Costs too great not to make changes

At my recent library presentation on the history of the Kalispel Tribe, I was asked: “Why did the Indians let go of so much of their land?”

Many people don’t realize that the Kalispel, aka Pend d’Oreille, lost their aboriginal homeland of four million acres, including all of Bonner County, to governments, railroads and pioneer settlers who took their lands without asking. Now living on a small 4,600-acre reservation in Washington, theirs is a story of surviving unbelievable encroachment and tremendous loss. It took 150 years and the loss of hundreds of lives for the Kalispel to receive meager compensation. But who among us fully understands the damage done to a very complex culture whose way of life is still very much alive in younger generations of Kalispel who are learning their native language and practicing what remains of their sustainable heritage?

We neither understand the impacts, nor do we see how the past two hundred years of carving away at a 10,000-year-old culture continues today. Recent front page stories in this paper reveal that ongoing process.

Let’s begin with woodland caribou. County commissioners reckless with litigation and outspoken snowmobilers have trumped a species on the brink of extinction desperate for more habitat. The ethnography of Kalispel elders, born 40 years after white contact and surviving the destruction that followed, shows that the caribou once outnumbered deer in the Selkirks. It’s astonishing why anyone would want to drive our only woodland caribou from its aboriginal territory into Canada — a loss to all Americans. But to the Kalispel, losing the presence of and ability to protect this remarkable animal is incomprehensible — a broken promise to the Creator.

Then there’s the recent agreement negotiated between the Kalispel Tribe and federal resource managers asking for an early release of Lake Pend Oreille waters to help improve the survival of cold water trout species downstream. Is it that reprehensible to share upstream water for downstream fish and the Indian peoples who depend on them? I wrote a big book about this big lake. We have water we can share, but adjustments to our lifestyle and economy might be required, but it’s time for us to make some sacrifices. Mitigating the damaging impacts of Albeni Dam should be considered without upstream rancor. Why threaten another species with extinction and dramatic cultural loss for the Kalispel?

Lastly, there is the prospect of the Clark Fork Delta remodeling, with another dam as the culprit. As a member of the relicensing team — a two-and-a-half year process — I understand the erosion impacts in the delta. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the option of Cabinet Gorge dam removal, rather than a man-altered river delta. Lake history reveals a lack of confidence in Idaho Fish and Game despite the Pack River Delta’s restoration. These are vastly different rivers. But if the project is to succeed, it will only be because the Kalispel Tribe is allowed to play a leading role in its design and management. This area is the tribe’s genesis site. Whether or not the Kalispel will be afforded that level of respect and deference remains to be seen.

JANE FRITZ

Sandpoint