December 3, 2009
Tribal council election: Lozar, Lefthand vie for Polson seat
Valley Journal
POLSON — Naida Lefthand is challenging Steve Lozar for the Polson seat on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council.
Lefthand has worked on and off at Salish Kootenai College (SKC) and assisted in the development of the Culture Committees. She and another person wrote a grant, sent it to the National Park Service and “Tribal Preservation was born.”
 Nadia Lefthand
Steve Lozar
After her husband died in 1999, Lefthand attended SKC and received her Bachelor’s degree. She worked part time with the Rural Systemic Initiative Program and then assisted Roger McClure with the NASA program for kids. From there Lefthand moved into science curriculum. Regina Sievert, Julie Cajune and Lefthand put together science curriculum for kindergarten through fourth graders.
“One of the ingredients in there was that it had to be culturally competent,” Lefthand explained.
During the last three or four summers, Lefthand has worked with Sievert on a teacher cultural awareness workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Mary Jane Charlo and Lefthand coordinated the workshop in 2009.
“I’ve always strived and tried to work to bridge the gap between the Indian and non-Indian communities,” Lefthand said.
As far as why she’s running for tribal council, “I come from a political family,” Lefthand said.
Her grandfather Jerome Hewankorn was vice president of the Tribal Council, and her uncles Al Hewankorn and Fred Whitworth were on Tribal Council. Pat Lefthand, Naida’s husband, was a council member for a long time.
One of the top three issues that Lefthand feels should be addressed by Tribal government is communication.
“We have to look at the tribe as a business … because we employ tribal people. We’re their sustenance; we put food of their table; we pay their bills,” Lefthand explained.
If we have employees and we have customers, we have to keep them up to date on what’s happening, Lefthand continued. If we give a 10 percent discount to our tribal members, then we make them part of our vision.
“The Tribal Council is like … your brother or your sister, your parents,” Lefthand said.
“To family members you would say come and stay with us until you get on your feet. But when you sit down at the table, do you say this food is for my family, this other food is for you. You wouldn’t do that,” Lefthand said of her vision of fairness.
Another “biggie issue that I have debated on even discussing” is the split family issue.
One problem Lefthand has is using the blood quantum of another tribe. Lefthand gave an example of a person who had a 4/4 Salish/Kootenai mom and a 4/4 Colville dad. Then “some bright person” came up with the idea that this person would be half Salish/Kootenai and half Colville.
“I don’t think he or she (the bright person) is a member of any tribe because I am part Salish and I am part Kootenai, the majority of my Indian blood. Now if I were to be part Yakima or Colville, and I can’t count it here … what happened to it? Blood is blood,” Lefthand said.
In 1960, Lefthand said, the people had a referendum on this reservation. The referendum said from this day forward in order to be a member of this tribe, a person must possess a quarter Salish or Kootenai blood.
Lefthand said there are a huge number of families, 200 or more, who have less than the quarter but who participate in cultural activities such as the jumpdances, wakes and other community gatherings.
Lefthand said, “We’re discriminating against our own people because of this.”
This issue needs to be resolved by either grandfathering in the 200 families, by another referendum to include the families or by saying no.
“I know it’s an issue out there,” Lefthand added.
Lefthand’s third issue is a “combination of many other issues that could be taken care of with communication, the number one issue I have,” Lefthand said.
When the Tribal Council began reorganizing the tribe, they specifically told tribal members they would come back periodically and let the people know where they are in the process, Lefthand said.
The reason given for reorganization was to save money. Lefthand said she sees advertisements for jobs with $50 or $60 an hour salaries, but she does not see how that is saving money. No money is coming in to offset the salaries.
She knows the amount of work and reading a Tribal Council member has to do, and Lefthand feels confident to be able to walk the two worlds of her culture and business and keep them running parallel.
(Editor’s note: At press time the Valley Journal had yet to receive candidate Steve Lozar’s information.) |
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