1973-01-15 Char-Koosta News

              Moon of the Wandering: Solitude and Medicine
For the Salish, Kootenai and Pend'd Orielle Indians, the Moon of the Wandering (January) was a time of iso lated religious intensity.
Traditionally, the large bands splintered into family groups for the cold moons of Continuous Snow, The Wandering and the Band Spread all Over (December, January, and February) to winter on
stored camas, Bitterroot, ber ries and dried buffalo meat. There was no buffalo hunting east of the mountains during th the cold moons and the only supplements to the larder were deer and elk for the Salish and mountain game and fish for the Pend'd Orielle and Kootenai.
Personal and family religious ceremonies were practiced
by members of all three tribes during the Moon of the Wandering. Medicine and healing ceremonies took place through out the cold moons and many of the medicine orders held their sacred rites during this moon. Today, the Bluejay ceremony and the jump dances are still practiced throughout the reservation.
A century ago this month,
the Bitterroot Salish were restive and trying to decide what to do about the Presidential Order of June 5,1872 removing them to the Flathead Reservation. Chief Victor had felt the Bitterroot was secured for his people by the Hellgate Treaty of 1855 and Charlo, his son, considered the valley Salish Land. Later that spring, Arlee and a small band of ^con^onjjagej 0)
(Charlo)
Salish, Kootenai, Pend 'd Orielles Tribes      (Koostahtah)
Volume 2    Number 18
FULL  MOON
OF  THE
^^^^^^^^ WANDERING
Price  15 cents
81.3 Million Board Feet To Be Sold Friday
Valley Unit On Auction Block
Pixon (Char-Koosta): For the second time in half a century the saws will be singing in the huge valley logging unit south of Dixon.
Eighty one million, three hundred thousand board feet of timber in the 36,326 acre unit were to be sold Friday (as Char Koosta was going to press) at an oral auction in Ronan. The Flathead Agency auction was to be attended by five local and out of state logging firms who had submitted floor bids ($60 per thousand on Ponderosa pine and $50 per thousand on other species) to qualify for the voice bid auction.
According to the ground rules of oral auction, floor bids of the firms are posted and the voice auction starts at the high floor bid. Observers of. past oral auctions say that bids on blocks of tree species may edge up a nickle at a time, or sky-rocket $10 at a time. The
process might take as little as one hour, or may drag on well into the evening.
Biggest and Longest The unit on the auction block is the largest and the long est cut in the history of the reservation. The timber, it is believed, will start falling early this spring and continue for seven years with one year set aside for cleanup. The largest previous sale was the Granjo Unit of 1972, which will yield 75.12 million board feet over 5 years. Flathead Agency BIA Forestry intends to sell 87 million board feet of timber around St. Mary's Lake sometime with in the decade.
Of the 36,326 acres of the unit which straddles the saddle between Revais and Valley Creek drainages, only about 19,380 acres will be logged. The remaining 17,000 acres are either immature trees growing out of the clearcuts of the 20s
or fires of the 1930s or are being left for game habitat, watershed management or recreational use according to * biA horestry.
Acting Reservation Forestry Manager Fred Malroy says the cutting program will entail the construction of some
230 miles of access roads will probably include "some six to ten small (15 Acre) clear cuts". Malroy said the clearcuts are slated only for areas which are either "stunted and overgrown or diseased". He said watershed management will include careful selection in higher (cont. on page 3)
BIA Budget Unvailed At Quarterly Meet
Dixon (Char-Koosta): The Tribal Tribal forum at the first quarterly iribal Council meeting of 1973 ranged in subject from Bureau of Indian Affairs Reservation Programs budget to finding a new Public Health Service Dantist.
Flathead Agency Superintendent Harold Roberson told the Council and th j nearly 50 tribal members present that the operations budget for fiscal year 1974 is $1,273,200.... about $37,000 more than the current budget. It was pointed out to Roberson that the $37,
tnousana increase in considerably below the five percent rate of inflation and therefore constitutes an actual loss in program funding.
Some areas in the new budget took hard cuts...especially educational programs. Among these education program slices were: $1,200 from BIA School Operation and $10,000 from Public School Assistance (John-son-O'Malley funds)....Higher Education Scholarships were increased by $5,000. Other areas taking a beating in the (cont. on page 2)