Here’s how Keila Szpaller of the Missoulian tells the tale, via Johnny Arlee:

When the Salish people first saw horses, they weren’t sure what they were seeing, said Johnny Arlee, a spiritual and cultural leader of the Flathead Reservation: “They thought they were monsters, half human and half animal.”

The Shoshone Tribe had raided a Salish hunting party, and the survivors returned to camp and formed a group to retaliate. Instead of descending on the Shoshone right away, though, the Salish observed them.

They noticed their enemies tending horses and leading them to water. Arlee, vice chairman of the 2010 Arlee Celebration Committee, said a plan for revenge emerged: “Instead of wiping them out, let’s go steal what they like.”

The Salish did, and on their way walking back to camp, someone suggested the group could get away from the Shoshone faster if people rode the horses, as they had witnessed.

Scouts at home saw the men astride the horses and at first mistook them for monsters. Salish people at camp nearly fled until the riders signaled their identity, said Arlee, who told the story. Then, the Shoshone arrived in pursuit of their animals.

“The Shoshone came and begged for their horses back,” Arlee said.

The Salish said no and explained they had taken the horses to retaliate for the deaths of their own people. Eventually, though, the parties came to an agreement, and the tribes became allies. The bond had formed over the horses.

Want to read more? Click here, where you can see a video, too. And enjoy!

Gwen Florio

Tags: Arlee Celebration, Arlee Powwow, buffalo post, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Flathead Indian Reservation, Gwen Florio, Johnny Arlee, Native American news, Powwow, Salish, Shoshone

It’s almost impossible to imagine Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana without its president, Joe McDonald.

He was there from the start, 30 years ago, when the college was just a handful of students working for a few credits in borrowed classrooms across the reservation. Now, as the Missoulian’s Vince Devlin writes here, it has 53 buildings, more than 1,100 students, a faculty of 58, 181 employees, a $26 million annual budget and an $8 million endowment started with a $5 bill from McDonald.

Last night, though, McDonald began the next phase of his life, launched with a long and festive retirement party. (In photo above, by the Missoulian’s Michael Gallacher, McDonald and his wife Sherri are escorted into McDonald’s retirement ceremony Thursday afternoon in Pablo by members of The Great Scotts Pipes and Drums band.)

Among those lauding his accomplishments was Rick Williams, executive director of the American Indian College Fund, who called SKC “the finest tribal college in the nation.”

Click on the link to read more, and also to watch a video from the party.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Indian College Fund, buffalo post, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Flathead Indian Reservation, Gwen Florio, Joe McDonald, Native American news, Rick Williams, Salish Kootenai College

We posted about this event earlier this week, here, but this Missoulian (Mont.) account by Vince Devlin has more details:

PABLO – Two-time vice presidential candidate and Native American activist Winona LaDuke will be here Saturday afternoon to moderate a panel discussion of energy issues facing Montana and its Indian reservations.

The event, on the Salish Kootenai College campus, will also feature a performance by the Grammy-winning Indigo Girls.

LaDuke and the Indigo Girls are swinging through the Blackfeet and Flathead reservations Friday and Saturday to “raise awareness for a clean energy future,” according to a news release.

The panel discussion is titled “Environmental Justice in Montana: Protecting the Land for Future Generations.”

Joining LaDuke will be Eriel Deranger, Gail Small, Francis Auld and Rich Janssen.

Deranger, from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations of Canada, will talk about the impact from tar sands oil development.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alberta oil sands, Amy Ray, Athabasca Chipewyan, Blackhead Indian Reservation, buffalo post, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Emily Saliers, Eriel Deranger, Flathead Indian Reservation, Francis Auld, Gail Small, Gwen Florio, Indigo Girls, Jack Gladstone, Native American news, Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Ralph Nader, Rich Janssen, Salish Kootenai College, Winona LaDuke

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have announced that medical marijuana providers who sell their product to Indians on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana can be charged with felony drug distribution.

The Tribal Council’s decision was made after consulting with elders from the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreille peoples, the Missoulian’s Vince Devlin reports here.

“The result was a consensus from the elders that marijuana has no cultural significance,” says tribal spokesman Rob McDonald, “and that we, as a people, have other indigenous means to deal with pain.”

The decision only applies to Indian people, no matter the tribe, within the boundaries of the reservation.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Flathead Indian Reservation, Gwen Florio, medical marijuana, Native American news, tribal sovereignty

As reporter Vince Devlin points out in this Missoulian (Mont.) story, when the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes received $18 million a few years back in a settlement in an environmental case, they could have divvied up the money among all sorts of projects that badly needed doing.

Instead, they thought big. Really big. The tribes set about restoring 25 miles of the Jocko River that flows through their Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana reservation, as well as the entire Jocko watershed.

Time – and the influence of man – had taken a terrible toll on the Jocko. Because its meandering course threatened a trout hatchery run by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the river was straightened, looking more like a big ditch. And three dams were built on Montana’s Clark Fork River, meaning bull trout couldn’t migrate 174 miles from Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille and eventually wind up in the Jocko.

As Devlin writes, the tribes’ Jocko River Master Plan aims to change that:

Restoration workers for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Jero Sharp, left, and John Hammer, have been tearing down structures and salvaging the useable wood on the Schall Ranch north of Arlee since the tribes bought the property as part of the Jocko watershed restoration project. The ranch fronts the Jocko River and is being brought back to its natural habitat. (KURT WILSON/Missoulian)

“It’s sort of a ‘Field of Dreams’ vision,” says Germaine White, information and education specialist with CSKT’s Natural Resources Department: ” ‘If you build it, they will come.’ Instead of growing and throwing, we’re trying to restore the habitat for bull trout.”

It’s a massive project covering the entire Jocko watershed, years in the works, with years left to go.

In some places, it’s as simple as removing the cattle that defecated in the river’s tributaries and grazed their banks down to dirt.

In others, entire homes, barns and other outbuildings are disappearing from the Jocko floodplain, torn down one by one as the tribes begin restoring land near the river to its natural habitat.

“We’re fortunate to be in the backbone of the world, where water begins,” White says. “There are so many others down the system, especially by the time you get to the Columbia River, where you encounter dam after dam, and they have no choice but to grow and throw.”

Tags: buffalo post, bull trout, Clark Fork River, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, dams, environment, Flathead Indian Reservation, Gwen Florio, Jocko River, Jocko River Master Plan, Lake Pend Oreille, Monana Fish Wildlife and Parks, Native American news

A lot was going on yesterday at the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council meeting.

The group heard from Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, who made a rare visit to Montana.

And, it asked Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock to look into the circumstances surrounding the death of 18-year-old basketball star A.J. Longsoldier, who died shortly after he was taken from a northern Montana jail to a nearby hospital.

Susan Olp of the Billings Gazette has the story here:

Keel, who is Chickasaw, spoke about the Indian Health Care Improvement Act; the problem of inadequate and deteriorating reservation housing, and the overwhelming issue of under-funding for Indian Country issues in general.

Tribal Leaders Council James Steele Jr. of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, talked about the difficulty of maintaining reservation roads with federal funding.

But perhaps the most emotional issue was the approval of the resolution calling for action surrounding the death of Longsoldier, from the Fort Belknap Reservation and a former basketball standout at Hays-Lodgepole High School. He was jailed on an alleged probation violation. During his two days in jail, he complained of feeling ill, and was twice taken to the hospital and died the second time:

While in jail, he appeared to be hallucinating, was talking to himself and pulled out some of his hair. An autopsy determined that LongSoldier died from acute alcohol withdrawal. A coroner’s inquest in March found that the detention officers were not criminally liable in the death.

Tracy King, president of the Fort Belknap Tribal Council, who attended the inquest, raised the issue at the meeting. King said more should have been done for LongSoldier to help save his life.

He called the handling of the youth in jail “a civil rights violation.”

“I see too many of our youth being railroaded by systems that don’t work in their favor,” King said.

Dr. Kathleen Masis, who works for the Tribal Leaders Council, calls his death a warning.

“It means we need to make sure what is represented as happening never happens again, to an Indian or non-Indian.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: A.J. LongSoldier, buffalo post, Chickasaw, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Gwen Florio, Hays-Lodgepole High School, Indian Health Care Improvement Act, James Steele Jr., Jefferson Keel, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock, Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council, National Congress of American Indians, Native American news, NCAI

Yesterday, we posted this statement from Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, director of the Indian Health Service, about some of the ways health care reform will play out in Indian Country.

The Billings (Mont.) Gazette brings those changes home with this story by Diane Cochran. Specifically, the health care reform bill affirms the Indian Health Care Improvement Act that re-establishes the federal government’s responsibility to provide health care to Alaska Natives and American Indians.

“It’s huge,” says Anna Whiting Sorrell, director of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. “It affirms the federal government’s commitment to Indian health care.”

“This is long overdue,” says Jennifer Cooper, legislative director for the National Indian Health Board in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Seneca Nation. “It’s definitely one of the huge steps toward improving the health care of Indians. We hope we see a continued forward motion with the appropriations process and the Indian Health Service budget.”

Traditionally, the Indian Health Service — which serves more than 2 million Native people — has been funded at only 50 percent of what it needs. In a chicken-and-egg scenario, the impact of that under-funding is magnified by the fact that Native people have statistically higher rates of disease than American people of other races.

“It doesn’t get funded like all the other entitlements,” says Kristianne Wilson, vice president of strategic development at Billings Clinic. “Unlike Medicare and Medicaid, it doesn’t have a budget that grows. It leads to rationing of care and health disparities.”

Congress has increased the IHS budget for this year by 13 percent. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Anna Whiting Sorrell, Billings Clinic, buffalo post, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, Gwen Florio, Health care reform, Indian Health Care Improvement Act, Indian Health Service, Jennifer Cooper, Kristianne Wilson, Montana Department of Health and Human Services, National Indian Health Board, Native American news, Seneca Nation

Red Sox fan, Motown aficionada, poker player and, yes, trailblazing leader, too – friends, family and famous people remember Wilma Mankiller
More than 1,200 people turned out yesterday to memorialize Wilma Mankiller, the former Cherokee leader who became the first woman to lead her nation. “She always saw you a little better than you were, so you became better,” women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem, one of Mankiller’s closest friends, said during the service. As the Associated Press recounts here, under Mankiller’s leadership, the Cherokee Nation tripled its enrollment, doubled employment and built new health centers and children’s programs. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton in 1998.

Alaska village health clinic closes because workers fear for safety
The violence in the Yukon River village of Nunam Iqua can get so out of hand — and policing is so minimal — that staffers at the local health clinic have shut it down. The nearest hospital is an hour’s plane ride away and law enforcement is spotty. The Anchorage Daily News reports here that fewer than half the villages in the region have safety officers, meaning the clinic must sometimes treat victims of violence while their attackers are still nearby.

Dry weather traps cattle on Navajo Nation; several die trapped in stock tanks
Stock tanks on the Navajo Nation are drying up after a long, wet winter, trapping cattle who become mired in deep mud, then ironically die of thirst, according to this Navajo Times story. The fast-drying conditions disguise the mud beneath the surface soils, says Chapter President Ron Gishey Sr., who’s been using his truck and chains to free several trapped cattle.

Former Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes leader to run for Legislature
James Steele Jr., former tribal council chairman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, formally announced his candidacy for the Montana Legislature. Steele is running for the state House of Representatives. The Char-Koosta News reports here that Steele will host a reception at Salish Kootenai College between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

University of Montana’s Kyi Yo powwow is next weekend!
The skills of some of the best Native American dancers and drum groups in North America will be on display at the annual Kyi-Yo Celebration on Friday and Saturday, April 16-17, at the University of Montana’s Adams Center. The theme of this year’s celebration of heritage and artistry is “Existing in the 21st Century.” The first Grand Entry event will be held at 7 p.m. Friday. Saturday Grand Entry times are noon and 6 p.m. Head dancers this year are UM students Tashina Hunter and Darin Cadman Sr. More information is on the Kyi-Yo Web site. See the Missoulian story, here, for activities at the University of Montana all week that coincide with Kyi-Yo.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Alaska Natives, buffalo post, Cherokee Nation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Gloria Steinem, Gwen Florio, James Steele Jr., Kyi-Yo Celebration, Montana Legislature, Native American news, Navajo Nation, Nunam Iqua, Salish Kootenai College, University of Montana, Wilma Mankiller

More than a century of confusion and disagreement over that most tension-producing of subjects in the West — water — came to an end yesterday when the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project was signed in Washington, D.C.

The agreement, between tribal and nontribal entities, is the first of its kind, and goes into effect tomorrow, Missoulian (Mont.) reporter Vince Devlin recounts here.

“This is truly a historic agreement we are signing today with our non-Indian neighbors,” says E.T. “Bud” Moran, chairman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.”I am glad we decided a few years ago to resolve our differences through negotiation.”

Devlin writes:

The agreement creates the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project Cooperative Management Entity, or CME, which will have an equal number of representatives from the Flathead Joint Board of Control and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes….

The project, including rights-of-way and real property, will remain a federal project. It includes 17 major storage reservoirs, 1,300 miles of canals and laterals and more than 10,000 structures….

The Flathead Indian Irrigation project dates back more than a century, to 1908. Four years after it enacted the Flathead Allotment Act, Congress authorized construction of the irrigation project and directed the transfer of its management and operation to the owners of the lands being irrigated, when certain conditions and repayment of the debt of construction were met.

But the Joint Board of Control and the tribes never could agree as to what precisely was to be turned over.

Moran, Walt Schock, chairman of the Joint Board of Control, and Larry Echohawk, assistant secretary of the Interior and head of the BIA, signed the agreement at the Department of Interior yesterday.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Flathead Indian Irrigation Project Cooperative Management Entity, Flathead Indian Reservation, Flathead Joint Board of Control, Gwen Florio, Larry Echohawk, Native American news, U.S. Interior Department, Water