From Russell "Rusty" Gopher

April 13, 2009

Welcome back to the Corner. It's been quite some time since I got to sit down and report to you on the happenings here and there. Somehow I missed getting the Corner into the special Tribal Newsletter edition that went out in mid-February. Tony Woods had noted another edition of the newsletter was going to press in March so I got to typing. That has been shelved until funding is available so I asked Larry Morsette to possibly post it on the tribal web site, a web-based "Corner" so to speak. We have a new minority President who's brought forth hope for Native Americans throughout the country. We've been having meetings on ideas to utilize the Stimulus money that was approved by the new President a short while back.

We've finally gotten through the long election process for this community, after many months of court sessions, judicial review and deliberation. I received a copy of Judge Pepion's order months ago. In my own view, there were definitely some interesting points regarding procedures I thought were worth noting that were overturned by Judge Donahoe.  As I fully support government transparency, if you’re interested in this document feel free to contact me for a review. I’m assuming this is of public record.  Ultimately, as a tribe, we’ve moved on and have restructured within the tribal government.

I attended a grant planner's retreat in Great Falls in October. Attendees included: Robert Gopher (RB Health Board), Luanne Belcourt (Tribal Water Resources), Elinor Wright (Tribal Courts), Jim Swan (RJS), Nate St. Pierre (ONI, Tribal Planning), Joan Mitchell (Economic Development, Tribal Planning) and I. The purpose of the planning and grant writing session in Joan's intro was "to work together as a team, as equals in a circle without getting bogged down with egos, personal baggage, or territorialism." The main focus was to communicate and encourage each other for successful, practical solutions, keeping the spirit alive by working together as one, sharing ideas knowing we're not in isolation. The key to the grant writers' efforts go directly to the community in Rocky Boy to get the best services possible for the people and not to get caught up in the funding amount. The emphasis is on improving the lives on Rocky Boy's Reservation and establishing a good system.
 
The Chippewa Cree Tribal Business Committee and the Yellowstone Western Heritage Center (WHC) in Billings have after a year of letters, meetings, at time harsh words and mostly misunderstandings, come to an agreement on the issue of elder recordings and tribal Cultural Property Rights. Back in 2006, the WHC invited Stone Child College to participate in their American Indian Tribal Histories Project (AITHP). The AITHP worked with Stone Child College to provide a structured plan for gathering cultural subject matter, training students on production, holding public meetings and recording tribal elders. From those training sessions, elders were chosen to elaborate of various topics. The words and the stories that evolved from those thirty plus hours of recordings convey the strength and intricate essence that only we as a community can appreciate. No true value can be placed on those recordings. I sat in on many of the training sessions and public viewings of the recorded material. Throughout the entire process, I kept my colleagues on the Council aware of project activities at monthly council meetings. When the concern of potentially sensitive cultural issues with the project arose, I brought it to the attention of my colleagues who shared those concerns. As elected tribal officials, we’re obligated by our sworn Oath of Office to uphold the Chippewa Cree Tribal Constitution “to preserve and increase our tribal resources” and to “encourage and foster the arts, crafts, culture, and traditions of the tribe”  We strive to provide our enrolled members leadership with the best interests of the tribe at heart.
 
Along with the sensitive material issue, there was an even more critical matter involving the ownership of those recordings. WHC maintained that by the signing of contracts, the recorded material would become their property. The point I did my best to convey with WHC over the past year was that those elders were not properly informed of contract terms. Many stated at meetings between CCT and WHC that had they been aware, they would not have agreed to be recorded. They only wanted to share their information with our community and the community alone. The issue affected the lives of those elders, having to take a defensive stance for relaying information in their hearts they assumed were for this tribe and their children, grandchildren and generations to come. In a letter to the tribe dated March 18, the Western Heritage Center concluded that "material in some of the interviews was deemed too culturally sensitive for public release, and the interviewees requested the master copies of the interviews to be stored in the Stone Child Library archives." In essence the issue can finally be put to rest.
 
After the transference of licensure to Stone Child College, the master copies of the interviews will be stored in a Stone Child College Library Special Collection, the material to be used for educational or research purposes only. Backup copies of each interview will be stored in the Western Heritage Center Archive Collection in a safe, with any and all requests for any copies, transcripts, and research directed to Stone Child College Special Collections. Stone Child College will receive a public viewing station for the library with the interviews on it, and a touch screen language kiosk for children with some everyday Cree words and illustrations as a teaching guide. We're glad that we can put this matter behind us. It did help us as a tribe by allowing us to look into our Cultural Resource Management Ordinances and do what we need to do to see that those resources are properly maintained. It also opened our thoughts to take those and many other cultural issues on the front burners.
 
One of the biggest moves was to establish the Chippewa Cree Tribe Cultural Resource Department in January of 2009 to assist the CCT in providing vision, direction and support for the maintenance and preservation of our Chippewa Cree cultural way of life. To work toward this objective, tribal, educational and community involvement are essential to the achievements of this department. The goals of the CRD are to:  1) foster and build on our unique identity as Chippewa Cree Indians and to protect that identity from forces that threaten to diminish it;  2) Promote the inspiration our forefathers brought forth in securing this reservation and our rights as a sovereign Indian tribe; 3) Promote our cultural and religious beliefs and to pass them on in our own way to our children, grandchildren and grandchildren’s children forever; 3) Assist our membership in achieving their potentials in cultural awareness, education, physical &  mental health and economic development; 4) Maintain solid relationships with other Indian tribes within the United States, the State of Montana, local municipal governments, and Cree and Ojibwe Nations in Canada; and 4) Help administer and build upon the CCT Cultural Resources Management Ordinance; The CRD will promote the unique cultural identity and history of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, provide advice regarding research, preservation of language, community cultural activities, issues related to the documentation, protection and preservation of cultural resources within the exterior boundaries of Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.  We can never forget the efforts and hardships our founding fathers went through in getting us our homeland, and also their wishes to have a place for our cultural practices to flourish.
 
On the subject of the recent community meetings with Native American Resource Partners (NARP), I've noted my apprehension with this move at first glance. With all due respect to the critical need for the resources they can provide to help the tribe out financially, I still cannot feel comfortable with this. Having questions about this, I've asked a number of experts in this field with the education and work experience about this move. I put full faith in their sound advice. Their feelings were to put NARP on back burner and take advantage of enormous amount of stimulus $ coming down focusing on work force development and energy efficiency. This would help build the tribal energy work force capacity and ease the tribe into the energy sector sustainably and with less risk. There's also the risk of other wells draining gas underlying reservation lands. There are other U.S. tribes and reserves in Canada who, free of charge could have provided training and tools necessary to build tribal capacity for a tribal energy workforce, assisted with the creation with sustainable renewable energy portfolios, and honed in tribal definitions of sustainability and implementation of sustainable tribal community visions. Within their companies there are energy auditors, engineers, lawyers, and university experts on board fully supportive of the various organizations. I feel there really wasn’t a need to rush into this process. Our fossil fuels will only become scarcer and increase in economic value over time. There's also a proposed joint venture with Quasar to bring in online gaming to boost the cash flow at Northern Winz Casino. One problem I have with this deal is that they deal with offshore accounts. I don't sit on the CCCDC however I have noted my opposition to this move.

I've always been concerned with two items that deal with the public in general. One is the lack of responsibility of livestock owners when it comes to stray animals on the roadways especially at night. I came upon such an incident a few weeks ago on my return from Havre at around 9:00 at night. This involved an enrolled couple running into a stray horse less than a mile from their home. Years ago a Rocky Boy Health Board medical provider lost his life running into stray livestock at night. One of our enrolled members had her life turned 180 degrees because of such an accident. She survived, however the toll the irresponsibility of a livestock owner had on her life can never be truly measured. There is an “Open Range” ordinance that applies to the reservation lands, but when and where do we draw the line? Countless times, I have called the Police Department to report of horses or cows on or near the road ways. I think people have more rights to the roadways than animals.

Ultimately for livestock owners to take more responsibility of keeping their animals off the roadways, perhaps, they the owners should be held accountable for damages and injuries. It's tough on people who don't have full coverage on their vehicles to recover losses in such accidents.  The other issue that the horse accident brought to mind is the availability of Emergency Medical Service Personnel. Concerned for injured person, it seemed to take a while for the EMS to arrive, so it may be worth own while to review our response time and procedures. According to the National Transportation Safety Board report, the average time lapse between a rural area crash and an EMS arriving is 18 minutes, compared to 10 minutes in urban areas. My intentions are surely not to offend any livestock owners or the EMS personnel. First and foremost, my overall concerns are to ensure our EMS is meeting industry standards and to ensure we all do our best to provide safe roads for the whole community.

I will close for now with a word of encouragement to the fine young athletes from Box Elder and Rocky Boy Schools that we've supported throughout the winter months. It's always a good time to go to ball games, indulge in a soda, bag of popcorn & hot dog and holler a bit now and then. I have grandkids on both teams and I'm so proud of them all, and that is why I encourage the support of all our schools collectively during these competitive events. There are also other grandkids and great-grandkids coming up in the lower grades. I look forward to cheering you all on next season as well in both Class B and C. Until next time, see you in the corner!

Russell "Rusty" Gopher