Tribal commission tackles Indian civil rights issues

Two conferences on related topics combine efforts

By Venice Buhain | The Olympian • Published September 09, 2008

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GRAND MOUND – Organizers of the People's Council, this week at Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, see it not just as a conference, but as part of a civil rights movement.

"One community leader defined the Washington Indian Civil Rights Commission and the Montana Indian Civil Rights Commission as the 'second wave' of the American Indian movement," said Deborah Sioux Cano Lee, president of the Washington commission.

The event is taking place at the conference center in the lodge, owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, through today. Topics include the Indian Child Welfare Act and "border town racism," which refers to interaction between American Indians and state and local agencies in areas around tribes.

The Washington commission, an organization independent of state and federal governments, was established in January to address American Indian rights, Lee said.

The People's Council was the combination of two conferences with related issues

the first "Bringing Civil Rights to Indian Country," and the third annual National Border Town Racism Conference.

Rodney "Fish" Gervais, a member of the Blackfeet Tribal Council and a founder of the Montana commission, was an organizer of two "border town racism" conferences in Montana that addressed civil rights of American Indians off and on reservations.

"What really influenced me is listening to people with no recourse," he said.

Gervais said he established the Blackfeet's own internal Indian Civil Rights Office and the Montana commission after seeing unequal treatment of tribal members in that state's justice system. He said it also was important to establish a way for tribal members to hear grievances of issues that take place on reservations, which are sovereign and where state human rights commissions have no jurisdiction.

As far as he knows, only the Blackfeet tribe has its own civil rights office, and only Washington and Wyoming have American Indian civil rights commissions. But Gervais said he hopes that civil rights will become priorities for more American Indians and tribal leaders.

"What we're looking for is a national Indian civil rights commission," he said.

About 100 people checked in by Monday morning, the first day of the conference, and Lee said more were expected.

The conference opened with a ceremony followed by a keynote address by Elouise Cobell, a Montana Blackfeet Indian who is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit that claims the U.S. government owes $47 billion in oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties from American Indian trust land overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.

According to The Associated Press, the plaintiffs are scheduled to file an appeal of a ruling last month by U.S. District Judge James Robertson that the plaintiffs are entitled to $455 million.

Cobell told the crowd that it was important to know the laws and statutes, and make sure that they are applied equally to American Indians. She said the lawsuit only seeks to apply the same laws to tribal trust land as to other trust land.

"What other race of people would have to fight for what we're fighting for?" she asked.

Venice Buhain covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.