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CouncilCORNER>
MosesUpdate
By Harvey Moses, Jr.
Greetings:
I traveled to the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indian
Conference (ATNI) held in Worley, Idaho at the Coeur D’Alene
Casino and Hotel. It was a very good conference. I and a number
of other council members have been involved with writing a
senate bill that would stop the government’s attempts to
reorganize the Bureau into a worthless fragmented bureaucracy,
along with creating another useless DOI agency to take care of
us “Indians”. It is believed and stated that this new attack on
Indian Sovereignty is meant to do away with the government’s
federal responsibilities towards “Indian” people in this
country. We worked closely with a David Mullon, who is Chief
Counsel for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and a Chris
Fluhr, the top Indian affairs staffer for the House Resource
Committee. Both were at the conference to discuss S.1439, the
bill introduced by Senator McCain this summer to settle the
Cobell trust fund lawsuit and reform the BIA’s delivery of trust
services. David Mullon did most of the drafting of the bill and
attended the conference to get input from the Northwest Tribes.
David Mullon told our lobbyist that the Colville Tribes input on
the legislation has been very well received and that he is glad
that we are involved in the process.
I and a few other council and key staff members met with a
consultant from Denver who is an expert in “power production
field” or has contacts that could help the Tribes move towards
becoming an electrical energy power producer, another income
source for the Tribes. There was also a tour set up at a
facility in Spokane that would also use logging waste to produce
electrical power; I missed this one because of the
Reorganization meetings. We do have a current local program that
is exploring the feasibility of using logging wastes to produce
electrical power. Plus, the small generator at CIPV, with an
upgrade, would add to the CCT’s electrical power production
capabilities.
Additionally, I participated in a brief meeting with the Nez
Perce Chairperson and a Umatilla council member on a joint
repetition claim we filed with WSU. The working relations
between the 3 Tribes is improving slowly. I hope we can develop
more trust between ourselves in order to take back what is ours
from the government that is stored at museums and colleges. I
also attended at Palus descendent meeting to work on developing
an agenda for an upcoming meeting at WSU dealing with Plateau
Tribes.
I traveled to Seattle to attend the 3rd mediation meeting
between the State of Washington, Yakama Tribes and Colville
“Wenatchi” Tribe on attempting to establish a fish area for the
Wenatchi tribal members in the Leavenworth area. At this
meeting, there were no elected officials from the Yakama Nation,
only a wildlife staffer and an attorney. The CCT delegation let
the Mediator know, in no uncertain terms, that the Yakama
Council needs to attend these meetings. They are the only ones
who can agree or disagree with the options being presented at
the meeting site. The meeting ended with the State staff, Yakama
staffers, Federal staffers and the CCT staff getting together to
iron-out a probable fishing area for the CCT Wenatchi. The
Yakamas opposed the State’s offer of allowing the CCT Wenatchis
to catch their/our salmon from the State’s half of the salmon
allocation agreement. At this time the Yakamas do not know what
effect, if any, this agreement would have on their treaty
agreement for half of the salmon run. The CCT delegation agreed
that we’d try to come to terms with the Yakamas within four
mediated meetings or we go back to court. We have one more
meeting to attend before we go back to court in Portland on this
issue.
I’ll end, but we as “Indian” people need to take responsibility
for our actions/inactions. Look at the hits we are taking on our
federal funding. This, I believe, is because we don’t vote in
large numbers. If we voted in large numbers, we’d control
Okanogan and Ferry counties. We might even be able to get some
state legislatures. We’d have more clout in Washington, D.C.
Harvey Moses
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FinleyREPORT
By Terry Finley
Here are some of the
reports that I never got to read out during the General
Membership meeting.
Colville Tribal Police Department
Annual Report
The Tribal Police Department provides Law Enforcement services
for the Colville Reservation. This includes the investigation
of all crimes, traffic collisions, traffic complaints and any
citizen calls for assistance. The Tribal Police Department
currently employs 34 personnel. This includes 3 civilian
personnel, 9 dispatch personnel, 3 Patrol Sergeants, 12 Patrol
Officers, 1 Animal Control Officer, Chief, Assistant Chief,
Commander, and 3 detectives. The Police Department is
currently understaffed with six positions that cannot be
filled at this time due to budget constraints and we continue
to have a high turn over rate in personnel.
Between January 1, 2005 and September 22, 2005 the Tribal
Police had approximately 6500 calls for service. These calls
for service resulted in the generation of approx 6005 Incident
Reports. Among the 6500 calls for service were approximately
14 major crimes which include homicides, assaults, rapes,
burglaries, thefts and motor vehicle thefts. The actual
numbers are unknown due to a computer malfunction that caused
the loss of data for the period from September 2004 through
April 2005.
We have completed construction on the Moses Mountain
Communications Facility. This facility will house all of the
communications equipment for all Tribal Entities that have
two-way radio equipment on the mountain. This project is
continuing as upgrades are made to the Tribal Police Radio
system to enhance the ability for us to communicate throughout
the reservation.
Requested Statistics
Approximately 4 Marijuana Grow complaints which resulted in
the seizure of numerous plants, (58 plants and grow equipment
in one instance and 20 plants in another). Approximately 3
party calls where drugs were allegedly being used, officers
unable to confirm. Approximately 5 arrests for Marijuana
Possession. Approximately 4 cases involving the sale of
cocaine.
In addition there were 3 search warrants served with the
assistance of the North Central Washington Narcotics Task
Force which resulted in arrests for the sale of both marijuana
and cocaine.
FY 2005 Tribal Court Statistics
New Cases filed: 1483
Criminal charge filed 2005 2000-2004
Kidnapping 3 15
Rape 4 18
Indecent Liberties 3 16
Homicide 5 1
Vehicular Homicide 1 2
Drug Possession/Delivery 34
Minor to Possession of Alcohol 21
Assault 10
Battery 69
DUI 38
Driver’s License Charges 81
Of the 656 crimes charged last year, 74 were charged under our
new Domestic Violence Code
Civil Filings
Custody 103
Divorce 50
MINOC 41
Voluntary Placement 23
Current open MINOC cases 81
Fish and Wildlife Infractions 73
Traffic Infractions 258
Colville Tribes Corrections Department
The Colville Tribes Correction Facility
Construction Completion 2005
Correction Facility 28,500 square feet
Construction Cost $8.1 Million
Facility Capacity will be sixty inmates, 29 Adult and 31
Juveniles.
Facility will employ approximately fifty-two employees:
One Commander
One Staff Assistant
One OA IV
One Program Coordinator
One Maintenance Janitor
One Cook
Two Cook Aides
Two Lts. (one adult and juvenile)
Six Sgts.
Six Supervisors (OIC)
Thirty Correction Officers
Hope to open in mid November
The Confederated Tribes of The Colville Reservation
Office of Public Defender
Recap of FY 2005 For General Membership Meeting
FY2005 Statistical Highlights
Our law practice involves a high volume of clients, and a fast
paced environment in the court system brought on by efforts to
enforce legal due process rights of our clients, which require
in every instance, the implementation of speedy trial rights,
appropriate notice of all proceedings and advisements of
rights. We have an ever-fluctuating high volume caseload.
Thanks to our office technology, the experience and expertise
of our staff, we are able to keep with the demand. In the
beginning of FY 2005 the office had 700 open cases. At present
we have 701 open cases. During the year we had 255 new cases
opened and closed 254 cases. Our current caseload consists of
48 minor-in-need of care cases, 2 appellate cases, and 651
criminal cases. Regardless of the large volume of cases or the
fast paced environment we work in, we strive to provide the
very best, personalized, professional and skilled legal
advocacy for our clients. No case is too big or too small. No
client is different than any other client. We stand ready to
serve as your lawyers.
The Prosecutor’s Office represents the Tribes as plaintiff in
matters before the Colville Tribal Court, including criminal,
child dependencies (MINOCs), truancy, paternity and civil
regulatory matters (like traffic infractions, and natural
resource violations).
The office is comprised of the Lead Prosecutor, three deputy
prosecutors (one who is an attorney and two who are
spokespersons), and two support staff. Four of the office
employees are Colville Tribal Members. We have two vacant
positions, the lead prosecutor and the deputy prosecuting
attorney, both have been advertised and will hopefully be
filled soon.
We have attempted to determine the number of cases in our
primary areas of law for your information. These numbers were
acquired through the use of Full Court and our review of those
reports to correct mistakes, due to human error, these numbers
may not be exact, but they are very close approximations. I
hope this is helpful.
We have approximately 237 active cases, which roughly average
approximately 60 cases per person, if divided equally, when
fully staffed. This does not include our Friday Court docket,
which consists wholly of cases past disposition. The Friday
docket includes Show Cause and Pre-Dismissal Hearings
beginning at 8 a.m. and ending at 3 p.m.
Criminal Matters 1
Total complaints filed in 2005: 247
Drug Related: 40
Domestic Violence 40
Open Cases 122
Convictions: 84
Dismissals: 41
Minor In Need of Care Attendance/Truancy
New MINOC filings in 2005: 31 Total Petitions filed in 2005: 0
Current Caseload: 62 Current Caseload: 9
# of Children: 100
Paternity
Petitions filed in 2005: 6
Current Caseload: 44
1 The Domestic Violence Code is still fairly new, and many
issues are being briefed and a majority of those cases have
been stayed pending the empanelment of elders to discuss the
customary and traditional arguments raised by this office and
the ORA. Currently more than ½ of the DV charges have been
stayed. Additionally, the sentencing guidelines have basically
forced every Class A or B DV crime to go to trial.
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HutchinsonUpdate
By Margie Hutchinson
Happy Fall Greetings:
Many of the CBC attended the Annual Affiliated Tribes of
Northwest Indians conference in Coeur d’ Alene, ID, in
September. This conference allows the Northwest Tribes, an
opportunity to discuss issues important to Indian Country.
Many of the resolutions will now go to the National Congress
of American Indians conference in Tulsa, OK, in November. One
particular resolution of high importance was the “Support the
Legislative Proposal on Trust Reform of the Tribal Coalition
of Northwest Tribes”. This resolution is in response to the
McCain bill I spoke about last month, the reorganization of
the BIA, and the settlement of the Cobell litigation. We are
hoping with recommendations made by the ATNI committee will
strengthen or restore our management of our records. As stated
by one of the lawyers working on the McCain bill, if Tribes
fail to provide input, the legislation will die in committee.
The Department of Interior has used the Cobell litigation
against tribes, and this case needs to be settled to provide
some relief to the plaintiffs. Reorganization sounds like it’s
no big deal, but when you read closely, you will find about
all the rights and authorities being taken away from tribes.
In addition, another example is the DOI is protecting
themselves from liability, they contend that if they are not
adequately funded then they will not be responsible for
upholding their trust responsibility.
We scheduled another Wenatchee meeting with the Yakima’s, but
unfortunately, only their lawyer showed up, no council people.
I sure hope the mediator is keeping score on who is
participating in the process. We had discussions with staff
from the Federal and State Fish and Wildlife Departments,
along with staff from the Washington Attorney General’s
office. We agreed to continue to work on our proposals and
recommendations, so that we may have a chance for the January
2006, State legislative session.
We paid 9,141 tribal members, the Wells Dam Settlement, on
October 5th. I would like to send a Huge Thank You to the
Enrollment Staff, for the miracle they performed in
distributing this payment. The staff was notified September
28th, and had the payment ready in seven days, with a lot of
coordination from other tribal staff, so thank all of you for
the wonderful jobs.
The Native American Fish & Wildlife Society, held their region
conference in Okanogan, just last week, and it was very well
attended. Our tribal member John Smith, who works for
Bonneville Power, was one of the main speakers. He is so
knowledgeable about fish and wildlife issues, after all he
worked for the tribe for a good number of years in that
department. I was asked by Harvey to give the welcoming
address, which I was much honored to do. The theme for this
years meeting was “Native American Life and Resources, Our
Never-ending Circle of Life”. There were many overviews of
issues, such as the Sharp-tailed Grouse Project, Jurisdiction
and Legal Decisions, and an Elder’s panel. Great coordination,
sorry I missed the traditional feasts.
Wishing you Good Health.
Margie Condon Hutchinson
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Indian COUNTRY
By
Michael E. Marchand
Energy Development: The tribe is
getting more and more involved with energy and its importance
seems to grow each day. Our first economic base was timber and
it is still important, of course. Most of our jobs and economy
are still based on timber, including forest management,
harvesting, and processing the trees through our mills.
Government itself has grown to be a huge part of our economy,
there is a huge amount of grants and contracting flowing down
through the tribal government. Right now the tribe handles
about 250 various grants, the gross assets of tribal
government amount to about $180 million.
CTEC businesses in the areas of casinos and the construction
company have become significant over the years. In 1997,
casino revenues peaked and they have been in decline since
then, but have stabilized somewhat and hopefully, will get
better again.
Energy has become a big part of the tribe. The Grand Coulee
Dam settlement was the biggest settlement is US history and is
a big part of the dollars flowing through the tribe’s budgets.
The Wells Dam settlement also adds to this amount.
National and regional energy policies have big impacts on the
revenues of the tribe today. In addition to this, when the
tribe bought out the bankrupt plywood plant in Omak, a major
part of the operation was the energy production, which has
admittedly been one of the big problems that the tribe has to
deal with. Two of the problems are the cost of materials to be
burned to produce the power. The other problem is the
reliability and efficiency of the capital facilities at the
plant.
The third problem is energy prices. Studies are underway to
look at the feasibility of utilizing wood waste from existing
logging operations. Currently much of the wood chips being
burned are being purchased from Canada. This is expensive and
the future outlook is in question because there is a big plant
being planned in Canada which would cut us off. Preliminary
studies look favorable.
The other problem is with the old equipment. The prices that
can be obtained on the energy markets depend to a great deal
on the reliability of the energy produced. If an energy
producer can guarantee delivery of power with 100%
reliability, then the energy is worth premium prices. But
currently the existing plant is old and is not that reliable.
For example, we might theoretically be capable of producing 12
MW of electricity, but due to equipment problems, we may only
produce half that amount and reliability is not so good. This
causes the value of the energy to drop drastically. Replacing
the equipment to increase reliability in order to get the
higher firm energy prices would require a major investment.
Determining whether this is economical or not is a decision
that is being worked on.
As a Councilperson, I have been spending a lot of my time to
get the national energy bill passed, because if it does pass,
then this could potentially benefit our operations and future
plans. The bill has passed and it authorized several billion
dollars in programs. The next step is to get the congress to
put the money up to pay for the legislation, and this is what
I have been working on in recent weeks. These discussions take
place in Washington, DC. I have been meeting with the
appropriation committees in the Senate and House of
Representatives trying to convince them that funding this bill
is good for the nation.
Of course, my primary concern is with our own tribe, but
Congress is not going to generally pass a bunch of laws just
for the Colvilles. So to make our voice stronger, we work with
national organizations and try to bring the full power of
nation wide voices to bear on the Congress. In the NW, we have
the Affiliated Tribes of NW Indians, an organization of 57
tribes. I tell the Congress that I am the Vice-President of
the ATNI and that all of these tribes think this legislation
is important and I tell them what we can do for energy
production if the bill is funded. These tribes also have to
put pressure on their representatives.
I also tell the Congress that I also represent the Council of
Energy Resource Tribes and am on the Executive Committee for
CERT which represents the tribes with big energy interests,
which amounts to about another 55 tribes nationwide. Some of
these tribes have oil and gas interests, coal, hydropower, and
other renewable energy, such as solar and biomass. I tell them
that CERT is behind this bill, that CERT actually wrote the
Indian provisions of the bill and that we can benefit the
nation greatly if it passes and is funded. Then they fire back
a lot of questions and we have to be ready with the answers.
They say what if they do fund us, then what are we going to do
with the money and how does this benefit the US taxpayer. They
don’t want to fund a bunch more useless bureaucracy, they want
to know what specific projects we have in mind. At these
meetings, there were only bout four tribal representatives
from the over 500 tribes meeting with the Congressional
appropriations staff and with the Whitehouse staff. The other
three were from gas, oil and coal tribes. I was the only
representative from the NW. So, at these meetings I told them
what we need here at Colville. This process is still ongoing
and I don’t know what the outcome will be. But I think members
may be interested in the process and that is why I am writing.
I can’t do this on my own, I depend on our staff within the
tribe and especially from CTEC to tell me what is feasible and
to keep me informed as to what the corporations’ needs are.
Then hopefully, I can use whatever influence I have to bring
these national organizations into line with our needs at
Colville and hopefully these things will line up and
eventually we will get the dollars down here at Colville to
keep our businesses afloat.
Also, every meeting regarding this issue of energy does NOT
take place here in Nespelem. We have to go to many places to
where the decisions are being made. For the energy bill I have
been at meetings in San Diego, Albuquerque, Denver, and DC, in
addition to tribal organization meetings with the ATNI and the
National Congress of American Indians and with CERT. If we
don’t participate, we basically will be left out. So, if these
ideas work out, then maybe we can get help with upgrading our
equipment to get firm prices. We also are looking at some
hydro projects in partnership with one of the PUDs. More
policy work is needed in the future.
The idea of Green Credits is an idea that can benefit us in
the future if the details can be worked out. Basically, some
people and industries in urban areas are interested in the
idea of investing into renewable energy resources in return
for their being allowed to operate their existing operations.
Many affluent people in urban areas are also interested in
making GREEN investments. Figuring out how to broker these
ideas at the regional, national, and international levels will
be the challenge for the coming decades and they are all
important to future development here at Colville.
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Moomaw UPDATE
By Cherie Moomaw
October 18, 2005
REPORT TO TRIBAL MEMBERSHIP
It has been another very busy two months,
however I think a productive time. We are paying a lot of
attention to work on the 2006 budget and making good progress.
The big gym at the Omak Community Center should be opened by the
end of October with the rest of the building sealed off until we
can get a final testing on the black mold problem. This test
should be able to determine what we can or will do with that
part of the Center. Funding will be a problem, but all the
departments are working together to solve the problem. A special
thanks to Dan, Larry, Frank, Hank, Lillian and the Community
Center staff for getting the gym reopened.
There was a very small turn out (about 150)
for the General Membership Meeting. Minutes of the meeting were
taken. Issues brought up by membership were: Mt. Tolman, IHS
problems, 4-year council terms, Council travel, Wells Dam yearly
payout, zero tolerance policy, employee use of vehicles, Ethics
Committee, the increasing meth use problem on the reservation
Our Management and Budget Chair, Gail
DeLaCruz has just finished a 5 year analysis of the tribal
budget and will be putting it in the Tribal Tribune. I am very
pleased that she took on this project and the hindsight that it
will give us.
I have said I would try not to travel anymore
than necessary and for the months of August and September I was
forced to eat my words. 1. Inchelium (budget retreat) 2. New
Mexico (Mescalero telephone system). 3. Affiliated Tribes
(Worley, Idaho). 4. Wenatchee (meeting with Washington State on
highway safety). Total cost for my travel was $3373.00. I have
made it my commitment to try to keep the membership updated on
my travel. Other Council persons are required to travel more
because of the issues we are dealing with in the outside world.
We are dealing with many people and
organizations (State, Federal, and Tribal Nations) that will
only listen to or deal with Council persons therefore Council is
required to be present for business or communication to take
place.
There is some misunderstanding about the 184
lending program for home ownership by Tribal Members. This is a
National program that allows Tribal Members to purchase at a low
interest rate with a low down payment. Certain lenders are
qualified to do these loans and the Tribal Member must deal with
the banks personally. This is not a Colville Tribally funded
program. Colville Tribal Credit may be one of the qualified
lenders. Please call C’Ann Kariores @ 1-509-634-2807 or myself
for more information.
One final item this month is the possibility
of the Colville Tribe cross deputizing with the Washington State
Patrol. Any arrests or tickets would be processed in our Tribal
Courts. This would be on our state highways only, and a Pilot
Program subject to cancellation at our request.
I would appreciate your participation in our
monthly District meetings, and any concerns you would like
discussed. (6:00 p.m., Wednesday @ the Senior Meal Site, East
Omak). Thirty-two members attended the August meeting, 70+ in
September, and 7 in October. We are trying to have 1 or 2 short
presentations by various departments to keep the membership
informed on services available or subjects of interest to you,
the Membership.
If you have any questions or concerns please
call 1-509-634-2215.
Cherie Moomaw
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ITS TRIBAL
By Virgil Seymour
Fellow Colvilles:
First of all, I would like to apologize for taking this long
to communicate with you, but for me, it has been a fast three
months.
Second, I would like to thank the voters in the Inchelium
District who believed in me and supported me through the
elections. That support is important to me and I plan to
support the Tribe, as a whole, with each and every vote I
cast.
I am Chairman of the Elections Committee, 2nd Vice Chair to
Natural Resources Committee and 2nd Vice Chair to Employment
and Education Committee.
The Election Committee has a lot of work ahead of it this
year. We anticipate four possible referendum items: The first
is one that has been a topic of debate all across the
Reservation, whether or not to MINE Mt. Tolman. The Election
Committee will have the responsibility to ensure the voting
process is consistent with our Constitution and the Election
Ordinance. The education process will be handled by an outside
contractor.
The second referendum will be the question of extending the
Business Council terms to four years or leave it the way it
is. The Business Council had nothing to do with this
referendum. It was brought to our table by John St. Pierre,
who has concerns about allowing newly elected members time to
learn about all the issues and the organization before working
on a long-range plan. This concept will bring greater
stability to the government and allow Business Council to work
on long-range planning. Returning Council members will be able
to see agendas carried out.
The next two referendum items will deal with possible
amendments to the Tribal Constitution. The first being the
Tribe’s ability to regulate the inheritance of allotted lands,
this power would speed up the current process. The second
amendment would eliminate the need for federal government to
approve amendments to the Tribal Constitution.
The Tribal Council is not trying to sway your decision on any
of these four issues. These are all for you to decide at the
polls. The position of the Election Committee is to conduct
public informational meetings in all four districts and
outlying areas to answer questions and take comments. We will
keep you informed on any upcoming meetings.
I am also involved in the suit against TECK Cominco Metals LTD
of Canada. This is a suit that was brought on by Joe Pakootas
and DR Michel to make Teck Cominco responsible for 450,000,000
tons of smelter waste that has been dumped into Lake Roosevelt
over the course of approximately 100 years. Washington State
and the Spokane Tribe are also involved in the suit. We base
our case on right and wrong. Teck’s whole case has a political
base and they are hoping the United States and the EPA will
bail them out with a slap on the wrist. It is our intention
not to let this happen.
When time permits, I am involved with education and community
issues, and also work on some pet projects of my own.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, I can be
reached at home 722-3142, at work 634-2211 or my cell (509)
631-0482.
Lim-Lim,
Respectfully,
Virgil Seymour
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