News from Indian Country
Pags 10 Spilyjy Tymoo May 27, 2004
Authority over river questioned
TC)PPRNISM,Wah.(AP)
Tribal game officers at the
Yakama Nation Indian reserva
tion have begun enforcing fish
ing requirements for non-Indians
on the Yakima River, but
some fishermen are questioning
where the reservation boundary
lies.
Earlier this month, game of
ficers ticketed nontribal fisher
men for angling without a tribal
permit along the portion of the
river bordering the reservation.
The $30 permit, in conjunc
tion with state fishing and hunt
ing licenses, allows nontribal
members to hunt and fish on
open tribal land.
Two fishermen who were
fishing from a boat when they
each received $100 tickets ar
gued they weren't fishing from
the reservation side and that the
Yakama Nation doesn't own the
water,
Tribal officials contend it's
not a matter of who owns the
water or which bank is fished.
It's a matter of reserved rights
secured in the Treaty of 1855,
said Louis Cloud, Yakama Na
tion tribal councilman and chair
man of the tribe's Fish, Wildlife
and Law and Order Committee.
"What we're doing, we're
right," Cloud told the Yakima
Herald-Republic for a story
Monday. "What they're trying to
say is our boundary is on the
reservation side. The treaty
plainly states that the Yakima
River is our boundary that
means the far shore."
Under Article 3 of the treaty,
the Yakama Nation is guaran
teed exclusive fishing rights to
all streams running through or
bordering the reservation.
The state is not questioning
the tribe's stance on the issue,
said Yakima County Prosecutor
Ron Zirkle.
"At this point, there's not a
state law violation as far as I am
aware of," Zirkle said.
Zirkle called both the state
attorney general's office and the
state Department of Fish and
Game, but concluded the mat
ter is inconclusive until con
tested. Even then, a federal court
would have to decide the issue
because the Yakama Nation
treaty is with the federal gov
ernment. In any event, the tribe plans
to hold firm to its position, said
Tim Weaver, an attorney repre
senting the Yakama Nation.
"If push really comes to
shove, we could seek some kind
of federal trespass," Weaver
said. "What happens next is kind
of up in the air if these guys
show up, there will be a trial in
tribal court. If they don't, then
the tribe will have to see where
it wants to go from there."
Klamaths file suit
against PacificCorp
for lost treaty rights
Casino profits fund worthy programs
GRAND RONDE (AP) -When
the Confederated Tribes
of the Grand Ronde put their
charitable contributions on hold
last month amid questions over
how the grants were being dis
tributed, nonprofits around the
state had to scramble.
"You go, 'Oh no!" said
Mitchell Jacover, executive di
rector of Raphael House of
Portland, a battered-women's
shelter counting on $50,000
from the tribes. "Oregon's had
a tough economy. It's got a lim
ited area of philanthropy. When
you lose a major player, it's just
huge."
Once struggling to stay alive
after the federal government
sold off its reservation and ter
minated tribal status, the people
of the Grand Ronde Reserva
tion now have one of the top
10 charitable foundations in
economy of the northwestern
Willamette Valley, injecting 1,500
jobs, most held by non-Indians,
in a region struggling to over
come the collapse of the tim
ber industry. Cashing in on the
happy accident of being the
closest casino to Portland, Spirit
Mountain reports net revenues
of $75 million a year, which
have financed tribal housing,
health care and college scholar
ships. The tribe's 5,000 members
get annual payments of about
$3,500.
Brent Merrill, editor of the
tribal newspaper, recalls when
one tribal neighborhood was
derided as Wine Alley, and his
mother walked home from
school in a group to avoid rac
ist taunting.
"Now it's a role reversal, with
folks coming to the tribe seek
ing money to fund nonprofits,
Oregon, handing out $4.6 mil- feed homeless children and pro-
nan last year ana nearly aviae. tooa. tor tooth oanns,! he
million since 1997.
Oregon is the only state
where tribal casinos formalize
their charitable giving through
the state compact that regulates
the number of slot machines
and blackjack tables, and the
Grand Ronde started it with a
commitment to share 6 percent
of net revenues.
"It was a revolutionary step
- it really was - in Indian Coun
try," said former congressman
Les AuCoin, who sponsored leg
islation restoring tribal status in
1983 and a portion of their res
ervation - 9,811 acres of tim
berland - in 1988.
"It's an amazing thing to me
to see what was a dirt-poor tribe
now in a position to not only help
its own young people and elders,
but to make charitable contri
butions to the non-Indian com
munity of the state as well."
The people of the Grand
Ronde Reservation are from 25
tribes rounded up by soldiers
throughout Western Oregon in
1856 and marched to a reser
vation. Over the years, the tribes saw
their original 69,000 acres sold
off by the government. When
Congress terminated tribal sta
tus in 1954, they were left with
the tribal cemetery.
Since the casino opened in
1995, it has transformed the
said. "It fits into the tribes' tra
ditions. The idea of giving back
to the community has always
been important to the tribe."
AuCoin and Kris Olson, the
former U.S. attorney for Oregon
who has served on the Spirit
Mountain Community Fund
board of trustees since its cre
ation, credit former Tribal
Council Chairwoman Kathryn
Harrison with the idea, which
helped overcome objections that
tribes, as sovereign nations,
don't have to pay taxes.
Seeking state permission to
expand the casino in 1997, the
tribes offered 6 percent of prof
its to benefit the public in an 1 1
county area. The fund is con
trolled by eight trustees, four
from the tribe and four not.
Tribal Council Chairwoman
Cheryle Kennedy said the tribes'
sad history has not stopped their
desire to share.
"There's a belief that there
is a greater justice, there's divine
justice," she said. "Just because
bad things happen shouldn't -and
in our case doesn't - dis
suade us from our principles, the
values of life. Ultimately in the
end it will all be settled."
A survey by the First Nations
Development Institute arid the
National Indian Gaming Asso
ciation found the 224 casino
tribes share that view, giving $68
million to charities in 2001.
Most state compacts man
date some sort of sharing with
local communities, so most
charitable giving goes to non
Indian organizations, but an in
creasing amount is going to poor
tribes, said Sarah Dewees, direc
tor of research for the institute.
The Shakopee Mdewakanton
Sioux Community, with a casino
outside Minneapolis, Minn., re
ported $7.9 million in grants in
2003, nearly all to other tribes.
In California, tribes must
give 7 percent to 13 percent of
their net to a fund the Legisla
ture distributes to cities and
counties for mitigation.
The Mashantucket Pequot
Tribal Nation's Foxwoods casino
in Connecticut, the nation's larg
est, gave $3.4 million to chari
ties in 2002, said casino spokes
man Bruce MacDonald. Over
the past decade, the tribe gave
$10 million to the new Museum
of the American Indian, $2 mil
lion to Special Olympics and $5
million to the Mystic Aquarium.
The Spirit Mountain Com
munity Fund grew with little
notice until earlier this year,
when a Tribal Council recom
mendation to give $20,000 to a
church to buy a van was ques
tioned following disclosure that
the mother-in-law of one coun
cil member wanted to sell her
van to the church.
Kennedy characterized it as
an innocent gesture, but Rich
ard Botteri, a Portland attorney
who is the governor's represen
tative on the fund board, said it
raised the issue of whether the
council would try to exert pres
sure over the trustees, who are
supposed to act independently.
The grant was not awarded.
Botteri said the board found the
application was poorly devel
oped. Meanwhile, Kennedy said she
was reviewing the compact and
realized that it called for an an
nual distribution, not the
monthly distribution that had
evolved.
By not holding the money
through the year, the tribes were
losing out on substantial inter
est. Putting grants on hold left
groups like Raphael House in
the lurch. Botteri said the issues
appear settled now, and he ex
pects the grants to resume on a
quarterly basis when the board
meets in July.
PORTLAND (AP) - The
Klamath Tribes are suing Portland-based
PacifiCorp for $1
billion, claiming the utilities hy
droelectric operations in the
upper Klamath Basin have
caused losses of salmon.
The lawsuit seeks damages to
compensate for lost treaty rights
in the headwaters of the Kla
math River.
Documents filed this week in
U.S. District Court this week
assert: "The Tribes' traditional
reliance upon salmon for sub
sistence and trade is undisputed;
and the existence of dams
blocking salmon passage begin
ning in 1911 is undisputed."
Klamath Tribes Chairman
Allen Foreman declined to com
ment further about the com
plaint. Jon Coney, a PacifiCorp
spokesman, also declined to
comment. PacifiCorp's lawyers
are reviewing it, he said.
PacifiCorp operates a 151
mcgawatt hydroelectric project
on the river that includes five
dams and generates enough
power to serve about 77,500
homes.
PacifiCorp has applied to the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission for a renewal of its
license, which expires in 2006.
Coney said the project is im
portant because it allows flexibil
ity to meet peak summer energy
demands.
Conservationists and others
argue the utility should not re
ceive new licenses for an out
dated hydropower operation
built between 1908 and 1962.
Migrating salmon stopped
coming up the Klamath River
following completion of the
Iron Gate Dam in Siskiyou
County, Calif. The dam is not
equipped for fish passage.
A 2003 report by the Na
tional Research Council recom
mended evaluating the removal
of the dam to aid salmon recovery.
Glenn Spain, an Oregon
based representative of the Pa
cific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations, said
the report made it clear "that
Iron Gate Dam be considered
i" 1 i
tor decommissioning Decause
of the water quality problems it
creates."
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