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FEBRUARY 1 5, 201 1
Online degree programs
Turn your college credits or associate degree into a more powerful four
year degree from Portland State University. Undergraduate degrees
offered: BABS in Social Science, BABS in Arts & Letters and BABS in
Liberal Studies. For more information, call 503-725-4822 or 1-800-547-8887,
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Garage sale seeking donations
Tribal Elders are seeking donations of items for their fundraising
garage sales.
To donate an item or items, call Tribal Elder Linda Brandon at
971-267-0918. B
Cowlitz Tribe not federally acknowledged until 2000
COWLITZ continued
from front page
tary Larry Echo Hawk and Bureau
of Indian Affairs Northwest Region
Director Stanley Speaks.
The approximately 152-acre par
cel that Interior approved to take
into trust for the Cowlitz Tribe is
at the Northwest 319th Street in
terchange west of Interstate 5 near
La Center, about 15 miles north
of Vancouver. The Cowlitz have
announced plans to build a large
casino at the site.
However, Grand Ronde's lawsuit
says that the land is approximately
25 miles from the Cowlitz adminis
trative offices in Longview, Wash.,
and 50 miles away from Cowlitz
Tribal housing and the Cowlitz El
ders Program and Senior Nutrition
Center in Toledo, Wash.
"Grand Ronde has cultural and
historical connections to the north
shore of the Columbia River, in
cluding Clark County," the lawsuit
says. "Indeed, that historical con
nection has been expressly recog
nized by treaty since 1855. Grand
Ronde also considers Clark County,
Wash., part of its Non-Treaty
Homelands and Cultural Interest
Lands, and Grand Ronde Tribal
members are buried on the north
side of the Columbia River.
"Establishment of a reservation
for the Cowlitz outside their ab
original lands and on lands to
which Grand Ronde, by contrast,
has a significant connection - would
cause further injury to Grand
Ronde."
The Indian Claims Commission,
the Tribe's lawsuit states, deter
mined the southernmost area of the
Cowlitz's aboriginal land is at least
14 miles north of the parcel.
"In the relevant historical time
periods, such distances would have
been difficult to travel and would
have been traveled only rarely,"
the lawsuit says, which does not
support Salazar's finding that the
Cowlitz had a significant historical
connection to the land.
The lawsuit filed by Clark County
and the other parties also points out
that the Department of Interior's
decision appears to run contrary to
a 2009 Supreme Court decision that
ruled Interior could only take land
into trust for Tribes that were rec
ognized as of 1934, when the Indian
Reorganization Act was enacted.
"In approving the Cowlitz Tribe's
proposed fee-to-trust, the Secretary
... exceeded his authority under
the Indian Reorganization Act, the
scope of which the Supreme Court
recently clarified in Carcieri v. Sala
zar," Clark County's lawsuit says.
Clark County says that the Su
preme Court ruled that the Indian
Reorganization Act defines the term
"Indian" to "include all persons of
Indian descent who are members
of any recognized Indian Tribe now
under federal jurisdiction" with
"now" meaning when the act was
first enacted in 1934.
The Cowlitz Tribe was not feder
ally acknowledged until 2000.
"The available evidence ... dem
onstrates that the Cowlitz Tribe
was not under federal jurisdiction
in 1934," the lawsuit states.
Clark County's lawsuit also points
out that the Cowlitz Tribe's fee
lands and Tribal offices are 24 miles
north of the proposed casino site
within the Tribe's historic territory,
but that real estate developer David
Barnett, the Tribe's chairman's son
at the time, purchased the option
on the La Center parcel, which is a
"short 16-mile drive from Portland,
Oregon, providing easy access to
the Portland gaming market."
Clark County's lawsuit also as
serts violations of the Indian Gam
ing Regulatory Act and National
Environmental Policy Act by the
Department of Interior in reaching
its decision to OK the Cowlitz land
request.
The Grand Ronde Tribe has re
tained the law firm of Robbins, Rus
sell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner
& Sauber to represent it while
Clark County and the city of Van
couver are using staff attorneys
and Citizens Against Reservation
Shopping, the neighboring land
owners and card room owners have
retained Perkins Coie law firm.
U.S. District Court in Washing
ton, D.C., is not expected to hear
either lawsuit until this summer
at the earliest. B
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