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.