1987-08-18 Char-Koosta News

              VOLUME 16, NUMBER 14
MONTH OF THE HUCKLEBERRIES
AUGUST 18,1987
Tribal officers unplant $20,000 marijuana 'plantation'
plant. The Minesigner Trail stash probably wasn't a commercial operation, though, Gillen said.
The Flathead Reservation is rich in resources — its people, its mountains and wildlife, its history and culture.
It's minus one "resource", though, as of Aug. 7, but it wasn't a resource to be proud of anyway.
"It" was about 25 small-sized marijuana plants languishing near a dried-up stream up Minesinger Trail way near Poison. Two of the pot plants were even still in their plastic plant-pots, setting hold as brass alongside an ove.rtn-own
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A dozen or so Tribal enforcement officers descended on what they called "the plantation" that Friday after lunch to pull up close to two dozen of the non-native weed plants hidden among some native weeds and wild raspberries and strawberries.
The Tribally owned area, which is a few miles east of Highway 93 between Pablo and Poison, had been under surveillance for a week before, in the hopes — unrealized, as it happened — that the "gardeners" would stop by to check out any progress.
The patch had been discovered and reported to Tribal authorities by an unnamed informant, according to Officer Lytle "Bud" Gillen. It was worth about $20,000, it's estimated, although good-quality, intended-for-production cannabis plants have been assessed at between $2,000 (by the BIA) and $4,000 (Drug Enforcement Agency) per
The August 7 eradication is part of stepped-up efforts by Tribal enforcement officers to address the drug problem on the Reservation from the supply end. With four new officers on board now, Tribal Law and Order will be able to give more attention to investigative work, Sergeant Jacque Morigeau said.
The Minesinger patch is the second one to be destroyed this year, he added. The first was a larger operation in Arlee.
If anyone reading this happens upon any dark-green, spike-leaved plants in the woods or elsewhere, he or she is urged to report the find to the Tribal dispatcher at 675-4700.
Tribal members caught growing the stuff can be cited into either Tribal or federal court, notes Law and Order
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ATTENTION, CUTTERS:
A meeting for post-and-pole cutters has been scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 1, at the Flathead Post and Pole Yard in Dixon, beginning at 9 a.m.
Pole yard manager Aaron Jones said the topics to be discussed are the general policies and regulations concerning sawlog harvesting.
For more information, call 246-3591.