1975-04-01 Char-Koosta News

              SEVEN TRIBAL
MEMBERS ON APRIL 1 SCHOOL BOARD BALLOTS
Several reservation school districts have tribal members on the ballot for the April 1 School Elections.
In Hot Springs, LeRoy O' Bennick, an independent Indian logger and member of the Sanders County District 14 Indian Education Commi-
ttee, will seek one of two school board positions. Opposing O' Bennick are incumbent Donaldeen Montjoy and Roland Pederson.
In Charlo, Lake County District No. 7, Dennis Du-mont is among four candidates for two school board
seats. Dumont is a former director of the reservation Alcoholism Program and is currently a tribal Law and Order Officer. Opposing Dumont are incumbent John Sullivan, Ronald Roush and Wade Vincent.
Charlo school voters will
also decide on a special levy of $ 2 2,7 8 6.0 0 for operation and maintenance of the elementary school and a $16, 955.00 levy for high school operation. Voters will also be asked to approve the expenditures of some $ 15.5 -(Cont. on page 3)
NO MORE AUTO TAXES
Missoula: Tribal Members living on the Flathead Reservation will no longer have to pay personel property or vehicle licensing taxes. That is what a federal three judge panel in Missoula ruled last week.
The federal judges, in a case brought by the tribes and three tribal memebers against the state of Montana, found that the state has been collecting vehicle and personal property taxes "illegally" and ordered the state and the counties of Missoula, Lake and Sanders to discontinue assessing these taxes. Whether or not the ruling entitles qualified tribal members to refunds for taxes paid over the past several years is not yet clear. However, the ruling clearly states that tribal member residents of the reservation will no longer have to pay property taxes on vehicles when they are licensed.
The same three federal
judges...Ninth Circuit Judge, James Browning, San Francisco, Missoula District Judge Russell Smith and Billings District Judge William Jameson, also reaffirmed its May, 1974 cigarette tax ruling. The judges, in a review of the earlier decision, ruled that the state cannot collect taxes on cigarettes sold to tribal members in reservation smoke-shops. The affirmation still left open the question of whether or not smokeshop cigarettes sold to non-members can be taxed by the state.
Both the cigarette and personal property tax ruling followed a far-reaching U.S. Supreme court decision in May of 1973. The nation's highest court found in the case of a Navajo woman that states cannot assess enrolled Indians living on their own reservations for state income taxes. In the McClannahan
(Continued on page 3)
TRIBES BID TO TAKE OVER KERR DAM LICENSE
Dixon: Five years from now, the tribes may be in the business of peddling Indian power ...that is, tribally owned electrical power.
In a resolution endorsed March 14, the Tribal Council asked the Secretary of the Interior and the U.S. Congress to license Kerr Dam to the tribes. Montana Power Company currently holds the license to the 36-year old hydro electric dam but it is due to expire May 20,1980.
The recovery resolution asks the Department of Interior and Congress to intervene in behalf of the tribes when the Federal Power Commission begins reviewing Kerr Dam license applications. The review process is scheduled to start five years before the expiration of the current license which means sometime later this spring
The tribes currently lease the Kerr Dam power site to the utility for $950,000 per year. The dam now contains three electrical generators approximately five miles below Flathead Lake. Part of the tribe's annual lease of the facility includes the power storage value of the Lake.
The fifty year license on the original two generators at Kerr Dam was approved in 1930 by the FPC. The license was issued to the Rocky Mountain Power company but by the time the dam was completed in 1939, it had been transferred to Montana Power. Construction on Kerr Dam began in the late 30's after the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the newly formed Tribal Council negotiated for lease of the power site. Prior to the completion (Continued on page two)