Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor are published at the discretion of the
Editor, as space permits. No letter which contains
defamatory or malicious statements will be published. Any
letter which contains questionable material will be sent to
the Office of Reservation Attorney for legal review. All
letters must contain the writer’s signature, address, and
telephone number (if available). Letters NOT signed will not
be published. Letters are limited to 450 words. Letters
exceeding 450 words may be published if space allows and the
Editor so chooses. The Editor reserves the right to edit any
letter for content, clarity, and length.
Views and opinions expressed in Letters to the Editor,
complimentary or critical, are those of the writer of the
letter. They are not endorsed by the Tribal Tribune staff,
Tribal Administration, Tribal Business Council, or the
Colville Confederated Tribes’ membership as a whole.
The People have been
asked to give up too much!
Dear Editor:
“The People need to give something up” is what the Inchelium
Councilman said when he was trying to justify using the Wells
Dam Settlement funds to pay for Natural Resources Committee
and corporation $40 million + mistake on the 2001 Omak Wood
Products purchase. They made the Omak People believe they
would get free electricity too.
Remember, “Whenever power is unchecked and unaccountable, it
almost inevitably leads to mistakes and abuses. In the absence
of rigorous accountability, incompetence flourishes.
Dishonesty is encouraged and rewarded.” —Al Gore, 2006.
Dishonoring the trust of Inchelium People by conspiring to
mislead, should be rejected by the people and fellow council
members.
The Wells Dam Settlement is a case of dishonorable dealings
from the start: First, council members who were not on the
negotiating team were never informed by the negotiating team
what was going on, or not. Some of us objected to this but
were ignored. Finally, at “the last minute” created by the
negotiating team, they came to the full council to force a
hurried vote.
Last September 19, at an Inchelium District meeting, we asked
the council what was happening with the Wells Dam Settlement
funds and why the funds were not being distributed to the
membership. The council response was, “we have not made those
decisions yet but are working on it, will report back to you.”
Shortly after the September District meeting, we learned the
council Chairperson of Management and Budget Committee and
Natural Resources Committee Chair, both from Inchelium,
already recommended on September 6, 2005 to only partially
payout the settlement to the people. The council had already
voted to distribute the majority share to be a split payout to
tribal programs but deceived us.
As far as I could tell, it was unanimous in Inchelium that the
people expected to receive full payout from the settlement.
All previous Claims settlement outcomes were “100% payout to
the membership.”
Not only did our negotiating team sell us out with weak,
embarrassing and pathetic Wells Dam Settlement terms, they
have now come back and are taking the funds away from the
people and giving it to the same failing operators that tried
to take the 181D Claims payment for their budgets and wiped
out our May per capita payments.
The People have been asked to give up too much!
Dishonorable dealings within the council mirror what we tried
to stop with our staff when we passed a “contempt of council”
rule, which called for the termination of staff that lies to
the council. The same bullying group wiped out both that rule
and the council ethics committee and code.
We must not encourage or reward council or staff dishonesty.
Richard Swan
Inchelium
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Progress’ should not be judged by how
much we consume
Dear Editor:
“Progress’ should not be judged by how much we consume.”
One of our oldest traditions is threatened. It is a tradition
in addition to fluent speakers, our ceremonies, and our songs.
This tradition is no less important than these others are,
while it is vital to us as Tribal Peoples.
We are dangerously close to losing our tradition of valuing
all our Tribal Peoples as equals, each having and deserving
dignity.
It is one thing to have an unnatural ordering of human beings
as in the work places. The points I am trying to discuss here
are not just about “management” or “supervision,” which are my
usual favorite subjects.
These issues are about respecting each tribal member for their
contributions to our communities, and knowing themselves and
growing culturally. These issues of understanding the
importance of each tribal member as an equal are what set
Aboriginal Peoples apart from others. This, in my opinion, is
where we find sovereignty. In addition, the further we are
pushed away or slip away from our arts, ceremonies, languages,
songs, foods, and medicines, the further we are away from our
sovereignty.
It is impossible to be sovereign with intentional division
among our Peoples. Governing by a false sense of “unity” just
by saying the word repeatedly can neither make sovereignty so.
Observing many of our Peoples looked upon as “lesser” than
others has been very painful. I have watched this for decades
now. However, my pain on these matters is much less of value
than the certain pain of those Members who are marginalized
for one reason or another. An atmosphere like this is the very
one which can contribute to such a greater need for belonging
by our youth. Sometimes, belonging becomes what those who
think they are normal call “gangs.” The same is true for our
members who suffer self-destructive addictions, habits and
suicide.
If we want unity, we must create it from our base, our common
grounding in traditions, languages, ceremonies, songs,
protecting the animals, in a word, our Cultures. However, it
cannot be created while building divisions as Tribal Peoples.
These traumatic wounds have been long in the making. We can
heal ourselves of these deep traumatic wounds, by un-learning
and not repeating these cruelties and assuring ourselves to
not use them against ourselves.
This is where we need to change our leadership course. The
last four years of tribal natural resources “greed-based
destruction” and “financial mismanagement” have caused more
division since earlier termination threats. We cannot survive
by further dividing Tribal Members by asking us to choose
between greed and financial mismanagement. This
marginalization needs correction with a new leadership course
grounded by investments based in our Cultural Wealth.
Lou Stone
Inchelium
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Guilty of speeding and of being a
Colville Tribal Member
To: The Editors of the Star
and Tribal Tribune Newspapers; The Colville Business Council;
The Mayors of Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam; The Chiefs of
Police of Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam.
On Saturday, February 18th, my husband and I went to Spokane
to go to a movie and dinner. It was a nice “date” and on our
way home we laughed about the movie we had just seen. We
arrived in Grand Coulee about midnight and I relaxed a little;
“home” just two miles away now. I took my usual route home,
past Flo’s and Stuck’s Tavern.
When I saw the blue lights in my mirror I turned into the
parking lot by the scrapbook store and thought, “I couldn’t
have been speeding!” I’ve been stopped before for speeding, so
I thought I knew the drill: license, insurance, car
registration and then hope that the officer will give you a
warning rather than a ticket. Officer “B” took these items
from me. He then went back to his car and ran the check on me
and my car. I expected if I was speeding (which I wasn’t
looking at my speedometer at the time and did not know if I
was) I’d be getting a ticket, but I was holding out some hope
out for a warning instead. He came back to the car and said I
had been going 32 mph in a 20 mph zone.
“Back up” was called for and arrived in the form of Officer
“C”. I was told to get back into the car. My husband’s license
was checked and when it came back with no warrants or priors
he was uncuffed and allowed back into the car.
If you have ever been a victim of stereotype or prejudice, you
know it really shakes you to the core, it assaults your soul.
That is how I feel today. I know first hand too well that
prejudice exists. I always told my kids, prejudice does exist
but don’t ever let me catch you using it as an excuse.
The “law” will probably back the actions of Officers “B” and
“C”, making my husband and me “wrong”. Yet what happened last
night will never feel “right”, no matter how often I relive
and remember it. It will trouble us for a long time. But at
least I am no longer guilty of being an ostrich with my head
in the sand; I now can empathize with the many others who have
had similar incidents with the local police. Maybe the
addition of my husband, Ike Cawston, (long time) Fire
Management Officer for the Colville Tribe and me, Karen Wapato
Cawston, RN, to the list will lend some credibility to this
issue and serious actions can be taken before someone is
seriously hurt or killed. None of us wants that! I ask my
friends and neighbors, both Indian and non-Indian, to
seriously consider what is going on under our noses as we sit
in our comfortable homes. I have asked my children to be
especially careful in town, I don’t want them to endure what
their dad and I endured last night. The police have left me
confused and afraid. I don’t think it supposed to work like
that! Even driving to work or shopping will be scary. Will I
have to move away and avoid this area to once again feel safe?
Sincerely,
Karen Cawston, guilty of speeding and of being a Colville
Tribal Member
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What did we do to warrant
this
On the night of February 18th, 2006 my wife,
Karen and I were returning home from a relaxing dinner and a
movie in Spokane, Washington. As we drove down Spokane Way
through Grand Coulee my wife was pulled over by a patrol car
for apparently exceeding the speed limit. Once stopped, an
officer with the Grand Coulee Police Department came up to the
door and asked for our registration and insurance card.
Without question we handed over the information as requested
and he returned to his car and came back and asked my wife if
she knew that she was speeding and then asked why we were in a
hurry. My wife responded that she was not in a hurry, that we
were relieved to be home. The police officer then asked my
wife to get out of the car and step to the back of her car. I
thought to my self, “What did we do to warrant this”. As I sat
there, I suddenly found myself getting out of the car to
investigate what was going on. After a brief exchange of
questions and demands the officer placed handcuffs on me
without any struggle, frisked me and ran a check on my
license, which was clear, he then allowed me to get back into
our car.
The officer stopped Karen for what she thought was a routine
traffic stop for allegedly exceeding the speed limit (going 32
in a 20 mph zone). The officer asked Karen to step to the back
of her car. He informed her he smelled alcohol, questioned her
regarding open containers of alcohol in the vehicle, and asked
whether she or I was drinking. The officer asked Karen to step
out of her car on a very cold night based on the police
officer’s assertion that he smelled alcohol. What was the
“smell”! There was no smell of alcohol because we were
drinking Dr Pepper and unsweetened iced tea that night. There
was no form of alcohol in my wife’s car. Therefore, what was
the probable cause! If the officer suspected alcohol use, why
did he not substantiate his allegation? He did not administer
a field sobriety test or alcohol breathalyzer test. The police
officers allowed us to leave without a search of our vehicle.
I can only conclude that a department that has the mandate to
protect our rights violated our rights. This appears to be a
blatant case of harassment.
The question remains, can a law abiding citizen be removed
from a car and treated as an extreme threat and questioned
about alleged alcohol abuse or asked if your husband is drunk
based solely on an alleged sweet odor coming from your car? I
thought a citizen had rights, such as probable cause before an
officer can remove you from your vehicle for interrogation.
In closing, I would like to leave you citizens of Grand Coulee
Dam with some questions to consider. Has the issue of police
harassment become a reality in our community? Has unchecked
and unbridled power allowed buried personal bias to surface?
Has this situation lead to the local police inflicting
personal harm on the common law abiding citizen?
Ike H. Cawston
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It breaks my heart
Dear Editor:
“The White man does not mind the foul air he breathes. Like a
man in pain for many years, he is numb to the stench.”—Chief
Seattle, c. 1885-86.
Probably as Chief Seattle spoke these words partly as a
warning to his People, the U.S. Congress was preparing to take
Indian Lands away from Indians “legally” by creating the
Indian Allotment Act of 1887. An act which began a cleaver
process of separating individual Indians from their lands by
cunning White men.
This separation of Indians from what lands we had left was
part of the plan to destroy tribal cultures. The 1934 Indian
Reorganization Act, passed again by rich White men in
Congress, created “modern tribal governments” or “councils”
and ended Indian self-government by traditional, hereditary
leadership.
These two pieces of Congressional legislation set the stage by
White men for White men to profit from controlling tribal
lands and tribal People.
Whether it is our Casinos or whatever, White people are in
control. Take this helicopter logging scam going on. Without a
council emphasis on traditional, hereditary controls, we are
giving our timber away on these helicopter-logging contracts.
These sales now could be operated with mechanical, land
practices but the helicopter contract is benefiting the White
helicopter owners and the tribal contractors who hired them.
There are few jobs for our People, but the Director of Natural
Resources, who is the nephew of the tribal contractors, are
all employed and they could care less. Worse, the Tribal
Employment Rights Commission and Officer turn their heads all
the way. Another 1934 IRA success story.
Losses at the Colville Tribal Services Corporation (CTSC), our
construction company, have all come at the hands of
incompetent, yet well-placed White people who could also care
less; they still are paid either way. The tribal corporation
and council were even aware that the Director was selling to
the corporation his own personal products without bid
competition. It should come at no surprise that in September
2005, the insurer of this company stopped bonding coverage
because CTSC was too much of a risk. We now have no bonding
and CTSC is financially bleeding as ever.
This modern tribal council Natural Resources Committee Chair
or Management and Budget Chair don’t seem to care about these
losses as long as these employees and some incompetent
managers (who put our companies at risk) keep assuring them
votes for the next election.
It breaks my heart to know our old People who have gone now,
went to their ends seeing these horrible self-destructive
things happen. But we now know what the problem is and have a
choice to change our course back to culturally safe
development.
Ron Zacherle
Okanogan
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Mt. Tolman
Subject: Mt. Tolman
I have lived on and off the Rez for many years. I am forced to
leave in order to gain employment.
I say all the profits from Mt. Tolman by all rights should be
distributed equally among tribal members. Why? The answer
being it is the only way to raise the quality of living for
our people. Most of our people are poor to very poor,
furthermore, many are homeless. I know this is old news,
however, if we vote to let the Tribal Council have control of
75% of the money from Mt. Tolman, the poor will still remain
poor, and 75% of 10.3 billion dollars will pretty much go
unaccounted for as are the profits from the numerous tribal
enterprises now.
I know the crack, weed, and alcohol dealers will get richer,
nevertheless, most of our people will have direct control of
“our money” in order to elevate the quality of our living.
Please vote our people receive all the money.
Sincerely,
Anthony Edward Boyd
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THE MASSACRE
by Connie Holt
I’d like to tell future generations,
about all of the devastation,
brought about by some now living,
not asking Mother Earth’s forgiving.
I had no part in this will say,
must listen to it everyday,
as tree’s cry out from chain saw’s cutting
fall to death for greed to pay.
The scars they leave upon her face,
with gouges so they can get in place.
To leave a mountain there to waste
Rain bring tears, that will erode her face.
Excuses given as a reason,
truths untold abound this season.
I’m hoping that down through the years,
Their lies there very souls will sear.
Right now pollution is a joke,
The noise comes from the outside folk,
That run their warlike helicopters,
Stealing form the dumb like mobsters.
If a chief we had that followed
ways of old and did not swallow,
lies from men who use all resources,
Better if we were all still riding horses.
To our children, grandchildren, others,
I’m sorry that no trees will cover,
Mountains beautiful before, perhaps
the mountains themselves will be no more.
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How are we to know that children are
being properly taken care of
To Whom It May Concern:
I am the grandparent of children I believe to be living in an
extremely dangerous environment. Their mother is supposed to
be being supervised by taking weekly drug tests, going to
counseling, and obtaining an anger management evaluation. She
is to follow all of these recommendations and provide proof of
doing so at the next court hearing.
There are court orders stating that I have visitation and
phone contact rights; which, at this time are not being
allowed. The orders came from our tribal court on the Colville
reservation. When we attempt to see or speak to our
grandchildren, there is no common ground between tribe and
state that allow these orders to be enforced. All the mother
had to do in order to avoid compliance was to stay off the
reservation, thus leaving her with no supervision or guidance
as to the welfare of our grandchildren. We have not seen the
children since October 15, 2005. We have not been able to
speak with them since Thanksgiving. Without the court orders
being followed, how are we to know that children are being
properly taken care of?
The oldest child is in school. Whenever she makes it, she has
to walk twelve blocks. She is late half of the time so there
is no crossing guard to watch when she crosses the busy
intersection. My granddaughter has missed fifteen days of
school and has been late thirteen times. This alone should
have focused some attention on her, but nobody seems to care.
I thought schools were supposed to be a safety net for
children.
We have been to court four different times, and each time it
has been continued due to the mother not showing or the judge
being sick. I have had to miss work each of these times. The
mother isn’t worried about it as she is unemployed, living off
of various programs. I am not the only tribal member that has
been treated with disrespect. There are more grandparents in
similar situations. Whatever happened to the grandparent law
they used to have where grandparents had rights?
I am not the only person on the reservation who is helpless.
There are other mothers that use drugs and alcohol in front of
their little ones, but the court thinks that a child belongs
with its mother. What happens when the mother isn’t willing to
straighten up? Do the children have to suffer for the mother’s
wrong doing? Will it take molestation, abduction or murder
before a higher authority will notice our children? Our tribal
laws don’t seem to care. Please take this into consideration,
I am not asking for myself, but for future generations. If
there is no help soon our children will be scarred for life;
all purity will be lost forever.
Thank you,
Suzanne McKinney
P.S. If there are any of you out there that would like to tell
me your story, please write. I need all I can get. P.O. Box
142, Inchelium, WA 99138
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Competence, credibility,
accountability and truthfulness
Editor:
I congratulate our young tribal members that have spoken out
as an organized group to better inform our tribal members of
the inadequate effort to minimize the deception and financial
impact to our tribal government and tribe’s Corporation, CTEC.
When it comes to dollars spent, where half of our tribal
council members do not want to be accountable for what they
spend in the name of 9000+ tribal members. Better educated,
younger tribal members are needed as future leaders to help
protect 9000+ tribal members’ resources, constitutional
rights, and culture; Billy Joe Bray, Lou Stone, Jerry Gabriel,
Ron Zacherle, Richard Swan and many more are working as a team
for a better future for our tribal members.
Not one person named above, would have been BAMBOOZLED out of
$6 million dollars as our CTEC President said the he and his
CEO at the time, and the tribal council all got BAMBOOZLED in
their negotiations to purchase the Plywood Mill. Or lose/give
away well over a million dollars in a manufactured housing
contract, and we the tribal members had to pay another
$300,000+ to bale the tribal council out of more mistakes made
in federal contract agreements that they were not competent to
execute or understand.
Now they want to be the great negotiators of a mining contract
on Mt. Tolman. Due to their bad track record, which is losing
tribal money that is supposed to benefit 9000 tribal members.
The lack of honest leadership by certain tribal council
persons encourages arrogance, ignorance, incompetence; special
interest agenda, dishonesty and deception, and they want us to
trust them again?
Can 9000+ tribal members continue to support subsidized jobs
and pay checks that deplete tribal members’ resources?
Bragging that the tribe is a $300 million dollar employer is a
myth, twenty years of no profit or diversified business
expansion. Are we 9000+ mushrooms that symbolically represent
an ill informed tribal membership that appear to like the
negative results administered by certain tribal council
members that have sworn to protect our constitutional rights,
resources and culture.
The tribe is failing because of the lack of good faith
leadership by some of the tribal council members. Competence,
credibility, accountability and truthfulness will allow our
tribes to be successful, if not, the tribal council will
become king of the mountain of destruction they created. The
tribal council is responsible for the lack of leadership,
business success, and the failure to protect 9000+ tribal
member’s future.
Respectfully,
Edwin R. Desautel
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I can’t tell you how to
vote
Tribal Members:
March 18, 2006 the Colville Tribe is having a special vote on
Mt. Tolman and it is very important to us as Colville Tribal
Members. It is up to each and every one of you eligible voters
to cast your ballot. There are 1051 eligible voters in
Inchelium, 415 in Keller, 1798 in Nespelem and 1746 in Omak
for a total of 6684 eligible voters. In elections for Tribal
Council, there are only about 20% eligible voters (1337
voters) from all districts that vote. This means that only 1
out of 5 is determining who our leaders are and the future of
the Colville Tribe.
In the 1950’s and 60’s the Colville Tribe was the leaders in
Indian Country. Today the Colville Tribe is basically in slow
termination. Financially the Tribe is in debt and we need to
find a way to fund the Tribal money revenue. The U.S.
government grants are not reliable, our Tribal Casinos are not
generating the funds needed and our Tribal timber will not
meet the financial obligation.
Does this mean that I support the mining of Mt. Tolman? That
is up to my individual vote. When my Grandmother was alive,
she told me that we never hurt Mother Earth, we never tear
down mountains and that Mt. Tolman is a sacred mountain. My
Grandmother told that Mother Earth nourishes us with the
plants, berries, grass for the animals for meat, fresh water
for the fish and that wind, water, snow, rain and season
changes are part of the cycle. This is why we thank Mother
Earth by having root and berry feasts before we go out to dig
roots and pick berries.
But we have an obligation for our future generations to insure
that we will always have the Colville Reservation for our
kids, their kids and the kids there-after. My generation does
not have to solve this problem because we will soon be passing
on, but for some reason I feel responsible.
I can’t tell you how to vote, but please vote. We could be
talking about the possibility of the termination, as we know
it today and that our kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids
will not be recognized as Indian people.
Lem-lem.
Eldon L. Wilson
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Misconceptions
I decided to write this letter mainly because
there are a lot of misconceptions about the danger of the
Proposed Mt. Tolman Mining Project. I appreciate concerns that
there are potential risks associated with mining, but this
isn’t going to be another mine where some outsider comes in
here and recklessly does what they want. No, this is “our”
mine, we call the shots and we reap the most benefit.
A few mining projects worldwide have been scrutinized because
they did not do enough to ensure all environmental and safety
hazards were prevented. And unlike most tribes, who have
allowed mining on their lands, we already have our own “mining
police;” we have educated tribal members and tribal programs
that can, and will, enforce the environmental rules that must
be followed.
I went to school and received an engineering degree
(transportation and environmental emphasis), so I do
understand the “risks” and environmental controls we can
enforce to make it a safe and successful project. We aren’t
going to simply mine and let our streams and rivers get
polluted, No! That is why we are getting a new EIS performed,
along with all required clean water & air permits.
The main reason to mine Mt. Tolman is because our Tribe is in
a major Economic Recession. We are in a trend of an annual
decreasing tribal budget cycle. Our reserves are rapidly
depleting. The tribe has not been able to give any salary or
program increases for five years and going into this year,
alone, faced a $9.5 million deficit to meet its $29 million
operating budget for FY2006.
RIF’s have already started at the Tribe, and may only
continue. Next, our best employees might end up leaving for
better jobs off the rez. The tribal membership want per
capitas, but don’t realize that we will have to either cut
jobs or log the hell out of our forests (including more
helicopter mining) to keep them.
Okay, so what about this Mountain our Creator gave us? Yes,
this is a normally a sacred thing, but why then did our
Creator give us a mountain with such a tremendous opportunity?
I think it was given to us to help save us from our economic
tailspin.
If we can’t pull out of this Recession, we might be forced in
cutting back tribal programs starting first with
“non-essential” ones such as Language, Education, Snow
Plowing, Senior Wood Program, Head Start, etc… An interesting
point of view is do you give up these programs - in exchange
for one mountain that we want to save?
Some day, in an even more drastic situation, if we can’t
support our basic-services government, Bush or some other
Republican can terminate our reservation altogether (as
Executive Order Reservation), then someone else can profit
from the mine!
On the flip side, mining one mountain could help us buy back
the entire North Half.
So think about this when voting.
Brian Clark
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