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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2001)
8 SEPTEMBER 1, 2001 Smoke Signals Group Reports Death Threats in EClamath Basin KLAMATH FALLS, OR. (AP) -People on both sides of the irrigation water dispute in the Klamath Basin have received death threats this sum mer, according to a working group of farmers and officials set up to medi ate the area's water troubles. The threats were another sign that the conflict that began with a federal decision to reserve water in Upper Klamath Lake for protected fish, withholding it from more than 1,000 farms, has escalated. "Many of us in leadership positions, regardless of which side we're on, have heard from people talking about taking this in unfortunate directions,'' said Klamath County Commissioner Steve West, a member of the Hatfield Upper Basin Working Group. There are a lot of frustrated people, and unfortunately some of them have chosen to vent their frustration in a less-than-positive manner.9 Klamath County Commissioner Steve West, a member of the Hatfield Upper Basin Working Group "There are a lot of frustrated people, and unfortunately some of them have chosen to vent their frustration in a less-than-positive manner." Many threats have been leveled against farmers and other landown ers interested in selling their land to the government as part of a proposal to reduce demand for irrigation wa ter, according to members of the group. Indians in Klamath Tribes, who have pushed for recovery of endan gered fish, also have faced threats and intimidation, they said. So have environmentalists, elected officials and others. Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger said no such threats have been reported to him, except for sec ondhand accounts of Native Ameri cans being refused service at local res taurants and airmen from Kingsley Field hearing derogatory remarks about working for the federal govern ment. He investigated those reports but could not substantiate them, he said. The Hatfield Group, convened about five years ago by former Sena tor Mark Hatfield, to mediate the area's water disputes, unanimously passed a resolution condemning in timidation and threats. The group's resolution came just as convoys from around the country con verge on Klamath Falls with food and money for ailing farmers in what some fear could become a flash point in the basin. Treasury Finds No Wrongdoing in Destruction of Indian Documents WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) A Treasury Department inquiry has found that six department attorneys did not knowingly conceal the de struction of 162 boxes of potential evidence in a multibillion-dollar law suit over mismanaged Indian money. "The lack of intentional wrongdo ing is borne out by the record," said the report, unsealed recently by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. Dennis Gingold, the attorney rep resenting thousands of American Indian plaintiffs in the class-action suit over the squandered money, called the report a whitewash to cover malfeasance by former high ranking Treasury officials. The American Indian trust funds were created in 1887 to manage roy alties from grazing, logging, mining and oil drilling on Indian land. But record keeping was shoddy and in some cases money was stolen, used for other federal programs or never collected, the government has ac knowledged. The Indians say the losses total at least $10 billion. In late 1999, Lamberth ordered the government to reconstruct the trust fund accounts and reform the current management system a ruling up held by the U.S. Court of Appeals. In December 1999, a court-appointed investigator criticized the Treasury Department for not imme diately notifying the court that 162 boxes of historical documents had been destroyed at its Hyattsville, Md., records office between Nov. 23, 1998 and Jan. 28, 1999, in violation of the court's order. "This is a system out of control," wrote Alan Balaran, the special mas ter assigned by the court. Balaran said the attorneys who did not no tify the court had violated profes sional their ethics. A Treasury Department review called the destruction by the six at torneys handling the accounts deeply embarrassing. The review recommended mentor ing and communication skill train ing for four of the attorneys and a one-day suspension for two of those ' attorneys. Two others no longer worked for the Treasury Department when the review was completed and could not be disciplined. The Treasury Department fought the release of the report for 11 months, arguing it contained person nel matters. In unsealing the report, Lamberth noted that Treasury had at least no tified the court of its steps to correct attorney misconduct, in contrast to the Interior and Justice departments. "Neither of those agencies has pro vided any report whatsoever ... dem onstrating that they have not held any attorney accountable in any way whatsoever for any misconduct in this litigation," he wrote. The government's handling of the trust fund case has been dealt seri ous blows in past weeks. A court-appointed investigator has issued two scathing reports: one that the Interior has done nothing to re construct how much should be in the Indian accounts; the other, that a $40 million computerized accounting system may have to be scrapped. And two weeks ago, Balaran criti cized the government for allowing destruction of archived e-mails poten tially related to the case. Bloomington High Gets Rid of American Indian Mascot BLOOMINGTON, IL. (AP) -Bloomington High School's athletic teams will keep the same name but get rid of the American Indian mascot that's personified the nickname. District 87 school board members vote 5-2 to get rid of American Indian mas cots in the district as part of a resolution that forbids mascots identifiable by na tional origin. The district has been criti cized for its representation of the mas cot, which opponents say Is stereotypi cal and degrading to American Indians. Bloomington High's teams will con tinue to be called "The Purple Raiders." Despite the vote, changes may not take effect Immediately. Board Presi dent Diana McCauley said it could take several years to replace sports uniforms, an emblem on the gym floor and other representations of the mascot. Re cently, school district workers, accord ing to WJBC radio in Bloomington, re moved an emblem from the gym wall. The vote caps months of debate over the mascot that began in April and in cluded a public forum. The District 87 vote also affects the mascot at Washington Elementary School, where an Indian chief symbol izes the Warriors. The board has not decided how a new mascot will be chosen. Edward Curtis Exhibit Raises Debate BELLINGHAM, WA. (AP) A photographic exhibit that features American Indians during the early 20th century has local Tribes ques tioning its portrayal of Indian life. The North American Indian," a col lection of photographs by Edward S. Curtis, is on exhibit at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art. Curtis, who traveled North America from 1899 to 1930, took thousands of images of American Indians. From that 30-year project grew a 20-volume photographic series that depicts Indians from 80 Tribes in cluding some that no longer exist. Curtis said he wanted to document "the old time Indian, his dress, his ceremonies, his life and manners." But because he often staged his photographs, critics have argued they are not an accurate represen tation of the Indians or their culture. Recently, representatives from four Pacific Northwest Tribes expressed mixed feelings about the photos in a panel discussion at the museum. "The importance of these pictures is that they serve as a way for us to look back and remember," said Harry Coo per, Sr., a Nooksack Elder and cel ebrated carver. I'm 73, and these pictures come from a time when there was no television and no jets. ... It was a time when people got together and became neighbors and good friends." But Mike Vendiola, coordinator of Western Washington University's Ethnic Student Center and a Swinomish, said it's important to re member that Curtis probably knew little of the people whose lives he was trying to document. "Anthropologists and ethnographers do not come from that community and in some respects that creates a distor tion of that society," said Vendiola. He said displaying the photos could create problems. "People can begin to make assump tions, begin to think they know what these communities are about, and begin to generalize about Native Americans in general," he said. That could lead to some people view ing the photographs and thinking "these are the real Indians" while see ing the modern realities of American Indians as not representative of the Indian experience, he said. Some of the photographs show In dians doing things they would not typically have done, such as holding y Edward S. Curtis an eagle slain for its feathers, said Ramon Murillo, a anno ck Tribal mem ber who teaches art at North west Indian College on the Lummi Reservation. Indians waited in blinds for eagles, grabbed them and plucked feathers for ceremonial uses, before letting them go, he said. Murillo, however, said he is glad Curtis' photos exist and are on display. "To me, its preserving culture," he said. "You are able to see the dignity, the kindness, the human beings." Whether Curtis' photos are a com pletely accurate portrayal of the past is not as important as the discussions they generate, said Darrell Hillaire, a member of the Lummi Indian Busi ness Council. The most important thing to me is we are alive," he said. "What that symbolizes is we are free to be who we are and as I stand here today, maybe we can talk about being equal.
