Tribal chairman should be ashamed
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Editor,
Shame on you, Joe Durglo and Tribal Council members, for inciting racial tension and criticizing the “small, vocal” group which has merely questioned the water users agreement, pointed out obvious pitfalls and informed both tribal and non-tribal people who will suffer from its negative consequences. In the meantime, you are throwing your own people under the bus. Tribal Council is treating tribal members as if they are incapable of making informed decisions and refusing them a vote, like their settlement payment. This “small, vocal” group has exposed corruption and bribery; tribal and non-tribal irrigators alike are vocalizing their displeasure. This agreement will not only harm tribal and non-tribal farmers and ranchers, it will put them out of business, like what happened with gaming. Have you told them that the far-reaching objective of this compact appears to be just that? To “decommission” the project (agreement, page 22), lease water taken from the project to power companies who have already been promised water, and return the land to its pre-irrigation state, a dust bowl? There is nothing “elegant” about it when good hardworking people, tribal and non-tribal alike, are put out of business.
Worst of all, Joe, is that you have not learned from the past, like when the federal government told the tribes that their best option was to move onto a reservation. You are swallowing the same nonsense that the federal government used on your ancestors 150 years ago; in the end, you will be left with nothing. As you know, Bonneville Power is a department of the U.S. government. It is unfortunate to see our neighbors and friends, tribal and non-tribal alike, who have sold their souls to the devil supporting this compact. There is a community of people who live on this reservation who have a voice but have been denied the opportunity to use it.
At a past compact meeting, a representative of Tribal Council stood and gave a discourse that ended with the tribes “will not budge” in their demands. Joe, your article states the “tribes have done everything possible to avoid litigation”?
Ken Scott
St. Ignatius
