Letters to the editor

Amazing support

On behalf of the Festivals on the Flathead organization, we would like to thank the entire Polson community for the amazing support shown at our first event, the Night of Blues. Nearly 400 people attended, and the night was packed with wonderful music and community spirit. We had the privilege of offering local fare, an opportunity appreciated by all. Without the help and support of all our sponsors and volunteers, the event would not have been possible.

The people in our area deserve the best, and that has been our inspiration to provide a public venue for all manner of entertainment. The goal of Festivals on the Flathead is to continue to provide the valley with quality entertainment based on the requests of the community. Because of the overwhelming community support of our first event, fundraising has begun in earnest toward the purchase of a stage and band shelter that will provide ongoing events for the benefit of our community.

Festivals on the Flathead

Polson

Fourth of July: Mission Accomplished

The Youth Committee of Envision Polson took on the task of organizing Polson’s Fourth of July parade with blind enthusiasm. We really didn’t know what we were doing, but we knew this project would be a good fit for our committee.

Our parade theme was America’s Promise, Celebrate Our Youth. We were given great instructions from the city who had planned the parade in the past, and we delved in.

It was amazing how many volunteers, participants and community supporters were there to help along the way.

The whole experience was a wonderful reminder of why we live in a small town and how much fun it is to celebrate America’s independence.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in, and attended the Fourth of July parade, and the block party that was held after the parade. In particular, we would like to thank the Greater Polson Community Foundation for sponsoring the award ribbons and the flags that were distributed to the attendees. We also want to send a huge thank you to the Kiwanis for sponsoring the insurance for the parade and for helping out with lining up the floats. We would like to thank Rich Forbis for volunteering as our Master of Ceremonies and all of our wonderful Grand Marshalls that represented our American military.

We have received great feedback on the entire event, all the music and the flyover by the jets seemed to be especially popular.

We hope to grow the parade and the block party bigger and better next year!

Thanks again Polson and Congratulations to our parade winners!

Shelley Quinn

Youth Committee,

Envision Polson

Religion and politics

Just some things I think we, as a nation, ought to be thinking and talking about:

When we go down the road of mixing religion with politics we are heading for big trouble, in my opinion. And it goes way beyond just differences of opinion. It actually affects the very abilities of the elected people to both our state and our nations ‘halls of power’ to properly govern.

Why is this? I believe it is because those dearly held beliefs regarding what we each believe is moral and right are so imbedded within each of us and are so representative of our total value systems that they will always trump the concern for much needed legislation if added to debate and the legislative process in the political arena.

Just witness what issues so often rise to the top in media coverage, campaign rhetoric and congressional debate. Is it the state of our fracturing infrastructure in America? Is it saving our environment? Is it pushing for a better and more effective educational system? Is it national discussions on developing a far reaching program of restoring family unity?

Is it advancing effective programs which help those desperately in need of mental and emotional help and support? Is it focusing full resources and attention of developing alternative sources of energy in this nation? Is it addressing the great need to curb the tremendous waste in the Pentagon and developing educational programs which will turn our national security attitudes from a military-based psychology to a peace-based psychology?

No. It is none of these. In the past few years it has been two items that divide, demand attention and delay effective governing: (1) Life style choices. (2) Abortion.

These religious-based opinions so often dominate politics. My personal belief is that while they belong in thoughtful discussions among and between us, they definitely do not belong in political debate or legislation.

Bob McClellan

Polson

Cultural custody

I may remember June 17 as the day the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes threw away one of their smallest tribal members. I am an Indian, but not a CSKT member. My wife is. Yet the action angered me. Why? Because in 1977-78, I was Counsel on Indian Affairs to the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.

As such, I was a principal architect of the Indian Child Welfare Act. As an Indian and as Counsel, I fought long and hard against anti-Indian forces to ensure that tribes had good legal tools to prevent the “wholesale separation of Indian children from their families.”

In writing the House report on the ICWA bill, I quoted an Indian woman who said, “I can remember (the welfare worker) coming and taking some of my cousins and friends. I didn’t know why and I didn’t question it. It was just done and it had always been done.” In drafting the bill that became ICWA, I noted that “there is no resource that is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of Indian tribes than their children”.

Yet, on June 17, the CSKT refused to use the tools Congress gave tribes and declined jurisdiction over a child custody proceeding in a Washington state court involving a little CSKT member. Under ICWA, the Tribes had an absolute right to require removal of the proceeding from the state court to tribal court.

The two parents, members of CSKT, were residents of this reservation and their child was a tribal member. Yet, the Tribes declined to take jurisdiction and abandoned the little child. The state court terminated the parental rights of the father and mother. This Indian child will likely wind up in a non-Indian foster care home, lost to the Tribes and lost to its culture.

This is not the first time the Tribes have abandoned one of their children. A year ago, a descendant child of one of the oldest and most respected families of this reservation was before the Lake County court for termination of parental rights. The CSKT could have intervened. They did not.

Luckily, the little child was eligible for enrollment in another distant tribe, one of the poorest in the nation. That tribe did not hesitate. It immediately sought to intervene in the case to protect their important tribal “resource” and subsequently enrolled the child.

I have watched and applauded as the Tribes have fought for their gaming rights and their water, timber, land and other natural resources. It is with sorrow and anger that I watch them abandon their most important resource. ICWA has given them significant legal tools to protect that resource. Under ICWA, if the CSKT chose, they could assume child custody jurisdiction over all Indian children on this reservation, if the children are members of, or are eligible for membership in, the CSKT or any other federally-recognized tribe.

It may be that the CSKT feels they do not have the funds necessary to defend their children. They may spend all their money to defend their natural resources and wind up with no members.

Franklin Ducheneaux

Ronan