JerredReport
By Jeanne Jerred
Thank you Keller District for re-electing me
and allowing me to continue to work on behalf of the Colville
people. Thank you also to the community as a whole for the
continued words of encouragement and support.
We have some serious situations facing us as we start the year
with a newly seated council. The first and very pressing is the
recent termination of all three of our senior attorneys in the
Reservation Attorneys Office. I did not support that termination
for a number of reasons. First of all, the issue was addressed
backwards. The terminations were done and then the council asked
for a review of the ORA office to be followed by recommendations
on improvements. Secondly, the replacements should have been
approved at the time the terminations were done in order for the
transitions to be achieved within the 60 day time frame.
However, the major reason I did not support that action is there
was no plan on who would replace the out-going attorneys, how
the replacement would be selected, and no contract was available
to be considered for approval for any replacement and no
realistic transition period. The termination was effective as of
June 1, 2006 with a 60 day notice and transition ending on July
31, 2006.
I believe this is a very irresponsible and reckless action and
places the Colville Tribe in jeopardy with funding agencies and
with legal issues.
The out-going Executive Committee of the Colville Business
Council brought a recommendation for drug testing of the Council
members. The provisions are to drug test by UA, hair and blood
sample (does this violate our cultural belief?) of all business
council members by the first Friday following reorganization. If
an individual refused or failed any test they would be deemed
unqualified to be on the council and be expelled.
Use of illegal drugs while a member of the Colville Business
Council shall be deemed neglect of duty and gross misconduct (it
is illegal at any time).
Finally, any Councilmember who is expelled from the Council for
not complying with this resolution will not be qualified to sit
as a Business Council member for 10 years (could this be a
contradiction to our constitutional provisions? Also, since no
arrangements were made to complete this, ALL council members are
not in compliance with this as of July 18, 2006 and now changes
or amendments are being brought forward). I did not support this
recommendation because again, it is not a well thought out
proposal.
The Election Committee already screened and approved the
qualifications of an individual to run for a council seat. If
this was to be a requirement for this election process it should
have been approved BEFORE the election process started not
during the process and this appears to be a law Ex Post Facto.
I inquired on the availability of the tests on Friday July 14,
2006 only to find that no one had made any arrangements to
follow through and that no one knew where to bill for the
services once they had been performed.
These are two examples of the thought process I utilize when I
am casting my vote on your behalf. I hope you will always give
me the opportunity to explain my reasoning on the votes I make
in the best interests of the Colville Confederated Tribes.
Jeanne Jerred
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DeLaCruzReport
By
Gail DeLaCruz
I would like to take this opportunity to
thank those Inchelium District members who supported me this
year during elections. For those who didn’t, I am available
anytime to discuss your issues and concerns.
I hear comments of “need change”, but have yet to hear what it
is that needs to be changed, just Council members? And for
what reason?
Let’s just wait another two years to get whatever changed?
Communication is a powerful tool, be involved, not just a
vote. It is a difficult position council members sit in. There
are needs of four communities, special interest groups, and
over nine thousand Tribal members, and with limited revenue it
is impossible to please all, but I will always do my best.
I often hear the criticism that we don’t do anything for the
youth and elders. During the FY2006 budget cycle, I attended a
meeting with the elders to hear what their needs were and we
have addressed them. The youth program was transferred to a
program where more funding would be available for activities.
During one of our district meetings it was nice to see so many
attend, and the main discussion was about youth, drugs,
alcohol, and death. It was all up to council to fix the
problem and I want to thank those community members who stated
that it was up to the youth, parents, and community members to
be involved. The Tribe can have programs and activities
available and only those youth will participate that want to.
I also want to commend those parents and their children who
have set goals for what they want and worked hard to raise the
money for skate parks, with that I feel the Tribe should help
them out. If youth work for something, they would appreciate
it more and take care of it.
There is also the Donation fund that many youth receive
funding for their activities. As for members, besides the
donation fund and per-capitas, the Tribe also funds the
Emergency Assistance Program, Wake and Burial fund, Tribal
Gatherings, and funding for Public Works to assist elders and
low income. We increased dollars for the Senior Wood program
to allow for, not just wood, but gas, propane and electrical.
Prior to elections starting I printed a FY2006 budget report
and it was not aligned correctly, and due to elections I was
unable to print a corrected report, for which I am doing now.
I provide this report so the membership can see what Tribal
dollars are being spent on. In this report, an “I” represents
programs that are funded by indirect dollars (some only 50%);
all other programs are funded 100% Tribal dollars. Some of the
programs have other funding sources (federal grants or
contracts).
In addition to a $27 million Tribal budget, there are also $58
million budgets for federal, state, and other funded programs.
The Tribe has grown along with everyone’s needs, and
unfortunately limited revenues. Keep in mind that this report
was during budget approval, there have been resolutions to
working on a business plan and as it finalizes, information
should be shared with the membership.
As always, if anyone has comments or concerns, please contact
me at 1-888-881-7684, ext. 2208 or (509) 634-2208, or email:
gail.delacruz@colvilletribes.com
Until next time,
Gail M. DeLaCruz
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Indian
Country
By Michael E. Marchand
Trust Reform:
There is a strong push to get a national trust reform
settlement accomplished. A couple of years ago, national
tribal leadership had just rolled over and given up and
conceded everything over to a trust reform plan that was
pushed into place by Ross Swimmer. Mel Tonasket, Gene Joseph,
and the Colvilles were about the only ones putting up any kind
of resistance to this process, everyone else had given up.
Colvilles put together a trust reform working group and we
have stopped the momentum and are starting to turn things
around. Our group has grown and now we have coalitions of
support built up across the country. We have gotten agreements
from other regions of the country, the southern and eastern
tribes, the plains tribes, the southwest tribes, and we have
built up a lot of support with the Senate and Congress. We
have a legislative package put together which is looking at
major reorganization of the BIA and Office of Special Trustee,
and this bill is also looking at a multi-billion dollar
settlement package which would go to Indians across the
country. It is still too early to say whether this is going to
pass or not, but there are a lot of serious discussions taking
place right now to see if these issues can be settled. Without
the strong stance of the Colville Tribes, I don’t think these
discussions would be taking place at all.
Arrow Lakes:
A major court decision was won by the tribe versus the Teck
Cominco polluters in the Federal 9th Circuit Court. The tribe
has been contending that this Canadian company was responsible
for cleaning up its mess that it has made in the Columbia
River and the court has agreed. For decades, mining companies
have been sending their ores to Trail, BC to have them
smelted. The rich ores are purified and the waste materials
have been dumped into the Columbia. These toxic chemical and
metals get into the river and pollute everything downstream.
Heavy metals cause brain damage, cancer, and other health
problems. The fish in the Columbia, which our people have been
and continue to eat, have cancer risks about ten times higher
than the law even allows. Most scientists say there really is
no such thing as safe levels of these toxic materials. These
lands are the traditional territories of the Arrow Lakes
people.
Arrow Lakes are one of the 12 tribes of the Confederated
Tribes of Colville. There is a constitutional obligation to
protect the rights and interests of all 12 tribes. By law,
since we have never sold our lands in Canada, these lands
should still be ours. Moving forward on this case needs to be
done. Tribes in Canada are negotiating land claims to
territory right now. The Okanogan Nation Alliance recently
submitted legal evidence claiming Arrow Lakes’ territories as
part of an appeal versus the Metis people, who had been
claiming BC territories as their own. The Osooyoos band
recently signed an agreement with Canadian ministers to
receive a share of timber dollars from Crown Forests, as part
of their negotiations. The legal processes are moving along
very fast in Canada right now. Most treaties and negotiations
took place in the 1800’s in the U.S., but this is happening
right now in Canada.
CIPV Fire:
Most everyone has probably heard about the fire by now, major
damage from the fire will shut down plywood operations for a
while. Getting back into operation is a tribal priority. The
tribe’s losses were covered by insurance we are told. The
insurance was set up to cover costs to cover replacement
costs. There is also insurance to cover clean up costs. There
is also insurance to cover operational losses. Initially, we
are told that veneer will be purchased from outside to get the
mill in operation. This additional operating cost will be
covered by insurance. I would like to thank our employees for
their efforts to get the plant back into operation; they have
been putting in a lot of hours non-stop. I would also like to
thank the surrounding communities for their support throughout
this emergency.
The payrolls from tribal business in the Omak District make up
a lot of the Okanogan Valley economy.
Casinos:
The legal picture for gaming is always a complicated one. As
you know, the tribe has negotiated a compact, as required by
the courts for its casinos. But since these were agreed to,
the states allowable number of machines for all tribal casinos
has been already allocated out. Talks with the Governor to
increase these allocations are ongoing now. Our tribe has had
an up and down history with gaming. Initially, we were one of
the first to have machines at all. This monopoly produced a
lot of revenue at first. But then, as the other tribes went
into business, our business has gone down drastically. Many of
our customers used to come over from the Seattle area. But now
the Muckleshoots, Puyallups, and the Tulalips, and other
tribes, have thousands of slot machines. They are capturing
many of the customers that we used to get. We now make only a
fraction of what we used to get for profits. Also, our
facilities are old and outdated, and were initially intended
to be temporary anyway. There will always be some level of
market, but exactly what this will end up being is still to be
worked out. We know our communities have certain populations
and numbers to draw from, but how many customers can be drawn
from outside our region is still unknown. Obviously, better
casinos would bring in more customers, but this has to be
balanced off with the higher costs of new construction, which
is very expensive. There is also a strong national push to
limit off-reservation gaming. It is still theoretically
possible to do so, but in reality, tribes have not been
successful so far.
Need for
Constitutional Change:
A study done by the University of Washington indicates that
one of the key stumbling blocks with continued growth and
development of the Colville Tribe is its constitution. The
staggered two year terms, which mean that 7 Council are up for
election each year, creates a lot of instability and
dysfunctionality. This study recommends that the tribe
consider four year terms. Each spring, everything grinds to a
halt; the election process is very disruptive. It is also very
hard to make any kind of long term plan for government or
business when everything goes up in the air every spring. The
tribe is also extremely complex today, with hundreds of
employees and programs, millions of dollars at stake, attacks
on our sovereignty from every direction, and new Council are
just beginning to understand what is going on and then their
term is done. Changing this would require a vote by the
people. It is my hope that this issue can be discussed more
this year, so that the tribe can move forward.
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MoomawUpdate
By Cherie Moomaw
Report to the Membership,
Congratulations to all the graduates. May you meet all the
challenges in your future and fulfill your expectations of
yourselves. I was able to attend the graduations at Paschal
Sherman and Nespelem grade school. I was quite impressed by
all the students that thanked others for helping them to
graduate. What a gift to learn gratitude so young.
We recently signed a MOA with the State of Washington to have
our culture and traditions taught in public schools.
Hopefully, this will be a step forward in understanding each
other. There is a chance for us to establish a high school on
the reservation. I would like your thoughts and input on this
idea. I believe we also need to establish a trade school on
the reservation for those that do not wish to go to college.
It’s my understanding that many of our tribal members are
visual learners and I know there are good paying jobs in the
different trade industries.
The new energy director should be hired by the time you read
this—this will enable us to start making progress in energy
production and sales as well as bringing bulk fuel to the
reservation with goal of eventually producing our own fuel
growing bio-fuels of producing ethanol from wood waste. The
recent court decision on state tax should be a benefit to us.
Senator Tom Daschle bought together 14 tribes and potential
investors to help develop alternative energy on the
reservations. (Colville Tribes was one of the 14 invited.)I
would invite any of you that can to attend the Council
committee meetings. The Community Development meeting that I
chair meets every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. We
will be having a presentation on an energy efficient
Styrofoam/Cement block home on July 25, 2006. (R-32 energy
rating). Our Omak district meetings are every third Wed. of
the month @ the Senior meal site at 6 p.m.
We are negotiating with Okanogan County Transportation for 2
vans to service the Nespelem and Grand Coulee areas from Omak
to help with employee and Tribal member travel. We should have
an answer by next month.
As one that was always critical of council travel I now have
to eat my own words. Indian people are in an undeclared war
fighting for monies promised them. Members of council are
required to travel to protect our reservation’s rights, most
of the time only council representatives are heard. At the
present time health care dollars, trust reform, energy bill
funding, right of ways through Indian lands, education
dollars, class II gaming are all being threatened and require
government to government talks.
My council travel costs for April, May and June were: Denver
(Right of Way issues), Spokane (Affiliated Tribes), Pasco
(Bio-fuels), and Washington DC (Alternative Energy) for a
total of $3609.92.
If you have any questions or concerns please call.
1-800-881-7684 toll free or 1-509-634-2215. E-mail
cherie.moomaw@colvilletribes.com
Cherie Moomaw
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NissenReport
By
Brian Nissen
I would like to begin by thanking all of
you for such overwhelming support in the elections. I believe
that the membership have sent a clear message to all that it
is time for change. I hope that others can be inspired by this
and answer their calling.
I realize that I have big shoes to fill and welcome the
challenge. I have already learned so much in my first full
week of being on council. I am very humbled by whole
experience and want the members to know that I will be
diligent in my learning yet patient in my decisions. I
understand that there are many major issues that warrant
attention and welcome any constructive advice from our members
and employees.
I will be spending the next few months getting my feet wet and
learning my role as Education and Employment chairman of which
I am very honored. Next month I will have a more detailed
report as I am becoming more involved and learning the status
of many of the issues at hand. In closing I would again like
to thank each and everyone who has supported me and I look
foward to serving all our tribal members.
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Tip of Arrow
By
Douglas Seymour
To all tribal members,
I would like to start off by stating how grateful I am for the
support that I have received during my campaign. It has been a
very long journey for me to obtain a seat on the Tribal
Council. I would not be where I am today without receiving the
votes and earning the respect and support from the voters in
the Inchelium District. Now that I am here I will do everythng
within my power to adhere to allof my campaign letter and
stive to make the tribe a financial, social, and culturally
successful group of people. I also wanted to let the
membership know that my door is always open to speak with you,
even if you are not from Inchelium, for I do not consider
myself as having district-idis, so come on in and speak with
me.
Lim limpt
Douglas Seymour
Inchelium District Position #1
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