Robert Roche (activist)

Early life

Robert Roche was born Robert Joseph Roche on 3 May 1947 at Saint Ann's Hospital located in Cleveland, Ohio. Robert is a member of the Chiricahua Apache, a tribe of the Apache living in the Southwestern part of the United States. He would end up meeting Russell Means, a well-known actor, civil rights activist and founder of the Cleveland branch of the American Indian Movement. He would profoundly influence a young Roche, and the two would go on to collaborate on many projects.

Career

From 1974 to 1984, Roche worked in the City of Cleveland Juvenile Court Division as an Acting Probation Officer. During this time, he worked with indigenous youth who had come in contact with and were already in the juvenile justice system. In 1995, Robert Roche founded the American Indian Education Center, a non-profit organization that offered a variety of re-entry services for the American Indian population in the greater Greater Cleveland area, including HIV testing, tutoring, smoking cessation classes, cultural programming and resume writing instruction. in Cleveland, Ohio. Roche opened the American Indian Education Center to provide a more comprehensive variety of services after the two decades of controversy its "predecessor," the Cleveland American Indian Center, founded by Russell Means, had been embroiled in. in Cleveland, Ohio.
Robert currently serves as the executive director of the American Indian Education Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Some of the work he carried out was documented in a book written by attorney Joseph Patrick Meissner as part of a compendium of accounts focusing on people who work to improve their community. Robert Roche was also a professor at Oberlin College, where he lectured students about the history of the Native American civil rights organization, the American Indian Movement.

Activism

Roche is an active member of the Cleveland branch of the "Confederation of Autonomous American Indian Movement" (AAIM), a separate division of the American Indian Movement.

Robert Roche has been a highly visible figure on the Cleveland scene for many decades. Roche would also use his role as a leader in the community to act as a character witness. Roche would also provided testimony in the clemency hearing Billy Slagle, who was convicted of Aggravated Murder with death penalty specifications, Aggravated Burglary, Aggravated Robbery in the 1987 murder of Mari Anne Pope, a babysitter who was stabbed 17 times by Slagle with a pair of scissors, while the children she was babysitting watched. In the appeal, Roche explained that he had contact with the family when Slagle was young when the family came to the American Indian Education Center (Slagle's mother was Native American). Roche recalled alcohol abuse and violence were prominent fixtures in Slagle's home, and believed Slagle would have been incapable of murder if it were not for influence of the alcohol and drugs that he was using, which is why he provided testimony in favor of commuting the death sentence. He currently resides in the city of Parma, a suburb located in the city of Cleveland.

He also raised awareness for formerly missing female Amanda Berry after her abduction by writing letters to the city police department and holding candlelight vigils in her memory. He has also helmed an ongoing battle against the use of Chief Wahoo as the Cleveland Indians baseball team mascot. He has publicly participated in protests against the use of the Chief Wahoo mascot since 1973. He also founded the group "People, Not Mascots", a cohort which is dedicated to raise awareness against the use of a race of people as mascots and end the current use of offensive Native American imagery. As he explained, "We are not mascots. I'm nobody's mascot. My children are not mascots. "It mocks us as a race of people. It mocks our religion." A protest being held by Roche on 4 April 2014 against the Cleveland's home opening against the Minnesota Twins at Progressive Field went viral and gained international attention after a man adorned in Redface regalia, approached Roche. The Cleveland Indian's fan, Pedro Rodriguez, was introduced to Roche by a sports blogger who was working in tandem with filmmaker Brian Spaeth to create a documentary on the use of the Chief Wahoo mascot.

On 25 June 2014, major news media outlets began reporting that Robert Roche would file a lawsuit against the Cleveland Indians organization in July. Roche would be suing the team in excess of $9 billion. According to Roche, compensation would be sought based on the length of time and exploitation which has occurred from the use of the mascot. "We're going to be asking for $9 billion and we're basing it on a hundred years of disparity, racism, exploitation and profiteering," Roche said. "It's been offensive since day one. We are not mascots. My children are not mascots. We are people."

Criticism

Robert Roche has been the subject of criticism from some members within the Cleveland Native American community. Philip Joseph Yenyo, an Aztec Indian, protester, and member of the American Indian Movement of Ohio, claimed that Roche had constructed a false identity, claiming to have a birth certificate which reveals that Robert Roche was really Jose Roche. However, when asked to validate the nature of the injurious claims, Yenyo was unable to substantiate his accusations with material evidence. Roche has also been accused by members of the Native American community of using the Center as a platform for himself while failing to provide a consistent regimen of services. Roche was also asked by one of the founders of the original American Indian Movement to stop identifying himself as a member of the organization. According to Vernon Bellecourt, Robert Roche had never been an AIM representative in Ohio. "We have known for some time that he was invoking the name of AIM," Bellcourt said. "We feel if people are doing good work in our name, it's OK. But that is not the case with Roche. We received complaints about him from leaders of the Indian community, and that was enough to cause us to issue the letter." Despite identifying himself as a representative of the Autonomous America Indian Movement, Roche would also state that he was representative or executive director of Cleveland AIM, even doing so in a resume where he describes himself as an "appointed American Indian Movement executive director - Cleveland Ohio, 1994-present."

There have also questions raised about the use of grant funds allocated to the American Indian Education Center Roche operates. The Ohio Attorney General's Office launched an investigation into the use of the Center's finances following a 2013 anonymous complaint that alleged the American Indian Education Center mishandled the grant money it had been appropriated, and the fact Roche paid $153,00.00 in salary and benefits to himself that year, according to the tax filing. Closer examination to the available financial records, however, showed that Roche paid himself in relative proportion of grant funding allocated to the organization. In 2012, the American Indian Education Center received $650,000.00 in grant funding, an elevated increase in comparison from previous years. This was due largely to a Department of Education grant aimed at improving education for impoverished and underprivileged kids. In 2011, when the center was allocated $235,000.00 in grant funding, Roche paid himself only $37,000.00. Prior to that year, in 2010, when the Center was allocated $42,000.00 in grants, Roche, who served as the executive director, and the sole full-time employee on staff (who also worked seven days a week), paid himself only $12,000.00. During that same year, he also wrote a $16,000.00 loan for the center. On the tax filing, under "purpose," it read: "Keep Center Open."

New details into the mismanagement of money allocated to the American Indian Education Center have slowly emerged. It was revealed that the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also launched an independent investigation into the American Indian Education Center. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) starting in 2011. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health, had provided thousands of dollars to the American Indian Education Center from 2011 onwards. However, due to the placement of a "high risk restriction" on the Center, access to the SAMHSA grant money was on a limited basis. The investigation also cites the lack of proper financial management to administer the federal grant. The probe has also identified certain irregularities into the expenditure of funds provided by the SAMHSA. These irregularities included the $136,000.00 salary Roche paid himself in 2012, which did not appear to be concordant with wages supplied in grant documentation provided by the American Indian Education Center, the flat fees paid to the center's grant writer, McGuire & Associates, are inconsistent with standard practice, and the Center's bylaws giving Roche governing authority and control over his board of directors, are not in keeping with federal guidelines, which state that the board should operate independently of its director. There are also matters of personnel costs, related taxes and fringe benefit payments that The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is looking into.

One grant received by the American Indian Education Center received in 2012 carried over into 2013. However, the rant was terminated by the grantor, the Ohio Department of Education, which decided that the program being funded by the grant was ineffective. Roche also made an attempt to open a second education center for American Indian people in the city of Columbus, Ohio in spite of financial difficulties faced during 2012. Although he cited poor health and financial difficulties, Roche registered a 1989 Jaguar in the "unfinished" Columbus Center's name in December 2012. According to Roche, he donated the car to the center, where he plans to raffle the vehicle in the name of American Indian services.