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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2013)
Spílygy T ym oo, W arm Springs, O regon A p ril 17, 2013 Page 9 Horse policy; Tribes respond, detailing consequences (Continued from page 1) Smith is knowledgeable when it comes to horses: He has worked and been around them all his life, he owns sev eral, and leads the top Wild Horse Race team in the na tion. As president o f the National Tribal H orse Coa lition, Smith was prompted to write the Secretary o f Ag riculture due to the follow ing situation: Congress in 2007 effec tively b a n n e d d o m estic equine slaughter by cutting funding for federal inspec tion o f such operations. O ver the ensuing years, the num ber o f unclaim ed horses increased significantly across reservations and other rangeland areas. T he ban also resulted in increased horse abuse and abandon m ent on tribal, state and fed eral lands. The animals cause serious damage to streams, destroy ing fish habitat. They graze across rangeland, depleting the resource used by live stock and wildlife. Indian res ervation land is especially af fected, as people use these lands for horse abandon ment. The Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs supported the Obama administration in 2011, when he signed legis lation that would again allow USDA horse m eat inspec tions. The legislation would al low sale o f horse m eat to countries in Europe and Asia w here it is, consum ed the same as livestock meat. In France they raise horses as livestock for the purpose of human consumption. Recent change Earlier this year, follow ing the 2011 legislation, the USDA was close to approv ing a horse meat processing facility in New Mexico. Then, unexpectedly, word came that a D epartm ent of A griculture spokesperson was urging Congress to con tinue the ban on horse-meat inspections. T his p ro m p te d Ja s o n Smith to write to the Secre tary o f Agriculture. O ther tribal leaders from the N a tional Tribal H orse Coalition also wrote to the Secretary. T ribal C ouncil C hairm an S tanley B uck S m ith a d dressed the topic in a letter to President Obama. Yvonne iverson/bpilyay Horse can range at will across the reservation. In his letter Tribal Coun cil Chairman Smith writes: “To reinstate the ban on USDA inspectors for horse meat for human consumption will not only continue a pe riod o f nearly seven years o f unnecessary suffering and abuse o f horses,- but will also have severe econom ic and detrim ental environm ental effects on Tribal communi ties across this land,” Such an action warrants trib al co n su ltatio n befo re im plem entation, C hairm an Smith said. Letter to USDA Jason Smith’s letter to Secre tary Vilsack., providing the best summary of the issue, is worth reprinting here in its entirety: Dear Mr. Secretary, The National Tribal Horse Coalition (NTHC) is aware that a spokesman from your agency is now “urging Con gress to reinstate the ban on production o f horse meat for hum an consum ption.” The N TH C strongly opposes re instatement o f a policy that will have such severe detri mental consequences to our Tribal economies and fragile ecosystems. Tribes participat ing in. our organization Occupy trust lands o f nearly 20 mil lion acres. Those who are advocating renew ing the 2007 A ppro priations Budget ban on horse meat inspections ignore the real world consequences o f that ban. These are the find ings o f a G overnm ent A c countability O ffice (GAO) inquiry into H orse Welfare in relation to the termination o f USDA horse meat inspectors, June 2011. T h e G A O re p o r t Con cluded: Clearly the cessation o f dom estic slaughter has h ad u n in te n d e d c o n s e quences, m ost im portantly, perhaps, the decline in horse welfare in the United States. I f that policy is reinstated, Guilty plea in federal domestic assault case Casey M arcus Lillie,. 26, bruising to the victim’s face. o f W arm Springs, pleaded The defendant battered the guilty last w eek in federaL victim so severely that one o f Court to one count o f domes h er eyes was tem p o rarily tic assault by an habitual of swollen shut. The victim’s in- fender. The maximum sen juries re q u ire d h er to be tence for domestic assault by tran sp o rted to St: Charles an habitual offender is ten Hospital Madras for medical years in p riso n , a fine o f attention. O n two separate prior oc $250,000, and three years of casions, in N ovem ber 2011 supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for and March 2012, the defen June 20. Lillie is currently in dant was previously convicted the custody o f the U nited in the Warm Springs Tribal Court for assault and battery, States Marshals Service. A cc o rd in g to the as well as abduction, against p ro secu to r’s statem ents in the same victim. B oth o f those prior as c o u rt, on D e c e m b e r 12, 2012, L illie a ssau lted a saults also resulted in the vic wom an with w hom he had tim being transported to St. been cohabitating as an inti Charles Madras for treatment o f her. injuries. mate partner. The case was investigated Lillie struck the victim with his hands and kicked her in by the Warm Springs Police the face w ith his feet. The D ep artm en t and the F B I’s assau lt cau sed extensive Bend office. i_, . ' ?L ? ' , ' » Our reason fo r stepping into this rather unpopular fight is that the U.S. policy could be taking another wrong turn o f historic significance... th e co n seq u en ces are no longer “unintended.” Propo nents o f an inspection ban do this knowing that it will inflict greater suffering to horses, and economic and environ mental hardship to Tribal na tions? „ We in In d ia n C o u n try know that our ability to af fect Congressional action is o ften restricted w hen o u r voice is overridden in popu list, popular and special inter est forums o f the majority culture. The emotional fervor o f groups advocating for a ban on equine slaughter is a current case o f this phenom ena. O ur reason for stepping into this rather unpopular fight is that the U.S. policy could be taking another wrong turn o f historic significance for the trust lands in much o f Indian C ountry. Indian Country has long been sub jected t o the whims o f the C on g ress o f th e U n ited States. Federal law m akers make policy in law that has far reaching impacts on the lands held in tru st fo r the benefit o f the Indian owners (Tribes and individuals): For example, the General Allot m ent A ct (and related acts) had far reaching impaçts for both the U.S. Treasury and to the Indian Country. Many o f these Indian Country lands have recently seen the settlè- m ent of long-standing dis putes o f both policy and man ag em en t issu es w ith th e United States (i.e. Cobell and Keepseagle) w here federal E x ecu tiv e A g encies have settled Tribal and individual Indian claims stemming from both bad policy made by Con- gress and poorly executed managem ent and policy on the part o f the departments and agencies o f the United States. The March 21, 2013 article posted in “Foodsafety.com” reflect policy advocacy in a quote from you referring to a “third way” o f “dealing with the nation’s liorse problem” other than “slaughtering the animals for human consump tion.” Mr. Secretary, we want to emphasize that the arguments around horse slaughter are all about imposing cultural mo res o f special interest groups from majority American cul ture on others. We have ex perienced this often in the past. Though w’e have always highly valued the horse in our cultures, we also understand the lands we live on. We also are subject to the economics o f the society we must par ticipate in. We cannot afford to ignore the role o f the horse as livestock that needs man agement. We own hotses we value highly and honor but we know ultimately that na ture will destroy our herds if we cannot manage them. Our children’s children will be left with a greatly diminished fu ture? We in Indian Country do n o t relish th e co n cep t o f slaughtering horses; however, the scope o f the overgrazing impacts to our lands are de grees o f magnitude greater than for the owners o f pri vate lands in thè rest o f the U.S. Private landow ners can simply chase dum ped live sto ck o u t o f th e gates o f their pastures,, with little ef fort or consequence. We, ori the other hand, control large stretches o f (often arid) lands that we rély on for subsis tence use, ecoriomic use, and cultural practices where ille gally dum ped horses are, in many cases already threaten ing watershed and ecosystem Stability on our trust lands. O ther than shipping horses to Canada or M exico (which some are already forced to do at an economic loss) or try ing to sell locally (on a mar ket that is so depressed that roundup costs exceed sale proceeds and supply over whelms demand). Some have tried adoption, to little avail. Demand is always swamped by the reproductive capacity o f the herds. We do not have funding available to sterilize large numbers o f horses and if we did, they would still be overgrazing for another hu man generation until the ster ilized horses died. We do not have the 25-plus years to wait around and see if a failed “third party” alternative will solve the nation’s problem. The trust responsibility of the whole United States gov ernment must be lived up to. Badly inform ed policy (i.e. the 2007 inspections ban) has had “u n in te n d e d c o n s e quences” and must not be re peated. We look forward to dia loguing with you further on this issue. We are engaging our m em ber tribal govern m ents to request that they demand government-to-gov- ernment consultation on this issue. Sincerely, Jason Smith, President, National Tribal Horse Coalition. Around the Region Rancher slams wild horse impact study Federal biologists have concluded that the manage m ent o f wild horses in a portion o f Oregon Malheur National Forest doesn’t jeop ardize threatened steelhead. H ow ever, th e rancher who sued the government to study the horses’ environ m ent impact said the study minimizes their detrimental effects on fish. Rancher Loren Stout of Dayville believes the horses are cau sin g dam age to stream banks that is blamed on his cattle, preventing them from being turned out to graze. T h e re c e n t biological opinion, dow nplays the harm that horses have had on steelhead habitat to jus tify the government’s man ag em en t p lan , h e said. “W hat they’re saying is it’s different if it’s a horse. It’s th e w o rk co v er-u p I ’ve seen.’* Wild horses may cause injury to individual fish, but this harm does not imperil their continued existence, according to a biological opinion recently issued by the N ational M arine Fisheries Service. To mitigate the impact on steelhead habitat, the U.S. F orest Service will be ex p ecte d to rem ove ho rses from the M urderers Creek wild horse territory to main tain the population at 50-140 animals, The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is in charge o f delivering removed horses to its holding facilities as well as the adoption process. The federal governm ent estimates that horse popula tions have hovered between 90 and 460 animals in the past decade, with the current num ber standing at 57 after roughly’200 horses were re moved in late 2012 and early 2013. Stout said there’s actually many more horses left in the territory, which will be veri fied by m ore recent aerial surveys o f the area. : (Note: T his article by Mateus^ Perkowski is reprinted from the '■ Capital Press.) Borja Landscape Maintenance LLC For all your landscape maintenance needs email:Rafaelb@cbbmail.com PO Box 121 Madras, OR 97741 FREE estimates Taking Pride in a job well done! 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