1974-10-01 Char-Koosta News

              OCT. 6 IS THE LAST DAY TO REGISTER FOR NOV ELECTION
THE NEWSPAPER OF THE SALISH, PEND'd ORIELLES AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION
15 C
HARKOOSTA
Volume IV    Moon of Half Summer Half Autumn October 1, 1974
IDAHO KOOTENAIS APPEAL FOR HELP, TRIBE RESPONDS
Dixon - - Spurred by an impassioned plea from a Bonners Ferry Kootenai Woman and an angry delegation of 15 Elmo Kootenais, the Tribal Council has offered financial, legal, diplpmatic and moral aid to the troubled Idaho band.
The 67 member Bonners Ferry Kootenai have declared a "was of principle" with the United States. The band says that the U. S. Government never signed a treaty with the small band...descen dents of the "lower river Kootenai". ...and has never compensated the Indians fairly for some 1.6 million acres of their native range. The Bonners Ferry group early last month offered an ultimatum to the Government stating that the U. S. either begin serious negotiations for the lands taken from the band or accept a declaration of war. On Sept. 19, members of the band moved into the disputed area and began setting up "toll stations" along roads and railways. The pickets
« at the stations did not obstruct traffic but asked passing motorists to pay tolls of 10 cents for use of the roads.
¦ According to sources at Bonners Ferry, many cars stopped to pay the toll and offer aid and trains of the Burlinton-Northern line voluntarily stopped in a jesture of support.
At a Tribal Council meeting Sept. 23, some 15 Elmo Kootenais appeared with Mrs. Helen Cutsack, a Bonners Ferry Kootenai, to demand that the Council offer support and aid to.their Tribal kin in Idaho.
Tribal Councilman , Pat Lefthand, Elmo, said that the Bonners Ferry band was "in a heck of a predicament and they have been for years...This is no publicity stunt". Lefthand said that the lands of the Idaho band are "being stolen, their range has been taken without any compensation and they have been forced into a life of unending proverty".
Lefthand pointed out that all other tribes in the northwest have offered backing to the band at that
several tribes and Indian organizations have given money and legal support.
Margaret Friedlander, a Kootenai from the Flathead Reservation, told the Council that she had just returned from Bonners Ferry and found the band in "a sad, sad situation". She said that the Bonners Ferry situation "did not happen overnight, this has been going on for years". She said that the small band of Indians "had not caused the trouble, had not started the war, it was the whites and the state officers that had made the situtation there unlivable...These people are not asking for anything but their rights as Native Americans and human beings."
Mrs. Cutsack, a frail looking elderly woman in a cotton dress and shawl, then told the Council why the Bonners Ferry people has decided to take on the U.S. Government and what has happened since the "war" had begun. She started talking in strong Kootenai, ttut broke into soft english. "For years", she said "I stand up scared because whenever I look around all I see is Suappi (whitemen). They come and take away our lands and they squeeze our small tribe and I know it will be worse for my children and grandchildren. We decide we have to get together to do something...not to hurt the white people here, but to ask for fair treatment from the United States".
She said the small, desperite band met early in September to decide what should be done to save their Tribe and their culture. She said only solution to their problem was to openly confront the government with its abuses of their native rights and to take matters into their own hands if the government refused to take them seriously
Mrs. Cutsach said that no sooner had the ultimatum resolution hit the news media then a backlash of hatred and ignorance began to well up among some of the whites in the area and local law enforcement officers. She told about one night she and her husband left a meeting at the Tribal Offices near Bonners Ferry. "We were on our
Kootenai...Cont. on page 2
LAKE RULING APPEALED: The Tribes have appealed the Federal District Court decision which ruled that James Namen of Poison and the City of Poison have property rights to the bed of the southern half of Flathead Lake. The appeal went before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Fancisco. More on the appeal in the October 15, issue of Char-Koosta..