1981-01-15 Char-Koosta News

              PABLO, MONTANA 59855 ISSN: 0528-8592
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VOLUME 10 NUMBER     i S
NEW MOON OF THE WANDERING
JANUARY 15, 1981
Enrollment, Land Use Dominate Quarterly Meeting
The first quarterly council meeting for 1981 was held in Mission on Friday, January 2. A small crowd of 40 or 50 gathered to discuss issues with nine of the ten members of the Tribes' governing body (Laurence Kenmille was the sole absentee).
Everyone must have felt especially mellow that day, though, because the meeting was very tame and very short. It began around ten a.m. and ended at two in the afternoon.
The most involved person seemed to be St. Ignatius councilman Noel Pichette, who dominated the day with discussions about the use of tribal land and enrollment.
After presenting his research on the matter, Noel asked that Ordinance 45B, concerning leasing of tribal land and the like, be amended. He based his argument on the fact that the Tribes
have lost $1 million in the past ten years because too much Indian grazing land is being used by too few cattlemen who are paying too little money for the privilege. The Council wasn't convinced, though, and voted against Noel's motion.
Undaunted by this setback, Noel plunged into the matter of enrollment. He asked again that the rolls be opened to include non-Salish or Kootenai blood, provided the enrollees can prove 25% Salish or Kootenai blood to start with. As before when the same subject came up for a vote, the motion was defeated.
Bearhead Swaney offered an alternative: conduct a referendum to see if the members would accept enrolling anyone who could prove -degree Indian blood and has at least one parent on the CSKT rolls. This motion never made it to a vote, however, because it
More Council Highlights
A rare full house of spectators gathered to watch the January 9 regular council meeting proceedings. Forestry filled the council chambers in the morning with a nine-man delegation wanting two things: first, they wanted approval of a 250,000-board-feet sanitation sale on Grasshopper Flats out Camas Prairie way (and they got it); second, some direction was needed regarding the St. Mary's logging sale that J & D doesn't want to finish. (Not knowing a post from a pole, this
(Continued on page 4)
was withdrawn after its original ambiguous language had many people arguing semantics.
Finally, someone suggested - much to the delight of many in the audience -that anyone with an l/8th-degree of Salish or Kootenai blood be enrolled. Rhetorical in nature, it turned out, that idea never made it to the motion stage.
SKCC center director Ron Therriault made a good point for continuing careful attention to the matter of enrollment. He cited the case of a tribe of California Indians that numbered 2000 in 1931. Through staunch support of their enrollment rules - members had to be born in a certain area and have not less than 25% tribal blood -- the tribe was reduced to 6 members within half a century.
On the other hand, there are those who argue tribal "purity" should be the (Curtinusd next ptqe)
Inside this issue
Sherry & Marvin Camel.........................Page 5
"Letters to the Editor"..........................Page 8
Health Corner.................................Page 9
1981 Phone Directory..........................Page 15
"Around the Campfire"........................Page 18
Want to Know About CHR's?...................Page 19
Council Minutes..............................Page 23