1984-08-07 Char-Koosta News

              VOLUME 13 NUMBER 7 MONTH OF THE HUCKLEBERRY
Nothing nuclear allowed on Reservation
"When all men of the earth speak the same, the earth will end in a great white light" So say our elders of a prophecy.
Could that prophecy be referring to a nuclear holocaust? Could it mean... "the unified voice of total terror that
The name Char-Koosta is derived from Chief Charlo's and Chief Koostatah's names. They were the Tribes' last traditional chiefs._
shall rise from mankind and the creatures of the earth one split second before the world we know disappears in the bright light of nuclear destruction"?
This is the concern of St Ignatius district councilman Ron Therriault as expressed in his statement presented to Council at the July 13 meeting in Pablo.
With the statement Therriault made a motion to declare the Flathead Nation a nuclear-free zone. The Council, as a whole, chose to draft a resolution based on Therriault's statement
The statement speaks strongly of our Tribes' sovereignty as a nation and
The public hearings are over and the court hearings are in recess until early next month So what" s been happening with Kerr Dam?
Picking up where the report on page three ends:
The Tribal Council on July 20 established an eight-member hydroelectric advisory group " to coordinate the many facets of the Kerr Dam licensing effort", among other things, according to a unanimous resolution
The new group replaces the Small-Scale Hydro Review Board, which dealt
AUGUST 7, 1984
the precedent set by the federal government of not acting in our best interest at all times.
We are aware of the fact that Indian people, in this case the Salish and Kootenai, have entered treaties with the U.S. government and those treaties were violated; such was the case in 1910 when our Reservation was opened to homesteading
Now, with those violations of the trust status in mind, Therriault believes we must take action that re mains within that authority we have as a sovereign nation
The statement explicitly says "no nuclear weapon shall occupy space (Concludes on page two)
mostly with the soon-to be on line Boulder Creek Project east of Flathead Lake
Members of the expanded hydro board are committee chairman Tom Bateridge (Tribal hydrologist), Vern Clairmont (Executive Treasurer) "and/ or" Fred Houle, Jr. (Executive Secretary), Virginia Griffing (Tribal attorney), Larry Hall (Community Development director), Jim Paro (Natural Resources Department director), Ron Trosper (Tribal financial analyst), and Council (Continues on page two)
Tribes 'gear up' for Kerr by expanding advisory group