People’s Voice perserveres with petitions
Berl Tiskus
People’s Voice Vice President Eldon White braves the snow to collect signatures.
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Snowy, slushy roads and bad weather didn’t stop nearly 1,000 Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal members from signing the People’s Voice petitions on March 23 and 24.
With no place indoors, Elden White and a friend sat outside in the snow in Pablo. They had a canopy overhead and a camper, but no heat in the camper, according to Sharon Rosenbaum.
The People’s Voice hopes to have the signatures necessary by the end of April. They will hold another signature day on April 6 in the Indian Senior Center across from Dairy Queen in Ronan.
Tribal members could sign two petitions and were asked to bring their tribal ID along. One was a referendum petition to request the CSKT Council distribute the remainder of the Nez Perce/Salazar money to the people.
The CSKT received approximately $150,126,000 from the Nez Perce/Salazar settlement. The money was a reimbursement for funds lost in mismanaged accounts and from royalties for oil, gas, grazing and timber on tribal lands that the tribes did not receive. Each tribal member received $10,000 on Sept. 12, 2012, which added up to about half of the settlement money.
The People’s Voice wants all the money from the Nez Perce/Salazar settlement distributed directly to tribal members and is on it’s second round of petitions from tribal membership to the CSKT Council to accomplish this, as well as allowing tribal members more say in their government.
The other petition would change the CSKT constitution so a Tribal Council member could be removed by a vote from the membership.
When enough signatures are collected, the referendum petition would be submitted to the CSKT Council, and they have 45 days to respond, Rosenbaum said, according to Article 53a of the tribal constitution.
The petition to amend the constitution would go to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and proceed on to the Portland, Ore., office.
