1986-09-26 Char-Koosta News

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SafohJnntmai Community Colli
Chief Charlo of the Salish VOLUME 15, NUMBER 10
THE MONTH OF CHOKECHERRIES
Chief Koostatah of the Kootenai SEPTEMBER 26, 1986
Tourist stop planned for Ravalli Hill
Over 100 business people attend Tribal orientation luncheon
PABLO -- As a "Let's get better acquainted" gesture, the Tribal Council invited 300 Reservation business people to lunch here on Sept 4.
Between 100-120 people took up the offer and stopped by to hear the Tribal chairman and others discuss the Salish and Kootenai Tribes' history, current operations and hopes for the future.
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Chairman Ron Therriault, whose comments were amusing and acerbic by turns, opened the four-hour meeting by giving a summary of Tribal history.
The first thing he explained was that there's realty no such thing as a "Flathead Indian", that the term is a misnomer invented by non-Indians (see the story elsewhere in this issue).
Among the federal laws that have governed the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille tribes since the white man's advent were the Dawes Act, which gave the Indians 25 years to become farmers, and the Homestead Act that quickly negated the intentions of the Dawes legislation, he said.
Twenty-five years later, the Indian Reorganizaton Act "gave back our rights - but where had those rights been hiding for 50 years? And by the mid-30's [when the IRA became law], there were no more leaders or teachers here", he went on. Many hard lessons about government have been
Year's last quarterly: Oct. 3
The last quarterly meeting of 1986 will be held on Friday, Oct. 3, beginning at 9 am. in the Council chambers in Pablo. The public is encouraged to attend and ask questions.
learned by Tribal leaders since then, he said.
"Now, we're coming of age... We're getting off our knees and taking responsibility for ourselves."
In addition to the Flathead misnomer, he said he wanted to dispell the myth that the Tribes are trying to buy back the Reservation. Pointing to a color-coded map that outlined Tribal, state and private property - with the latter type dominating - he explained that only $5 million has been spent over the past 10 years on land acquisition. Of the property purchased, 85% was allotted land owned by individual Indians, "so it was off the tax base to begin with," he pointed out.
Another little-known fact is that some 3,000 acres of Tribal property were put into fee ~ read "taxable" — (Continues on page two)
INSIDB
MS deadline......Page3
Bear season....... Page 4
Al Day news.....Page 5
Letters............Page 9
Special Centerfold:
A Code of Ethics
SKC information .. *4f^>. Page 14 IT