Water negotiations seem ‘fishy’
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Editor,
Has anyone actually read the American English version of the Hellgate Treaty of 1855 or the official minutes of the weeklong meeting between Isaac Stevens and the three chiefs of the confederated tribes immediately prior to the signing of the treaty? Has anyone downloaded the tribal version of the treaty (http://www.cskt.org/documents/gov/helgatetreaty.pdf) and read it? Do you figure any part of the treaty is still applicable? It seems to me the feds and the tribes have broken or ignored just about every part of it so far. So, why are they now loosely interpreting the part about “the right to fish” with the intent of controlling all the water in Western Montana? Smells awfully fishy to me.
It seems that those who believe they are in charge at this point are counting on that fact: an ignorant public waiting to be fleeced with authoritative lies and mistruths; what you see and what you don’t.
Can you imagine anyone uttering the words, “We need to interpret this treaty as the Indians would have back in 1855?” We’re talking about supposedly educated people in our judicial system pretending to believe they can reach back to 1855 and think like a Salish or Kootenai chief. How do they expect anyone, Indian or non-Indian, to have the first clue what the Indians, or even Isaac Stevens, thought or understood back then, 157 years ago? Those same judicial folks feel free to establish prejudicial laws granting assumed and unrealistic rights to a small ethnic group of people who willingly gave away, as in “ceded, relinquished or conveyed,” their aboriginal lands in exchange for a “protected homeland,” dependency status and protection from the constant raids of their enemies — the other tribes in the area.
So now, in 2012, a gaggle of lawyers working for the governor of Montana and another gaggle representing the CSKT, backed by very elusive and shrewd representatives of our federal government, believe they can steal our country from us “too dumb to measure water, apathetic, lazy, ignorant, sleeping children of the European invaders,” because we apparently don’t understand the terms “cede, relinquish or convey.”
We can negotiate a lie or litigate the truth — your choice. Talk to your local legislator and find out what they know; voice your opinion.
Michael Gale
Ronan
