Image provided by: Oregon Historical Society; Portland, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 2009)
News from I net¡an Country Page 8 New generation of Southern Ute leaders IG N A C IO , Colo. (AP) - PoEtics, it would seem, is in the blood o f new Southern Ute Tribal Chairman M atthew I. Box. His grandfather, Eddie Box Sr., served about 15 years on the Tribal Council and his great- uncle Leonard Burch, whose name graces the administration building where Box’s spacious corner office can be found, was chairm an for m ore than 20 years. Other relatives also were on the councE. But Box said entering poE- tics never entered his mind un til fairly recently, when he was struggEng to build an excavation business to support his young famEy. The chaEenges he met trying to get contracts on his own res ervation got him to thinking about the changes he could make from within the system. In his 30s, he ran and, after an un successful bid, was elected to the Tribal CouncE. Now, at 40, he heads the gov ernment o f a tribe with bilEons in investments and more em ployees than members. What’s more, the reservation sits atop one of the most proEfic natural gas-producing basins in the country. A young chairman, he will lead with a Tribal CouncE that also has grown younger with recent elections. At his swearing- in ceremony last month, many praised the change as a stepping up to leadership of the next gen eration. As Box settles into the nitty- gritty o f governance, his mind turns to the tutelage he received at the knee of his grandfather Box, who ran the tribe’s Bear and Sun dances for nearly 40 years. “The whole concept of tribe wEl always be the same, and that is everybody needs to make it,” he said. “Everybody needs to make it across the river. Every body needs to make it over the hill.” Here are answers to some of the questions put to him about the chaEenges ahead: What does having a younger Tribal Coun cE and chairman mean for gov ernment? Box said that in the past the councE often would deEberate for long periods about each decision. The slow-moving process was to ensure everyone had an opportunity to weigh in and aU sides were considered. But that approach had its limi tations. “That doesn’t work with the pace o f WaE Street,” he said. While he sees the younger leaders moving more quickly and decisively, he said they wEl have to be carefiE not to lose the accountabEity of the older ways. “We don’t want to ever be come arrogant or inconsiderate o f where we came from,” he said. W ith p ro d u ctio n having peaked on many o f La Plata C ounty’s coal-bed m ethane weEs, how is the tribe coping with an eventual decline in gas production? “The councEs before us ad dressed it,” he said. This was done by diversify ing the tribe’s investments to in clude energy development else where, along with real estate and other endeavors. But matching the revenue generated from its gas would be difficult, so the tribe has tem pered harvesting that resource to prolong the payoff. “We’ve reaEy only attacked one area,” he said, referring to the west side o f the reservation. He said the east side is rela tively untapped. “Our councE has protected it, this councE has protected it, for future generations, should they have to develop it,” he said. Spilyay Tytnoo February 26, 2009 Crow Tribal Chairman Carl Venne passes away HARDIN, Mont. (AP) — Crow Tribal Chairman Carl Venne, praised by President Barack Obama as a leader who engaged in a “fervent quest for a better Efe for his people,” has died. He was 62. Venne was found dead Sunday in his sister's home, ac cording to the Big H orn County Sheriffs Office. He appar ently died in his sleep o f natural causes, the office said in a statement. “I was honored to have worked with Chairman Venne, a strong tribal leader, who implored us to uphold treaties and honor Native ancestors,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House. Venne greeted Obama last summer during a campaign stop in Crow Agency. The Crow adopted Obama as a mem ber of the Black Eagle famEy. Last month, Obama watched Venne lead Crow horsemen during the inaugural parade in Washington. Venne, a Vietnam veteran and form er counselor at Little Big H orn Community CoEege, became tribal chair man in 2002. The Crow Tribe has about 11,000 mem bers. Throughout his chairmanship, he supported programs against use of methamphetamine and encouraged a health ful way o f Efe on the reservation, He was instrumental in the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee's selection of Crow Agency as the place for a 2007 hearing on Indian health care. Activist Robideau dies at 61 Geronimo's kin sue over remains (AP) — Robert Robideau, American Indian activist who was acquitted o f killing two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout in South Dakota, has died. He was 61. Robideau had been Eving in Barcelona, Spain, where authorities said that his death may have been related to sei zures caused by shrapnel left in his head from an acciden tal explosion. Robideau, a Portland na tive, was the cousin o f Leonard Peltier and a mem ber of the American Indian Movement who had occu pied the reservation town of Wounded Knee, S.D., for 71 HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Geronimo’s descendants have sued SkuE and Bones— the se cret society at Yale University linked to presidents and other powerful figures— claiming its members stole the remains of the legendary Apache leader decades ago and have kept them ever since. The federal lawsuit filed in Washington on last week—the 100th anniversary of days in 1973, two years before the shootout. His son, Michael, said that Robideau attended Roosevelt High School and received a de gree in cultural anthropology from Portland State University. Robideau left for South Da kota in the early 1970s with sev eral family members, including Peltier, to join AIM and its pro tests against poverty and corrup tion on tribal reservations. In June 1975, two FBI agents foUowed a man wanted in the theft of a pair of cowboy boots onto the Pine Ridge Indian Res ervation. The'agents soon came under heavy rifle fire and were kEled. The FBI identified Peltier as a suspect in the shooting and placed him on their most wanted Est. M onths later, Robideau was driving Peltier's station wagon through Kansas with other AIM members when ammunition in the car acci- dentaUy exploded. Robideau, who was seri ously injured, was arrested and tried for the FBI agent killings, but was acquitted. Peltier was arrested by Oregon State PoEce troopers while driving through O r egon and later convicted of the FBI shootings. He is serv ing two Efe sentences. Dressers Geronimo’s death— also names the university and the federal government. Geronimo's great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo said his fam ily believes Skull and Bones members took some of the re mains in 1918 from a burial plot in Fort SE1, Okla., to keep in its New Haven clubhouse, a crypt. The aUeged graverobbing is a longstanding legend that gained some vaEdity in recent years with the discovery o f a letter from a club member that de scribed the theft. “I believe strongly from my heart that his spirit was never released,” Harlyn Geronimo said. Both Presidents Bush, Mas sachusetts Sen. John Kerry and many others in powerful gov ernment and industry positions are members o f the society, which is not affEiated with the university. 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