Smoke Signals July 1989 . Page 12
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Tribal members Tara Leno, Jolene Poole and Molly Reimez participate in the Phil Sheridan Days Parade in June.
RESERVATION TRIP
A trip through the reservation is being planned for our
elders on July 14, 1989. Cliff Adams will be taking us
through, and showing us the boundaries.
We would like for each of you planning to go to plan on
taking a picnic lunch. The vans will be leaving the Tribal
office at 10:30 a.m..
It is very important that you let us know in plenty of time
as to whether you are going or not, because we need to rent
the vans about 10 days before the trip. Please call Joann at
879-5211 if you are planning on going.
BIA OPPOSES NEW
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
BILL FOR INDIAN TRIBES
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is opposed to legisla
tion that would reform the process for extending federal
acknowledgement to petitioning Indian tribes.
In testimony May 5 before the Senate Select Com
mittee on Indian Affairs, Hazel Elbert, a spokeswoman
for the BIA, said the bill, S. 611, weakens the criteria for
acknowledging groups as tribes and could lead to the
establishment of tribal status for groups that are not
Indian tribes. '
The bill, introduced by Senate Select Committee
Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, would replace the
BIA's Branch of Acknowledgement and Research with
an office within the Interior Department to be headed
by a director appointed by the President for a six-year
term.
Indian groups petitioning for tribal recognition on
the basis of prior tribal acknowledgement by treaty,
executive order or statue would not have to provide as
much documentation as Indian tribes whose petitions
are not based on prior legal recognition.
Inouye's bill would also provide an appeals process.
Currently, the head of the BIA makes the final determi
nation on petitions for acknowledgement.
Courtesy of the American Indian Report
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TIMBER GROUP SAYS
20,000 JOBS COULD BE
LOST TO SPOTTED OWL
IN THE NORTHWEST
A timber industry group predicted that more than
20,000 Oregon workers could lose their jobs over the
next four years if most Northwest old-growth forests
remain off-limits to logging.
The Northwest Forest Resource Council announced
the conclusions of the study in an attempt to predict how
timber supplies, jobs, income and tax revenue would be
affected if federal judges continue existing court orders
that bar logging in Washington and Oregon forestes
where the northern spotted owl makes its home.
It also projects the economic impact if sales already
under contract are cancelled - a possibility if the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service lists the owl as a threatened
species.
"We have been telling people throughout the Pacific
Northwest about these job losses for more than a year,"
Bob Spcnce, the council's chairman, said in a prepared
statement. "Here is an independent economic ananlysis
that confirms substantial job losses if these lawsuits
continue."
For Oregon, the study predicts a loss of 8,500 direct
forest products jobs in 1989; about 12,650 jobs by 1990;
and more than 20,000 jobs by 1991 if court orders
blocking old-growth sales remain in effect.
For Washington, it predicts the job loss would be more
modest, peaking at 4,500 in 1991.
The hardest-hit areas, according to the study, would be
timber-dependent communities in Western and South
west Oregon. In southwestern Oregon, for example, it
predicts total job losses due to wilhdrawl of old-growth
timber could climb to 5.4 percent of the work force by
1991.
Last week environmentalists released their own study
saying the economic impact of withdrawing spotted owl
habitat from logging would not be as severe as the
industry has claimed.
The environmentalists' study, released by the Oregon
Natual Resources Council, said more than 60 percent of
the commercially productive U.S. Forest Service forests
in Western Oregon would remain for logging - even if as
much owl habitat as environmentalists want is set aside.
State Economist Ann Hanus said the timber industry
group's job loss predictions were in line with her May 15
estimate that U.S. Forest Service sales presently blocked
by a court order cost 10,000 to 15,000 jobs over the next
four years.
"What we don't know yet is whether the judge will
extend that restraining order to cover all sales in spotted
owl forests this year," Hanus said.
'The difficulty is that there's so much uncertainty
surrounding this and so many scenarios that could take
place, it's difficult to say this is the definitive scenario
and this is what will happen," she said. "The problem is,
it's making for a very precarious situation for the
industry."
The latest projections differ sharply from those the
council released in April just after U.S. District Judge
William L Dwyer blocked most national forest timber
sales as a result of a suit challenging the agency's plan
for protecting the spotted owl.
The council predicted then that 5200 direct and
indirect jobs in the Northwest would be affected by
summer if th injundons were not lifted.
Courtesy of the Oregonian
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