1975-09-15 Char-Koosta News

              PETE BEAVERHEAD - A GREAT MAN IS GONE
Pete Beaverhead died at age of 84, at his home southeast of Ronan. He
He had just worked a short time ago with the cultural
, Committee giving his time was one of our oldest and and know|edge toWards a most revered Tribal Mem- Salish-Kootenai-English dic-
bers.
He was born in St.-Ignatius in 1891  and lived his entire life on the reservation. He contributed a lifetime to his people and his cultural heritage.
tionary and a book of Traditional Tales& Stories.
Pete had helped the Cultural Committee get. started, and was instrument — al in convincing the Tribal Council to support
the program. His support statement presented to them reads as follows:
k'We need to help our children and people now. The Indian way is fast going away, it will be lost if you don't continue what you're doing now. Myself, because I'm old, think the Indians way should be wrote
NEWSPAPER OF THE SALISH, PEND'd ORIELLES AND KOOTENAI \
down so it can be known what the Indians did a long time ago. I am old and I know that everything is gone. The ways of the Indians. The children of today don't know the way of the Indians. I am really glad when these young people started this. I will help and do my best to help you in any way I can. If you
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VOLUME 5  NUMBER 10    MOON OF THE HARVEST OF RIPE THINGS     SEPTEMBER 15, 1975
JUDGE FINES ALLARD MINIMUM
Doug Allard, owner and operator of the Flathead Indian Museum and Trading Post, was fined $100 on each of two counts of selling golden eagle feather headresses. No jail sentence was given.
Judge Smith told Allard the fines were relatively light in view of the fines permissable by law. The maximum penalty for selling eagle feathers is a $5,000 fine and one year in jail for each count.
The judge stated, " But the situation at least in this district,... is now clear as to the sale of eagle feathers. Anybody who gets here again will get more severe punishment than this."
Allard, who was found guilty last May of selling the feather-headresses illegally, testified at his trial that he had been unaware that it was against the law to sell Indian artifacts that were made in part with eagle feathers.
Allard stated to the Char— Koosta that no further action would be taken regarding the Judges decision, however he said he has filed a Cease and Desist suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Department of the Interior, in Federal District Court, Denver, Colorado. The suit is filed on the grounds that the Migratory Bird Act should not apply to property in existance before the Act was finalized.
According to the suit, if the law continues in it's present form any Indian artifacts made from the feathers would be considered valueless, including a large number of antique Indian artifacts.
NEW MEMBER HOUSING BOARD
Home - School counselor Roger McClure was appointed to the vacant position on the Tribal Housing Authority Board by the Council.
McClure was born in St. Ignatius in 1945, and attended the Poison district schobls. He  was graduated from the University of Montana, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education. He is now working on his Masters degree.
Roger is also a graduate of the U.S. Army school of Administration, and is a veteran of the Viet Nam war.
He is working in the Poison school district under the Johnson O'Malley program. McClure stated that his present position brought about his interest in housing for his fellow Tribal Members. He said, " My work entails both the school and the home life for the student, and I have found that a lot of the members do not have adequate housing. I would like for this to become possible for them.
VOTING ACT EXTENSION PROVIDES RIGHTS
Washington, D.C. — With the signing of the Voting Rights Act, amending the Act of 1965, by President Ford,  Native Americans should take note of the opportunities offered through the Act for greater participation in the legislative and political process today.
The Act was passed to banish racial discrimination in voting, giving the U.S. Attorney General the power to appoint federal examiners to supervise voter registration in states or voting districts where a literacy or other qualifying test was in  use, and where fewer than  50 percent of voting-age residents were registered or had voted in 1964.
The  1965 Act had certain temporary provisions. The Act extended only for five years, extended in  1970 for an additional  five years. The nationwide ban on the use of literacy or other qualifying tests as a prerequisite to voting was enacted for only a five-year period.
The current legislation extends the special provisions of the 1965 Act. The law expands the special provisions of the Act to
Sirisdictions in which, on ovember 1, 1972, more Continued on page 10