1972-10-22 Char-Koosta News

              Kootenai Men Appeal Game Conviction
Thompson Falls: Two Kootenai men, accused of shooting a deer out of season near Thompson Falls, have appealed a Justice Court conviction , on the Tribes 117 year old treaty.
Lasso Stasso and George Lefthand, both of Elmo, have appealed the October I decision to the Fourth District Sanders County Court. The two men were found guilty by Justice of the Peace Gilbert Wagner, of taking a deer out-of-season near White Pine Creek in the Kin-iksu National Forest. Stasso allegedly shot the deer while hunting with Lefthand on Aug. 24.
The attorney for the two tribal members, Victor Valgen-ti of Missoula, told Char-Koosta the case has been appealed on the basis of the treaty right to native hunting ranges. This right was assured by the Hell-gate Treaty of 1855.
The treaty stipulation has been tested twice before in the state's courts—in 1965 George Wheeler was acquitted of violating state game laws after being accused of shooting elk out-of-season in Missoula County and earlier, Sakalai Lefthand was freed on a similar charge in Lincoln County.
Valgenti said the defense in this case has stipulated that Stasso shot the deer and is appealing directly on his lawfull riqht to do so.
Commissioners Sign MP Distribution
An identical case is now brewing in a Wyoming justice court. Crow tribal member Paul Badhorse says he cannot be cahrged with possessing a deer out of season because his tribe's 1851 treaty assures them a native hunting range from the middle of Montana to the middle of what is now Wyoming.
check.
The signature, according to Tribal Secretary Fred Houle, Jr., will be worth $2,000 to every tribal member. The checks. Houle said, will be mailed out later next   month.
The resolution, which was opposed by Bureau of Indian
Salish, Kootenai, Fend d Orielles Tribes
Washington, D.C: Indian Com missioner Louis R. Bruce has signed a Tribal Council Resolution governing the distribution of eleven and a auarter million dollar Montana Power Kerr Dam rate adjustment
Affairs reservation and area officials, calls for a nearly 100% distribution of the $11,249,913 Kerr dam rent adjustment won from Montana Power this summer. The amount of the monies has now grown to over $11,300,
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Volume 2. NUMBER   12   Moon of Half Autumn-Half Summer    22
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Old Firecracker Fuse Goes Off As Smoke Tax Case Is Heard
Poison: If anybody had ever said "where there is smokes there is fireworks", he probably would have been a Lake County official.
There was plenty of both in Poison last week as the county brought Mrs. Dorothy Clink-inbeard before Justice Court on a six-month-old alleged cigarette tax violation and discovered they were being sued for a quarter of a million on an earlier fireworks arrest.
Mrs. Clinkenbeard was brought before Lake County Justice of the Peace, Gene Hammon, October 6, on char-aes of selling cigarettes without Montana tax stamps. Justice (Hammon. who had earlier found P Arlene Wheeler I innocent of alleged state tireworks violations, decided in this case she had violated the state's cigarette tax laws and fined her $100 and suspended a 30 Hav jail sentence.
HammanVdeclsion was made in spite of an earlier Missoula County Justice Court case which found Mrs. Clink-enbeard's brother, Joe Wheeler, innocent of an identical charge. Missoula Justice J.G. "Bud" Lamoreaux acquited Wheeler
of breaching state cigarette tax laws on the grounds that the state lacked civil jurisdiction. The case was later turned down by another Missoula County JP John Moon, on the grounds that his court also lacked jurisdiction.
Lake County's decision to proceed with the cigarette case against Mrs. Clinkenbeard was also contrary to an agreement made last month during a Federal District Court hearing in Missoula, A three-judge panel asked that all parties in the cigarette-jurisdictional dispute delay any further proceedings until after the U.S. Supreme
Court has ruled on a similar case.
The nation's highest court will be hearing Tonasket v. the State of Washington sometime within the next few months. It was pointed out by the Federal Judges that any lower court decision would be affected by a Tonasket ruling.
Clinkenbeard is appealing the conviction.
Miss Wheeler is also suing seven Lake Uounty law enforcement officials for a total of $256,000. Her Missoula attorney, Marvin Ping, filed the
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Christmas Tree Cutters
Honor Closed Areas
when the 1972 Christmas Tree Cutting Program was released by BIA two weeks ago, it spe-
Ronan: Christmas trees have been fair game to tribal' members for over a week now and so far there has been no trouble over a difference of opinion between Tribal Council cutting regulations and the Bureau of Indian Affairs rules.
During the September 22 meeting of the Tribal Council, a two-year-old ban on cutting was lifted and yule-tree choppers were given a free hand. But *
cifically excluded: "harvesting in certain areas where timber stand improvement has been accomplished or is forthcoming.'
Superintendent Harold Rob-erson said he over-ruled the Tribal Council's action because "the money the tribes and the Bureau have spent on these areas warrent the protection of
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