1982-11-15 Char-Koosta News

              David L   Moore
Star Route
Big Arm, MT 59910
PABLO, MONTANA 59855 ISSN: 0528-8592
$ 4-83
NEWSPAPER OF THE SALISH, PEND (TOREILLE AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD INDIAN RESERVATION, WESTERN MONTANA
VOLUME 11 NUMBER 13
NEW MOON OF AUTUMN
NOVEMBER 15, 1982
Nine-year-old case is over: Tribal sovereignty vindicated
The U.S. Supreme Court voted 7-to-2 November 1 to leave intact a lower court's ruling that the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have authority to regulate structures on the shoreline of the southern portion of Flathead Lake. Tribal authority extends equally over Indian and non-Indian lake
No dividend next month
PABLO — You were forewarned about it last July: unless the income situation changed by December, there would be no winter per capita
The situation has not changed since the summer, although there are one or two projects in the works. This being the case, the Council voted 6-3 November 2, to disapprove John McClure's motion to pay out a $100 per capita. Voting for the per capita were McClure, Noel Pichette, and E.W. Morigeau. The rest of the Council voted against it, except Elmo's Al Hewankom, who wasn't at the meeting.
The motion and its subsequent failure caused tempers to flare, before it was decided to adjourn at 4:15 - but not before three councilmen said, "Be sure to put this in the paper:"
John McClure - "Be sure you get the vote in Char-Koosta "
Tom Pablo -- "Don't forget the GA angle . . ." whereby general assistance (Tribal welfare) recipients sometimes suffer loss of benefits due to per capitas.
Vic Stinger -- "I think credit is due us for the ones employed by the Tribes."
According to Executive Secretary Fred Houle, Jr., quoted in another paper, this will be the first time in 14 years that a December will pass without a per capita
shore property owners.
The November decision also shot down the city of Poison's contention that Congress had disestablished the Flathead Reservation in the early 1900's.
The Shoreline Protection Board can now get down to the business of implementing the Tribes' five-year-old Ordinance 64A. Precisely what this will mean remains to be seen. One certain thing is that people wishing to construct anything alongside the Tribes' portion of the lake now have to seek a permit from the Tribes, instead of from Lake County. Also, a fee in lieu of taxes will be assessed The board is supposed to be discussing this last matter as this story is being written.
Fred Houle, Jr., Executive Secretary for the Tribes, explained the Namen case's resolution during a Tribally sponsored radio show broadcast recently over four western Montana stations:
"The Treaty of Hell Gate, and the minutes of the meetings held in Council Grove in 1855 discussing the treaty's provisions, clearly indicate that the Reservation, including the south half of Flathead Lake, was reserved for the exclusive use and occupancy of the Salish (or Flathead), the Kootenai, and the Pend rfOrielle people. Subsequent legislation and legislative history and several court decisions have consistently confirmed that the Reservation has not been disestablished, in spite of various attempts to do so, and that the Tribes are the beneficial owners of the south half of the Flathead Lake.
"In 1973, when a Poison marina operator, without permission from any authority, dumped about 174,000 cubic feet of rock and dirt into Flathead Lake, the Tribes sued to protect
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