners and its clients and to our readers for any confusion or misimpression from these errors.
CHP’S RESPONSE:
To our knowledge, Ms. Sorg never contacted the tribal leaders chosen by their members to manage consideration of these issues. The people she does quote are uninvolved and uninformed. As a result, Ms. Sorg mischaracterizes the actions, words, and intentions of persons rather than presenting the truth.
So problematic is Ms. Sorg’s falsehood-filled reporting on this matter that her editor quietly pulled the article from the website without telling readers why. Top elected tribal leaders with direct knowledge of negotiations involving the Atlantic Coast Pipeline have told NC Policy Watch in writing just how wrong NC Policy Watch got the story:
- “Your article…is a complete fabrication. The numerous falsehoods and character attacks—both direct and implied—bear no relationship to the experience of our Tribe when we engaged CHP as our counsel to advance our rights to consultation…”
- “In addition to many inaccuracies about the subject matter of our relationship with CHP, your article’s negative characterizations of CHP and their interactions with the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe are completely wrong.”
- “No one came to us to convince us to support the pipeline. As a current member of the Tribal Council of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, I am disappointed that your journalist would fail to contact the members of our Tribal Council Executive Committee that most recently addressed consideration of steps to take regarding [this matter].”
- “I am also very offended that your article infers that we need some kind of “watchdog” oversight as if we can’t think for ourselves.”
- “The article your reporter Lisa Sorg authored…is riddled with many inaccuracies. I served on the… Tribal Council…I can say that from my personal experience that your article gets its major points wrong beginning with the title. No one (from Cultural Heritage Partners or anywhere else) has ever come to [the Tribe] during my time on Council offering to “buy” our silence. No one has offered money to our Tribe to gain Tribal Council’s support for [the pipeline], or to keep our Tribe from opposing it. No one has tried to pressure, coerce or manipulate us to sign anything in order to prevent risk to our cultural resources.”
- “It is my hope that you will respect our Tribe, and one of our greatest advocates, by removing the false negative assertions from your article, or preferably, retracting the article and issuing an apology to the CHP team. They have acted in earnest and with integrity ……”
Today, long after publishing the deeply flawed piece, NC Policy Watch is issuing “corrections” and an apology. But even this apology is not fully honest with readers because it does not identify all the substantive errors they need to correct. It is publishing yet another version of the story that continues to be both factually wrong and culturally insensitive to Native American tribes.
We do not operate multi-billion-dollar energy projects; we are a 14-person law and policy firm founded by a husband-wife team that loves history and deeply respects our Native American clients. We do not pay or abuse our own clients; we represent their interests vigorously, and with the utmost respect and integrity. And, while NC Policy Watch’s article relies upon and promotes racial stereotypes of Native Americans, our clients are not children who need supervision; they are sophisticated sovereign nations with their own elected governments who can make tough decisions. We are proud and honored to represent tribes to advance their rights to consultation on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
NC Policy Watch’s biased reporting on this issue libelously misrepresents the character and mission of our firm and our work. It does a disservice to reporters who care enough to do the research first and the writing second. Their reporting continues to infantilize tribes by suggesting that they must be monitored by non-Native third parties because they can’t be trusted to think for themselves. Printing falsehoods and advancing culturally insensitive arguments to support their agenda diminishes the credibility of the North Carolina Justice Center (which sponsors NC Policy Watch) and harms the very people that organization purports to empower.
We welcome and encourage inquiries regarding our firm, our commitment to our clients, and our experience with cultural heritage and tribal issues. Our website is www.culturalheritagepartners.com. The firm’s Managing Partner Marion Werkheiser can be reached at 703-489-6059 or Marion@culturalheritagepartners.com