1974-02-01 Char-Koosta News

              64-millïon Board Feet of Mission Timber to be Sold This Fall
Ronan: The Bureau of Indian Affairs Forestry in Ronan has scheduled two timber sales in the Mission Mountains this fall. The sales would total
Ronan: A lot of chips are expected to fly before a pair of large contracts are let in two Mission Mountain logging units this fall.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs Forestry Department in Ronan has scheduled two logging sales on the west face of the Missions between McDonald Lake and Twin Lakes for fiscal year 1975 (which begins this July 1). The two sales will total some 6 4,0 0 0,0 0 0 board feet of timber.
Scheduled for sale within the year are: the Ashley Unit which lies along the valley facing slope between McDonald Lake and Mission Lake... and the St. Mary's Unit stretching from about St. Mary's Lake south-east to the Twin Lakes on top of the Mission Creek drainage.
But opposition to the sales has been mounting steadily for the past several months. Logging and especially Mission Mountain logging, was among the hottest issues in the December Tribal Council campaign. Most candidates who discussed logging indicated they would reform some logging practices such as clear-cutting and excessive roading and withdraw areas such as the upper Jocko and the the Mission Mountains from the timber schedule. There seemed to be a general consensus at district candidates meetings in December that Mission Mountain logging should be carefully reviewed.
The Tribal Council is also turning a critical eye on many logging practices and there has been some resistance to the idea of logging the Missions and upper Jocko. Two studies have been called for by the Council. One involves the environmental impact of logging on the reservation. This study...known as the Cummins report after Leo Cummins, a University of Montana Forestry Professor who heads up the study team...will be completed in rough draft by February. A final report on the effect of current logging practices on reservation watersheds, wildlife and soils, will be presen-
ted to the Tribal Council by May.
Another study, requested by the Council last July, will probe into alleged mismanagement of the reservation forests including
some 64,000,000 board feet and bring the area between McDonald Lake and Twin Lakes under logging.
stumpage overruns (the amount of timber graded at the mill in excess of the board feet stipulated in the contract) thinning reforestation, timber stand improvement practices and the mar
keting of tribal timber. This study, to have been conducted by the Department of the Interior has not yet begun.
The Council has already asked (cont. on page 18)
CHAR-ftoOSTA
15£
THE BI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE SAIISIi PEND'd ORIELLES AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION
Volume 3 - Number 19   New Moon of Bands Spread All Over - Feb. 1,19 7 4
Committee Primed on Legal Groundwork
Con-con District Meetings Scheduled
The Constitutional Committee will take its review of the Tribe's 1935 Constitution to the people. A series of district meetings starts this weekend (see page three for schedule). The Committee will be talking about such things as tribal government and enrollment and they want your ideas.
review of the tribe's present con- districts are especially urged to stitution (copies of the 1935 con- attend the meeting in their area stitution will be given to persons      Among the things to be dis-attending the meetings), a dis-     cussed at the district meetings cussion of ways to update or re vise the constitution and a traditional lunch. All tribal members are invited to attend every meeting but residents of the
The Tribal Constitutional Committee will be on the road for the next month trying to find out what the people of the tribe feel about their old constitution and would like to see in a new one.
The five men and five women of the committee, who were elected Dec. 15 to review the tribe's 1935 constitution, will go into the district meetings with much of the groundwork for their task cleared away. In four meetings since the committee was sworn in on Jan. 4, they have met with a Bureau of Indian Affairs constitutional expert.....talked over legal problems with the Tribal Council's Attorney....and devised a plan for conducting the district meetings.
Six meetings in February and and March have been scheduled for the eight reservation districts. (See schedule on page three.) Fare for the meetings will be:
will be the legal restrictions and framework for a new tribal governing document. Tom Whitford, of the Billings Area BIA Tribal (cont. on page 3 )
Tribe Asks State To Drop Auto Assessments
Dixon: For years Tribal Members have been paying state property taxes on their cars when they bought their license plates in Lake, Sanders and Missoula Counties. This year there may be a change and the tribal administration is urging members not to buy their licenses until just before the Feb. 15 deadline.
The reason, according to Tribal Secretaryjred Houle, Jr., is
a petition submitted to State Attorney General Robert Wood-ahl last month asking the Tribal members living on the Flathead reservation be exempted from the property tax. It is hoped Woodahl will make a decision soon but if an agreement is not reached by the deadline, Tribal Members are asked to purchase the license plates and pay the tax under protest.