1972-11-03 Char-Koosta News

              M.P. Split OKed With Hitch
Dixon (Char-Koosta): — It will be a rich harvest Thanksgiving for some 5,681 tribal members this year, the white man is pay ing for the turkey.
Tribal Council Chairman Harold Mitchell, Jr., received written notification October 18 that the Council's Montana  j Power rate increase distribution plan had been approved by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs According to Tribal Secretary Fred Houle, Jr., the Checks, which will amount to $2,000 per member, will be mailed out the day after Thanksgiving, November 24.
In approving the 100% per capita dividends. Commissioner Louis R. Bruce noted that Tribal Members had put the earlier $3,955.15 Land Settlement checks to good use and it appeared to be in the best interest of Indian self-determination that the Monana Power monies be distributed.
In his letter, the Commissioner also noted that there was a fly in the ointment. Bruce pointed out that the Montana Power monies, regarded technically as regular income may be taxable under'Internal Revenue Service regulations. The land settlement monies, on the other hand, were specifically exempt from income tax status.
According to Tribal Secre t tary Fred Houle, Jr., it is the position of the Tribe that the money is not taxable. The fact is that the Tribe itself is not taxable on the income since the United States takes the income in its own name. When a per capita payment is made of some part of Tribal income, it is a distribution of capital in the hands of the United States for the Tribes; and capital distributions are never taxed. Clearly the tribal member did not earn the income.
The effect of tax which might be imposed on the rent increase dividends will be partially offset by a new State-Federal ruling on eligibility for public assistance. Under the new guildelines, welfare, commodities, education grants and other areas of public assistance will not be affected by annual tribal income dividends not exceeding $2,500 per person, (cont. on next page)
World Wowed By Arlee Couple
Arlee (Char-Koosta): For a brief moment last month the southern reservation hamlet of Arlee shared world headlines with Paris, London, New York
and Saigon.....Louis Ninepipe,
a full-blooded Salish whose roots extend all the way to the Bitterroot valley, got married.
Of course marriage is not normally a front-page item but the attention of the world was briefly focused on Arlee because Ninepipe, who is 80, married a 23 year old English woman, Vivian Rica Redwing.
A photograph of the beaming couple ran nation-wide Oct. 18 on the Associated Press wires
and appeared in newspapers from coast-to-coast. Another picture, taken by a Missoula photographer, appeared later that week in the London Daily Mirror and last week an assigned photographer from New York appeared at Nine pipe's log cabin doorstep for (cont. on page 10)
Salish, Kootenai, Pend #d Orielles Tribes
Volume 2, Number 13
MOON OF AUTUMN 3
KOOSTA
.....^¦.¦;^"M^í^eíS^?^SS^NÏ+:•^xi•^:•:•íx^•:•:)^*: . ' i
PRICE 10c
Valley Opened, Sawmill Closed
Pack River  Valley Loggmg Sawmill       Unit Opened
Nixed
Dixon: (Char-Koosta)—
A three months study on the feasiblity of the tribe going into the sawmill business has nixed the proposed purchase of the Pack River facility in Pol-son.
The study, conducted by Mason and Associates of Seattle and reviewed by Bureau of Indian Affairs Forester, Paul Kipp, Forestry Management consultant, Leo Cummins, and Tribal Economic Advisor, Ron Trosper concluded that Pack River's asking price of $5 million was entirely unreasonable and a salvage price of $650,000 with an added $650, 000 for modernization and improvement of the mill would only result in a "marginal investment". However, Mason and the three analysts agreed that further studies into building and operating a new tribal sawmill might substantially increase the tribe's income from the reservation's standing timber.
The study was presented at Friday's Tribal Council meeting by Kipp with the assistance of Cummins and Trosper. The five hour presentation of the
(cont. on page 6)
Dixon (Char-Koosta):---The Valley logging unit, the most ambitious one-bid cut in the (history of the reservation has been opened to bidding.
The Tribal Council last Friday put the 81.3 million board feet up for sale with administrative bid-floors of $60 per thousand board feet for Ponderosa and $50 per thousand board feet for fir, larch, and other species. The seven to two vote to open the 16,000 acre tract to logging followed the Council's rejection of a Pack River offer to sell the old Dupuis saw mill in Poison. In
July, the Council had postponed the Valley sale pending the completion of a Bureau of Indian Affairs contracted study on the feasibility of purchasing the mill. It was felt by the Council then that the timber from the unit could be processed by the Tribe if the mill were purchased.
Friday's vote on the Valley unit—which drapes over the saddle between the Revaise Creek and Valley creek drainages—was sponsored by Councilman E.W. Morigeu, Poison, and carried bv votes from Coun-(cont. on page 3)
Tribal Income Scratched From Public Assistance
Ronan (Char-Koosta): A new
policy on tribal income will be a public assistance benefit boon to many tribal members.
The new ruling, recently nanded down by the Economic Assistance Division ot tne State Departemnt of Social and Rehabilitation Services, increases the income-asset ceiling for Indian public assistance recipients to $2,500 per year. According to Flathead Reservation Superintendent Harold Roberson, this means that many members
and member families that were struck from the commodity and welfare rolls after the land settlement checks were distributed, will again be eligible for services. Roberson urged that persons in need of assistance take advantage of the new eligibility ruling and re-apply for help at the Ronan Agency, the County Welfare in Poison, or the Commodities Distribution Office in St. Ignatius.
The plan, called "a special project for disregard of Indian
(cont. on page 2)
65