1957-12-01 Char-Koosta News

              CHAR-KOOSTA
PUBLISHED BY CONFEDERATED SALISH AND KOOTENAI TRIBES, FLATHEAD AGENCY, MONT.
Vol 2 — No. 2
Dec, 1957
2nd Largest Christmas Tree Harvest
The second largest harvest of Christmas trees on the Flathead Reservation drew to a close on the 20th of December, 1957.
Final tabulation of stumpage has not been completed but $45,912.99 has been processed to date. This amount is for 92,000 bales of Christmas trees from Tribal and Allotted lands.
Last year's harvest, the largest to date was $53,000 for 115,000 bales of trees.
There has been no opportunity to analyze this harvest, but several factors show up quite prominently.
(1) Is that Christmas trees were much harder to locate this year. The greatest part of the trees were produced by fewer cutters. Those cutters who had equipment to get back into hard to reach areas had a successful season. Those cutters who were not adverse to getting off the main roads and not adverse to hauling their trees for a ways, made out fairly well during the season.
(2) As the season progressed the cutting became destructive. Evidence in the woods indicates that the cutting during the first part of the season was fairly good, but later in the season it became rapidly worse with the result that very
Inter-Tribal Policy Board Meets
Meeting of the Inter Tribal Policy Board of Montana. This Board is comprised of 7 Reservations and the landless Indians, and organized under the administration of Governor John Bonner. The work of the Board is to work between the State, Federal and Tribal level.
On Dec. 18, Rep. Lee Metcalf and LeRoy Anderson met with the Board on pending Indian legislation. In respect to the Paradise Dam Rep. Metcalf stated this is an enormous job to satisfy all people and Congress and certainly this is essential before anything is done. On Dec. 19, Governor Aronson met with the Board. An election was held and all the old officers were retained with the exception of Ed. Whiteman chairman of the Crow Tribe who resigned as first vice pres. The present Board is Walter W. McDonald, Pres. Walter Witzel of Blackfeet 1st vice pres, George Kipp Blackfeet 2nd vice pres. Freda Blazley Siuox, Ft. Peck sec, Steve Demers, Flat-h e a d, treas. About 30 delegates were present both days.
Another meeting will be called late in Jan. in Missoula. The university students and faculty that are interested will be present in order that more information may be given out to the public on the Indian problem. The Indian must be educated and also the non Indian.
destructive cutting was done in several areas in late November and early December. Little if any cutting was done in areas pruned by the Tribe last Spring — until late in November when almost every pruned tree was cut.
(3) A significant change is taking place in the type of Buyers on the Reservation. Many of the big Christmas Tree Companies are still with us. But in nearly all cases their needs this year were considerably below that of last year. Many more trees were sold to trucker's this year than ever before. These small buyers are much harder to supervise than the larger units.
(4) The weather has a large bearing on the production here on the Reservation. Twice during the season snow storm and rain caused a cessation of harvesting. As soon as the weather cleared up the harvest began again. Fortunately this year the weather was relatively mild throughout the season.
A fully detailed report of the harvest and what it means to the members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will be published in this paper the near future.
The Spirit Of Christmas
The Spirit of Christmas was widespread on the Reservation this year, extending beyond the confines of the homes to organizations and institutions.
As they have done other years, the members of the St. Ignatius Business and Professional Women's Club gave gifts to the children at the Ursuline Convent instead of having a personal exchange of gifts. Our Indian children comprise the largest percentage of the students at the Ursulines.
The Catholic Women's Guild had a shower of food stuffs from its members. These were packed into a number of Christmas boxes which were distributed by the Bureau welfare department at the request of the guild.
Staff members of the Bureau and the Tribe who work together at the agency had a Christmas party at which toys were exchanged as gifts. To the adults, there was a humorous an "kidding" side. But for the convalescents in the child-rens wards at the hospitals on the Reservation, there was provided joy and amusement for some time to come. The gifts were distributed after the party to the hospitals at Hot Springs, Poison, Ro-nan, and St. Ignatius.
The October issue of the Char-Koosta carried the story of The Last Chief, com-merating the late Paul Charlo of the Flatheads. This picture is also of the last chief, Chief Mathias of the Kootenais This was taken at the wedding ceremony of Kathy Mathias and Wayne Hamel. Kathy is the granddaughter of Chief Mathias. Unquestionably the picture speaks for itself, that the Chief is happy and proud to have been able to march down the church aisle with his granddaughter in the old Catholic Church at St. Ignatius, where the foundation for the faith of many of us started.
Never in the history of this church has a similar event ever taken place, where an Indian chief took part in a modern day ceremony. Since Chief Mathias is the last chief of the Kootenais and the Flatheads do not have a chief, this incident will probably never happen again. Father Brown, S. J., a member of the Blackfeet tribe, officiated at the ceremony. In that respect, this was an all Indian ceremony.
This photo was taken by Reverend Larsen of the Christian church at St. Ignatius.
Trust Land Sold
Fifty-four tracts containing 3,315.33 acres of trust Indian land advertised for sale to the general public, 1,291.63 acres receieved bids which were equal to or above the appraied value. The bids were opened November 25, 1957, at 2:00 p.m. A total of 52 bids were received of which 21 were high bids at or above appraisal. The total price of the high bids amounted to $69,745.80.
A total of 1,219.13 acres of non-irrigable land and 2,096.20 acres of irrigated and secretarial water right lands were advertised; 501.63 acres of non-irrigable land sold at an average of $31.26 per acre. The 790.00 acres of irrigated and water right land brought an average of $68.43 per acre.
The land owners of land on which no successful bids were received will be notified and requested to indicate if they wish their lands to be re-advertised.