1975-05-15 Char-Koosta News

              BITTERROOT WILL FOLLOW A HARD WINTER THIS YEAR
The Salish call it, Spetlem, the Kootenai call it, Nepemcu, and both tribes and other northwestern Indians called the tiny bitterroot plant a welcome spring-time blessing.
The bitterroot was the most welcomed and important of all plant foods to the tribes in this region. Important because of its abundance
and food value and welcomed because it ripened at a time when the band's winter larders were depleted and other food was scarce.
It was the first major food plant to ripen in the spring. It normally blossoms in mid-to late- May and is ready to be picked slightly before the pink flowers form.
The bitterroot harvest was one of the main religious celebrations of the Salish. It'1 was both a sacrament to the spirits for safe-guarding the people through the long-bitter winter and a thanksgiving for the nourishing root crop.
The blessing of the plant was considered so important
that members of the band were forbidden to pick bitterroot for their own personal use until after the feast. Paul Mathias, a Kootenai from Elmo, explained that the bitterroot "had to be paid for" before it could be eaten. He said that the blessing ceremony paid the Bitterroot BITTERROOT Page 11
1976 TRIBAL OPERATIONS BUDGET SET AT $804,452
FLATHEAD       TWO-YEAR OLD,
ELROY NEUMAN
Dixon: Citing inflation and the higher cost of operating and maintaining tribal programs, the Tribal Council, May 2, approved a record $804,452,00 budget for fiscal year 1976.
That is $124,000.00 more than-was budgeted for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
But councilman Bob McCrea, Dixon, who is Chairman of the Administration Committee, said that every penny of the new tab was justified and noted that "any cuts would reduce services to tribal members." McCrea also insisted that the new budget still allowed an August per-capita of a-round $600.00.
But there was some opposition to the 1976 operations budget. Councilman Fred Whitworth, Arlee, called it "an extravagant slap in the face to tribal members". Councilman Tom "Bear-head" Swaney, St.Ignatius,
pointed out that forestry revenue would be down for 1976 and urged a 20 per cent across the board cut in the new budget. Whitworth, Swaney and Tom Pablo, Hot Springs, voted against the measure. Voting in favor of the new budget were McCrea, Vic Stinger, Pablo, E.W. Mori-geau, Poison, Pat Lefthand, Elmo, and Council Chairman Harold Mitchell, Jr.
Whitworth complained that the new budget would exceed the ten percent of the projected revenue for 1976. He noted that the people, two years ago, had voted to establish a ten per cent ceiling on tribal administration expenses and added that the council had agreed to stay within the ten per cent guidelines. "When are we going to start living up to our obligations and respect the wishes of the people?", he asked.
Estimated income for the
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RIVER STUDY
Poison: Several water quality problems on the Flathead Reservation will be examined in a two-year drainage-wide study due to begin in July.
Members of the newly formed water quality study board met in a Poison Public hearing April 29, to outline critical areas in the Flathead River drainage. Some 21 areas were proposed including chemical and sediment pollution caused by the Flathead Irrigation Project-insufficient sewage facilities in several reservation towns... water quality problems a-rising from forestry...and the deteriorating water quality of Flathead Lake.
The board...which includes Tribal Councilman, Tom "Bearhead" Swaney and Tribal Planner, Larry Hall... was formed last month to administer a $495,000.00 grant from the environmental protection agency.
WATER Page3
DROWNS
Dixon: Two year old Elroy Neuman died May 5, after he fell into the rising Flathead River near the Dixon Agency.
Young Elroy, who had been playing along the river bank with his sister, three year old Leslie Jo and another child, was evidently unable to pull himself out of the water before the current swept him off shore into the murky waters. He was the son of Mar-lene Neuman of Dixon and Les Peone of St. Ignatius.
Searchers, which included Tribal Law and Order and Sanders County Search and Rescue as well as scores of Dixon Agency workers and residents plied the river bank for an hour before diver Harry Peterson recovered the boy's body. The body was found at 4:00 p.m., about one hour after the Neuman boy disappeared.
The tragedy occured just as residents of the Dixon a-gency were preparing to build NEUMAN Page 6