1973-01-01 Char-Koosta News

              Five Firms To Bid For Valley
Ronan (Char-Koosta): Three to five large logging firms will be bidding January 12 on the largest projected cut in the history of the reservation.
Oral bids will be taken at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Flathead Agency in Ronan for the
81.3 million board feet of the Valley logging unit south of Dixon. The 36,326 acre unit— 19,380 acres to be cut—will probably be under saw this winter. The unit is expected to take seven years to cut and an additional year to clean up.
Acting Flathead Forestry Manager Fred Malroy said seven firms have shown interest in the unit which spreads over the top of the Revais Creek and Valley Creek drainages. He said that at least three of the firms were interested in exporting the timber.
The Council decided to place the unit on the oral bid auction block during the November 10 meeting. The mose was made to encourage higher competitive bidding. The tribe is not committed to accept any bid under the oral auction ground rules.
Malroy said the unit would be logged with "a bare minimum of clear cutting". He said any clear cuts would be small-— under thirty acres—and would only be in areas where circumstances, such as disease or mistletoe, made it necessary.
Malroy said that some 17,000 acreas of timber within the boundaries of the unit would be left intact to provide recreational lands, game ranges and upper water-shed storage.
Malroy told Char-Koosta the discrepancy between the prices of stum page on the west coast (see editorial page letter) and the $50 to $60 per thousand board feet minimum bid placed on the Valley unit can
be explained in terms of timber quality. Malroy—who is a former forester on the west coast Yakima Reservation —ex-(Continued on next page)
Crackinfi^Down On Trespassers
Dixon(Char-Koosta):"l can't figure why everybody's private property is sacred except that which belongs to us Indians."
That is the way Councilman Fred Whitworth, Arlee, expresses the frustration of the Tribal Council in their effort .to. have
non-members respect tribal lands. Whitworth listed a number of instances of what he considered blatant trespass on tribal lands and asked tribal attorney Richard Baenen, of the Washington, D.C. law firm of Wilkinson, Cragun and Barker,
what the tribe could do to command more respect for their property. Baenen suggested the tribe take a violator to federal court on a civil law suit rather than a criminal violation and have the matter tried on tribal (Continued on next page)
Sctlish, Kootenai, Pend #d Orielles Tribes
AR-KOOSTA
Volume 2 Number 17
New Moon of the Wandering (Jan. I, 197^       PRIC5  ÌSS
Jurisdiction Rundown   High Court To
Pierre Awaits Decision
Helena (Char-Koosta): A decision in the controversial repossession case between tribal mem ber Richard Isaac Pierre and the Security State Bank of Poison is pending from the Montana Supreme Court.
The state's high bench heard arguments for both sides during a hearing December II. The bank is attempting to uphold a district court decision by Judge E. Gardner Brownlee earlier this year which gave the state courts the authority to hear civil debt cases involving tribal members on the reservation. Pierre contends that Brownlee's decision should be overturned because the concurrent jurisdictional agreement between the state and the tribe does not include civil suit jurisdiction. Pierre's appeal is based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a similar case involving Blackfeet Indian Robert Kennedy and   a food store chain.
Arguing against the tribe and
Pierre at the hearing was tribal member and former Tribal Attorney Gene Turnage  c Poison. Turnage, a member o1 the law firm of Turnage and McNeil, reiterated some of the argue-ments in Judge Brownlee's decision.
Pierre is appealing the district court ruling that authorized the bank to take possession of a I965 Ford pickup truck in lieu of a $250 furniture loan. According to Pierre, who now lives in Arlee, the note on the loan came due last January while he was out of work. He said he asked for an extension but the bank refused and later that month Lake County Sheriffs deputies impounded the truck.
(continued on next page)
Decide Indian Cases In March
Dixon (Char-Koosta): Decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court on two important cases involving state taxes and cigarettes will not be handed down before March, according to tribal attorney Richard Baenen.
Baenen, of the tribes Washington law firm of'Wilkinson Cragun and Barker, tbld the Tribal Council that both cases have been placed on the Supreme Court's 1973 calender. He told the council during a strategy session in Dixon December 20 that opening arguments in both cases indicated that chan-(continued on next page)
Justice Department Stalling Case
Dixon (Char-Koosta): Tribal Attorney Richard Baenen said Department of Justice was "stalling" in its prosecution of a tribal recreational use permit trespass case.
Baenen told the Tribal Council during a special meeting Dec.
20 that the U.S. Attorney's office in Billings was persuing the tribe.s case against Harlan F. Pollman, Poison, "reluctantly". He said U.S. Attorney Otis Packwood had to be 'pressured" by Baenen's Washington (continued on next page)