The bison battles in Montana continued Wednesday. As Republicans decried the move by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, to move genetically pure bison from Yellowstone National Park to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Schweitzer visited the National Bison Range on the Flathead Indian Reservation to discuss transporting more Yellowstone bison there.

A bison rounded up on Tuesday waits in a pen as Schweitzer and federal, state and tribal officials toured the facility. (Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian)

MOIESE – A dozen or so bison, chased by hollering horseback riders, thundered down a hillside at the National Bison Range Tuesday, oblivious to the human battles taking place in their name.

The “mini-roundup,” as Bison Range manager Jeff King explained, had a purpose – to cull out four of the animals for placement in a display pasture near the Visitor Center.
But it was timed to coincide with a visit by Gov. Brian Schweitzer and federal officials the governor has verbally sparred with over wildlife management decisions in recent months.
Specifically, the U.S. Department of Interior in December initially turned down Schweitzer’s proposal to relocate dozens of what the governor called “brucellosis-free, genetically pure” bison captured outside Yellowstone National Park to the Bison Range.

At the time, Schweitzer called the Bison Range herd “genetically impure mongrels” and blocked the Interior Department from transporting fish or wildlife anywhere within the state or across state lines in response.

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Hewankorn, Burke and Salois stand outside the mission. They’re among some 500 people who recently reached a settlement with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus for reported abuse, but they say what they really want is an apology. (Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian)

Florio spent time with three tribal members who endured years of abuse at the hands of both priests and nuns. What does the recent $166.1 million settlement settlement with the Northwest Jesuits mean for the abused who have lived with the past so long? It’s been a long, hard road that continues for most victims, despite the pending settlement.

Part one: Anguish has never healed for Natives physically, sexually abused at St. Ignatius mission

(Garry) Salois, (Francis) Burke and (Leland) Hewankorn are among some 500 people – nearly all of them Native American or Alaskan Native – who prevailed in a $166.1 million bankruptcy reorganization against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, better known as Jesuits.

Part two: Silence shrouds St. Ignatius Jesuit abuse case as settlement vote nears

ST. IGNATIUS – The recent $166.1 million settlement for people who were sexually abused in Jesuit-run schools and missions on Indian reservations and Alaskan villages made international headlines.

But here, where so much of the abuse occurred, the silence surrounding the case is as cold and deep as the stubbornly lingering snow on the Mission Mountains.

Also listed with the stories is a set of abuse resources.

Jenna Cederberg

There are few in the world of higher education who aren’t holding their breath as Congress and state legislatures talk cuts, cuts, cuts. And tribal colleges are no exception.

The Missoulian’s Vince Devlin examines what massive funding shortages could do to Salish Kootenai College, on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

SKC, arguably the most successful tribal college in the nation, could face up to $1 million in cuts, which would mean laying off faculty, and see a steep decline in student assistance funds.

There’s been much talk about how proposed cuts at the federal and state levels will affect Montana’s university system, including its community colleges, SKC President Luana Ross says.

But she’s seen little discussion about the potential effects on Montana’s tribal colleges.

SKC is facing the loss of almost $500,000 in direct state and federal funds. If that happens, says Lon Whitaker, vice president of business affairs on the Pablo campus, the fallout – including higher tuition, which could lead to a drop in enrollment – could double the impact on the school, and take away job training and educational opportunities for people who need it most.

. . .

“The way out of poverty is education,” SKC’s president says. “That’s almost a no-brainer.”

Jenna Cederberg

Corey Ducharme with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service drives bison toward the monitoring station during the annual roundup at the National Bison Range on Monday morning. In recent years, motorized vehicles have replaced horseback riders. (LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian)

MOIESE – Bison thundered through a driving rain and down a hillside here Monday morning, their hoof beats indicating that no matter what happens in courtrooms a continent away, the annual October roundup at the National Bison Range will go on.

This one did so with the help of half a dozen people who lost their jobs at the National Wildlife Refuge less than a week ago because of a judicial decision.

Six Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes employees were among the 25 or so people working to round up the animals, collect biological data and monitor the health of the herd.

Except on Monday, they weren’t CSKT employees. They became “emergency U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hires” who returned at the request of the agency, and with the knowledge of the District of Columbia Court that last week effectively terminated their jobs by rescinding a federal agreement with the tribes.

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Whisper Camel, a wildlife biologist with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, stands on top of the wildlife overpass over U.S. Highway 93 near Evaro last week. Camel has been gathering data on wildlife crossing the highway since before its reconstruction through the Flathead Reservation, and it appears that animals are learning to use the safe crossings. Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian

Bear crossing underneath U.S. Highway 93. Photo courtesy CSKT, MDT and WTI-MSU

The Montana Department of Transportation calls it “one of the most extensive wildlife-sensitive highway designs to occur in the continental United States.”

South Dakota takes Indian education in a new direction
From Cheat Brokaw of the Associated Press: The state Education Department is collaborating with teachers, school administrators and others to take a new approach to improving academic achievement and graduation rates among American Indian students, who as a group lag behind South Dakota’s non-Indian students. Five-year goals and plans to improve American Indian students’ performance will be put together by the Indian Education Advisory Council, a group of educators from across the state who have a lot of experience in teaching those students, said LuAnn Werdel, director of Indian education for the state Education Department.

Tribes to bury Native American skull used as college mascot
KGW-TV in Albany, Ore., reports that members the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde plan a ceremony to bury a human skull that once served as a college mascot. The case began with a man who’d taken the skull to Sweet Home grade school for show-and-tell in 1984, when he was a boy. It ended up at Albany College – now Lewis and Clark College – whose mascot is a pirate with a skull and crossbones. University of Oregon anthropologists say the skull is that of a Native American woman.

Bill would require First Nations financial reporting
A conservative Saskatchewan lawmaker has proposed a bill that would require First Nations chiefs and council members to report salaries and expenses, CBC reports. Although there’s already a process for such reporting, Kelly Block says the bill would make disclosure automatic.

Gwen Florio

The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will hold an Oct. 15 field hearing on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana to examine tribal transportation in Indian Country.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. (Tom Bauer/Missoulian)

In a statement released by Tester’s office, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Chairman E.T. “Bud Moran” said that the tribes “applaud Senator Jon Tester for holding a field hearing regarding Tribal Transportation in Indian Country on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

“To have this event take place on our homeland at the tribally owned and operated resort shows Senator Tester is seeking comments from Indian Country. This is a notable event and we’re pleased to host.”

For awhile, it seemed as though the controversy a pact with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to share management of the National Bison Range in Montana with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had died down. Sadly, that’s not the case – and tribal jobs could be lost in the process. Vince Devlin of the Missoulian has the story:

Volunteer cowboys drive a group of the herd into a corral during the 2006 bison roundup at the National Bison Range in Moiese, Mont. This year's roundup is scheduled to take place next week amid renewed controversy over management of the range, now shared by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. (Photo by Linda Thompson/Missoulian)

There, a judge rescinded a funding agreement between the Department of Interior and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, just days before the annual roundup on the Bison Range is scheduled to take place.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling appears to put approximately 10 CSKT employees out of work at the National Wildlife Refuge, probably as early as Wednesday.

The judge said that the Department of Interior violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it entered into a second funding agreement with the tribes more than two years ago, by failing to formally invoke a NEPA-required “categorical exclusion” for the newest pact.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which brought the lawsuit, heralded the judge’s decision and called on Interior to rapidly return U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel to the Bison Range jobs.

“We expect the government to act quickly to put Fish and Wildlife Service staff back in place to repair the ongoing damage to the Bison Range,” said Paula Dinerstein, senior counsel for PEER.