Editors Note: This piece is cross
posted from Mother Earth Journal, where
reporter Terri Hansen writes about indigenous
people and the environment.
A drive from Portland’s emerald green landscape took me into the
Columbia River Gorge and the reds, golds and browns of autumn in eastern
Oregon and Washington, through the panhandle of Idaho then southeast to
a long and eagerly anticipated destination: the Society of Environmental
Journalists’ 20th Annual Conference Oct. 12-18, in
Missoula, Montana.
This year’s conference was SEJ’s largest focus ever on Native
American issues and gave attendees a substantive look at complex
environmental concerns in Indian Country.
I couldn’t think of any better way to kick off the conference than
what unfolded at Wednesday evening’s opening reception. After delicious
dinner fare both local and sustainable, and welcoming speeches by
Montana dignitaries, a drum was carried onstage.
Not just any drum.
It seats 16, and belongs to the Chief Cliff Singers, an outstanding Native American
ceremonial drum group composed of members from the Confederated Salish and
Kootenai Tribes – the Bitterroot Salish, the Pend d’Oreille and the
Kootenai tribes, who today call the 1.317 million acre Flathead
Reservation in northwest Montana home.
Fairly certain there were but a few Native Americans in the audience,
as soon as I recognized drum leader Mike Kenmille’s invitation to round
dance I led a bewildered but willing friend through formally set tables
to the front of the room, whispering to her that we were DANCING. I
nodded to two other friends ‘come joi
n us!’ With that we kicked off the
Native American round dance, a social dance used to welcome visitors.
Our circle of dancers grew quickly as enthusiastic SEJers joined
hands, moving in a circle clockwise to the beat of the sacred drum. A
shout out to Ray Ring, senior editor at High Country News for bringing this fine
drum group and an awareness of Native American culture to SEJ.
A lot of what matters to Indian Country was discussed at this year’s
conference.
Ray
Cross, professor at the University of Montana’s School of Law
opened Wednesday with a plenary session, ‘Environmental Law in the West:
How It Came To Be and Why Anyone From the East Should Care’ offering a
guided tour of public resource law and contemporary challenges of
enforcing those laws.
Professor Cross works extensively with Indian tribes, Indian
organizations, and federal agencies on issues of Indian education,
tribal self-determination, and cultural and natural resource
preservation. His exceptional legal career is chronicled in a new book
called Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes and the Trial That
Forged A Nation. Cross is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and
Arikara Nation of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
A Thursday
tour, ‘Managing Indian Country: Stories of Cooperation and
Conflict,’ looked at traditional culture and natural resource management
on the Flathead Indian Reservation, and at the Confederated Salish and
Kootenai Tribes as they assert their sovereignty over their natural
resources. Travelers visited the National Bison Range and listened to
disagreements over how much authority the tribes should have in managing
bison.
Making last minute arrangements for my own panel kept me from the
tour, but I was privy to conversations that followed, one of which
described a lively debate between Garrit Voggesser, senior manager
of the National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Lands Program, and a spokesperson of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the issue.
I was introduced to Rebecca Miles, executive director of the Nez Perce Tribe at
Friday’s opening plenary. Also on the plenary panel, moderated by SEJer
Jon Christensen, was law professor and tribal law expert Charles Wilkinson who, along with other panelists
discussed climate changes in the West, and trends on the vast federal
lands there. And here too, they looked at how and why tribes must assert
their sovereignty over their natural resources.
The tar sands that are so impacting indigenous peoples not only in
Canada but potentially and in a big way tribal peoples in the U.S. were
the topic of a panel on Friday, ‘Tar Sands from Alberta to Missoula and
Beyond.’ Though the panel did not include an indigenous perspective, the
Indigenous Environmental Network’s Marty Cobenais was in the audience,
willing to answer questions from inquiring environmental reporters.
Saturday’s agenda had back-to-back panels focusing on issues
important to Indian Country. A panel I organized, ‘Energy Issues on
Tribal Lands,’ focused on renewable and non-renewable energy projects on
tribal lands. Not on the agenda but an important part of that story
were the tales of destruction to tribal lands in America’s quest for
energy, while overlooking delivering that energy to tribal peoples.
Longtime Native American journalist Jodi Rave
moderated the panel, which included Alexis Bonogofsky, senior
coordinator with NWF’s Tribal Lands Conservation Program; Patrick
Spears, a board member of NativeEnergy
and president of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy; Rob McDonald,
communications director for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes; and Gail Small, Esq., Northern Cheyenne and director of Native Action, an environmental
justice organization.
SEJ’s Dawn Stover moderated ‘Tribes and Salmon: Making News in the
Northwest.’ Panelists were Chuck Brushwood, policy analyst for the Confederated Tribes
of the Colville Reservation’s Fish and Wildlife Department; Joe
Hovenkotter, staff attorney for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes; and Rebecca Miles, executive director of the Nez Perce Tribe.
The post-conference tour to Glacier National Park featured as a
speaker Elouise Cobell, representing the Native American Community Development Program.
It wasn’t just Montana’s location that brought this level of focus on
Native American issues to SEJ this year — Washington State is one of
many with far more Indian tribes. It was the dedication of SEJers like
Ray Ring, Jim Bruggers, Jay Letto, Dawn Stover, Jon Christensen and
certainly others; and friend of SEJ, Charles Hudson, manager and
director of governmental affairs for the Columbia River
Inter-tribal Fish Commission, who volunteered untold hours and
shared his vast knowledge of tribal affairs.
Because of SEJ’s commitment, our stories are rippling through the
country like rings from a pebble tossed into a huge body of journalistic
waters.
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