1984-09-18 Char-Koosta News

              VOLUME 13 NUMBER 10
THE MONTH OF THE CHOKECHERRIES
SEPTEMBER 18, 1984
Judge may dismiss Tribes'
The federal judge in charge of deciding who gets the Kerr Dam license wants to dismiss the Tribes' application because he isn't convinced that the Tribes can find a buyer for Kerr's power.
The Tribes, says Teresa Wall, finds itself in a "Catch 22" situation "We can't
The name Char-Koosta is derived from Chief Charlo's and Chief Koostatah's names. They were the Tribes' last traditional chiefs._
application; negotiations
get the license unless we can market the power, but we can't market the power without the license"
Foster DeReitzes, the Tribes' Washington, D.C., counsel for Kerr, told the Tribal Council Sept 4 that Judge Bruce Birch-man would throw out the Tribes' application unless they could "show cause" -provide good reasons ~ why he shouldn't, at a Sept 6 hearing in D.C.
Wall, Poison's Council representative and Kerr expert, was nominated to attend the hearing and report the results to the Council Sept 7.
Her report contained relatively good news The judge decided to temporarily delay a dismissal order, pending Tribal-MPC negotiations on an out-of-court settlement
Interior comes through
A bit of drama at the Sept 6 hearing was an "eleventh hour" letter of support
th MPC continue
from the Interior Department wherein that federal agency made a preliminary committment to buy 24% of the Kerr Dam output should the Tribes be awarded the license
Wall said the letter from Ken Smith of Interior "almost knocked MPCs lawyers out of their chairs". Later, though, they said they didn't believe the letter meant too much, she said,
Thanks, in part, to Interior's long-sought-after support, Birchman agreed to delay any action for about ten days so the competing parties could try to reach a settlement
"The BIA [which is a division of the Interior Dept] was brilliant" Wall said. An attorney from that agency argued the Tribes' case along with DeReitzes. Response was slow
That wasn't her opinion sometime (Continued on page three)
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Date set for district meeting
Jim Steele and Kevin Howlett have settled on Wednesday, Sept ,19, as the date of their next Arlee district meeting As with past meetings, this one will begin at 6:30 p. m at the Salish Indians Senior Center, and dinner will be served
Although there isn't an official agenda, Steele said high on the list
of things to be discussed are a proposed new timber-use policy, proposed changes to the Tribal Constitution, and the latest news about the Kerr Dam relicensing case.
The Reservation public is invited to attend