Page 8
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
February 27, 2019
Tribal Youth Art Show
The talents and
perspectives of
tribal youth are
on display at the
Museum at
Warm Springs, as
the museum is
celebrating the
Twenty-Sixth
Annual Warm
Springs Tribal
Youth Art Ex-
hibit.
The show will
be on display
through early
April.
By Unique Bryant, age 17.
Monika Stacona, Madras High School.
Dave McMechan photos
Referendum:
(Continued from page 1)
There is automatic enroll-
ment, and enrollment by
adoption. Individuals who
do not meet the automatic
blood quantum requirement
may get enrolled through the
adoption process.
To be eligible for adop-
tion, individuals must have
one-eighth quantum of In-
dian blood, descend from a
current or for mer tribal
membership vote on March 15
member, meet the residency
requirement, not be enrolled
in another Tribe, and re-
ceive the majority of the
vote in an adoption refer-
endum.
The automatic enroll-
ment question is new to the
referendum process, while
members have voted a num-
ber of times on adoption
questions.
However, recent tribal
adoption referendums have
failed to meet the required
50-percent voter participation
requirement.
This includes the 2016
adoption referendum—which
saw just 987 votes of the re-
quired 1,600 votes—and the
2007 referendum, which also
fell short.
The last adoption referen-
dum to meet the 50-percent
requirement was in 1996.
Supreme Court fuel tax ruling big for Wash. tribes
With fewer than a thou-
sand residents, the town is a
tightly knit community. Of
the two gas stations in the
area, locals know that Cou-
gar Den runs a few cents
cheaper than the other.
That’s because Cougar
Den, unlike many Washing-
ton gas stations, doesn’t pay
a fuel tax on its gas. Why?
Kip Ramsay, a Yakama
Nation citizen, owns Cou-
gar Den, which is a tribal
entity.
The Yakama Nation, like
573 other federally recog-
nized tribes, is a sovereign
nation with treaties that
ceded land in exchange for
health care, education and a
trust relationship with the
federal government.
Fuel, however, is tricky.
Now, a six-year legal battle
between the Native-owned
gas station and the Washing-
ton Department of Licens-
ing has made it to the U.S.
Supreme Court.
Ramsay argues that he
has the freedom to sell his
gas tax-free, because a clause
in the Yakama Nation’s
treaty guarantees a right to
travel without burden and,
therefore, traveling with gas
or other goods for sale
should not be taxed.
But the state of Washing-
ton insists that the treaty lan-
guage doesn’t cover fuel.
This is not a minor issue:
Millions of dollars in back
taxes and future profits for
both the state, and the tribe,
are on the line.
If the Supreme Court
sides with the state, Cougar
Den will have to cough up
$3.6 million, and could set
the stage for other states to
further tax sovereign tribal
nations.
But if Cougar Den suc-
ceeds, not only will the sta-
tion avoid the steep fees, but
treaty rights would be forti-
fied for at least two other
Western tribes in three states
with right-to-travel clauses.
To Indian law professor
Dylan Hedden-Nicely at the
University of Idaho, it’s a
distinction without a differ-
ence.
“The right to travel and
the right to trade are inher-
ently interrelated,” says
Hedden-Nicely, a citizen of
the Cherokee Nation of
Oklahoma. “The court will
have to decide what this
case is really about.”