1987-06-16 Char-Koosta News

              VOLUME 16, NUMBER 5
MONTH OF THE CAMAS
JUNE 16, 1987
Tribal college graduation ceremony honors 37, plus Paul, Stanger
Salish Kootenai College's 8th annual graduation ceremony honored 37 students, 20 of whom received their two-year degrees.
Family members and friends gathered at the Kicking Horse Job Corps Center June 6 to watch the honor-conferring, which included special recognition of John Peter Paul and Francis Stanger for their contributions to the preservation of Indian culture here.
Paul is the Tribes' chief war dancer who can always be counted on for leading the- grand entries at pow wows, explained SKC president Dr. Joe McDonald. Stanger, too, is an active supporter of pow wows who has also helped teach Native American Studies classes for SKC. Both men received honorary degrees.
Stanger also did a good job of substituting for Tribal Chairman Mickey Pablo as the ceremony's welcoming speaker. He did so with about 10 minutes' notice, McDonald said, when ceremony organizers discovered they had forgotten to invite Pablo.
Ken Dupuis of Poison was also singled out for attention during the early-evening event. McDonald presented the BIA Forestry manager with a beaded white-buckskin vest to thank him for his long service as a college board member.
Others featured during the hour-long ceremony, which followed a dinner for graduates and guests, were: spiritual leader Pat Pierre; the Pistol Creek Singers; student body president JoAnn Kuntz; commencement speaker Alice Oechsli Chumrau (who was the first dean of students.and who helped immeasurably getting the (Continues on page two)
Indian irrigators visit with Council, BIA
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Not quite two dozen Indian irrigators met with the Tribal Council and two staff attorneys June 9 to discuss where they fit in the current irrigation project controversy.
During the 2!/2-hour-long meeting, they learned a little history about the irrigation project, which is the subject of four current court cases, including one filed June 8.
They also heard about current efforts at negotiating Indian water rights with the state, and why the federal government can't be counted on to help the Indian cause.
BIA superintendent Wyman Babby was present for part of the morning meeting to answer questions.
He said that the irrigation project is a division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the same as Forestry or Land Services. This being so, he said the Tribal Council will be kept better informed in the future about current operations.
In answer to a question about why some FIIP employees had to move their work stations from St. Ignatius to Pablo, he explained that the project's accounting system "was left over from Daniel Boone's days". The system and its workers need to be brought up-to-date technologically, he said.
He said the Bureau maintains the position that FIIP is an Indian irrigation (Concludes on page five)