1973-03-15 Char-Koosta News

              (Charlo)     salish, Kootenai. Pend 'd Orielles Tribes      ff^qhtqh)
Volume 2   Number 22     FULL MOON OF THE GOOSE FLIGHT March 15,1973
Price  15 cents
Tribe Wants   Jurisdictional "Misunderstanding"
Boundary Action
Knowles (Char-Koosta): This small community just outside the western boundary of the reservation has been the subject of a long dispute between the tribe and the federal government.
The Tribe insists that in the original survey of the reservation, Knowles and about 10,000 acres of wooded hills to the north, south and west were included as tribal lands. But when the boundaries were finally drawn, Knowles and the Robertson creek drainage south of of Flathead River were wrongfully left out.
The government does not den\ that the land should belong to the tribe. . . in fact there was a provision in the $27,000,000 judgement for the survev error. But the Tribal Council decided that the land - - - which is currently in the hands of the Lolo National Forest - -'- was worth more than the cash so the money was put into escrow pending action by congress to return the land to the Tribe.
(continued on page 5)
Causes A Number Of Problems
Poison (Char-Koosta):   The
sometimes turbulent jurisdictional partnership between the tribe and the State of Montana is now hanging by a thread after the dismissal of an Indian juvenile case two weeks ago by »a Poison District Court.
On March 2 District Court Judge J. Gardner Brownlee dis-
and was no longer valid. The announcement was also to contain a warning that any state officer arresting a tribal member would be liable to false arrest charges. The Tribe (in Resolution 40-A revised) and the State (in House Bill 55) had agreed to Criminal and eight areas of civil jurisdiction in 1964. Among the eight areas of civil
missed a juvenile delinquency
case against three tribal member jurisdiction aSumedby the children on the grounds that      state was juvenile cases such as his court did not have jurisdic-   the ones Judge Brownlee dis-tion. The move set a chain of     misSed. A month before the events which touched off the    dismissa| of these juvenile angry renunciation of the con-   caseS/ the Montana Supreme current jurisdictional agreement had overturned Judge
by the tribal council, an armed   Brownlee's decision in a case
involving civil debt. The State's high court had said Judge Brown-
resistance of Poison Police and Lake County Sheriff's Deputies and finally a retraction of the' dismissal by another District Court Judge.
The Council was in session when word came that Judge Brownlee had refused jurisdiction in the case involving a 15 year old boy and two girls, 12 and 16 years of age. The Coun cil reacted by passing action to inform the governor and all
state law enforcement officers the ^ia^eJ°^'.n?..u[1:l_t_Salef110l1-the the jurisdictional agreement
lee did not have jurisdiction to hear that case because it was not included in the eight areas of civil jurisdiction. Standoff
Early the following week, a Poison Police officer attempted to serve a felony warrent from Washington on James Burland. According to Tribal Law and Order Police Chief Lloyd Jackson, Burland, his brother Philip and two other Indians told the officer that the state no longer had jurisdiction on the reservation. The four went to the Burland home, got rifles and stood the officer, another Poison policemen and three Flathead County Sheriff's Deputies off until Jackson appeared. Jackson (continued on page 2)
Trifoe-BIA Must Comply With Environmental Law
Washintgon (Char-Koosta): Major tribal-federal projects, such
had been violated by the state
Jocko River Mud
Dixon (Char-Koosta): A lot of
mud is being stirred over a project to bank the lower Jocko River.
The plan, which would involve about three miles of the river between the Ravalli Bridge and the Dixon Bridje is designed to bridle the river within her banks during high water. It was devised by six lower Jocko land owners and a federal agency, The Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service (ASCS) from Sanders County.
Opposition to the plan has been both procedural and philosophical. Some feel the idea of banking up the river to protect land is justifiable, but they insist that nefther the land owners nor ASCS consulted the proper authorities or researched the project carefully enough. This group includes the Tribal Council. Others are basic-(continued on page 6)
Flathead Reservation, will now come under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).
Notification of the lecision by the Department of the Interior was received Tuesday. The new ruling will mean that projects on the Flathead and other Indian reservations which "significantly affect the quality of the environment" wil be subject to pre-project environmental impact statements. Word about the decision was received in Dixon following a two-month delay on approval from BIA on the 81.3 million board feet
Valley logging unit sale.
The ruling, handed down by Interior Secretary Rogers B. Morton and Special Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Marvin Franklin, came out of a federal court decision in Arizona. The U.S. Court of Appeals found in Davis versus Morton, that the Interior Department and BIA must comply with NEPA regulations on large trifcjal projects which they must approve. The case involved the 99-year lease of project sites on the Pueblo reservation to the Sangre de Christo Development Company.
The 19,330 acres of timber in the Valley logging unit were sold to the Evans Product Com-
(continued on page 2)