1984-05-01 Char-Koosta News

              VOLUME 12 NUMBER 24
MONTH OF THE BITTERROOT
MAY 1, 1984
Indians win round one of Kootenai Falls dam controversy
Tribal member Pat Lefthand, Elmo, got a phone call last week that made him "feel pretty good", he said in his characteristic serious, quiet way.
A fight he'd been helping to wage for nearly a decade had reached the end of round one and his people the Kootenais, were the victors.
Lefthand's phone call was from Tribal attorney Evelyn Stevenson, who told him that a plan to build a dam at sacred Kootenai Falls had been dealt a blow by a federal judge over the weekend The judge had decided that there wasn't any need to dam the off-Reservation Kootenai River for power generation, that to do so would hurt the Kootenai Indians of Montana Idaho and Canada who use the area to practice their religioa Although details of that practice aren't widely known, it's been acknowledged by Lefthand that the area is a prime vision quest site
Lefthand, who works for the Tribes in the Fish and Game Conservation Dept., met briefly with the Tribal Council April 24 to thank them for their support over the years. Some of the
legal costs of the protest have been paid for by the Tribes. The Indian cause has been represented by the Native American Rights Fund, a group of lawyers from Colorado. Lefthand said he would like to organize a victory dinner for some time in the future when the NARF lawyers could attend
Besides its importance to spiritual-minded Indians, Kootenai Falls is the last undeveloped major waterfall in the Pacific Northwest, and a valuable fisheries for rainbow trout and white sturgeon. Conservationists and out-doorsmen joined the protest of the project that sought to put a 30- foot-high, 925-foot-long dam across the Kootenai River, about 70 miles northwest of Elmo near the town of Libby.
The dam was proposed by eight
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Hot Springs - Camas area to have district meeting
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Its been many years since Hot Springs had a district meeting. Former representative Tom Pablo remarked once that he used to schedule them until widespread non-attendance convinced him to give it up.
The community's new councilman hopes to have better luck Mickey Pablo will be having his first district meeting on Monday, May 7, beginning
at 7 p. m at the Hot Springs bowling alley.
Items he'll be bringing up for discussion will include the road closure program, proposed amendments to the Tribal Constitution, secretarial elections and registering for them, Kerr Dam, and oil-gas-mineral exploration on Indian lands.