© 2024 Concerned Citizens of Western Montana

NOTE:  When we refer to the “Tribe” in any of our articles, such reference is intended to be the CSKT tribal government corporation, and not individual Indians or tribal members.  With the exception of their membership in the tribe we consider tribal members to be separate and distinct from their tribal government, as are we from our own very corrupt government entities. 

We’ve all heard the exaggerated stories about the horror of the U.S. Congress attempting to “terminate” several tribes in the 1950’s.

But what if we told you that what Congress wanted to “terminate” was simply its “federal supervision” over the tribes for the purpose of giving individual tribal members the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as all other American citizens?

There was no nefarious, racist or culture depriving  purpose for wanting to terminate federal supervision over the Indians.  Indeed, in a country built upon the premise that all people are created equal, this was the plan well before the Hellgate and others treaties were signed with the Indians.

In fact, even after the Indian Citizenship Act was ratified in 1924, Congress knew that individual tribal members did not have the same constitutional rights and protections as other citizens.

The Congressional Resolution below clearly states the purpose of the effort to terminate federal supervision over several tribes,  and tells us that this was an honorable attempt by Congress to help individual tribal members.

House Concurrent Resolution 108 1953

Senate Report 794 pertaining to this resolution states that its goal was to “Free certain tribes of Indians from Federal Supervision.”

Again we ask, what is so horrible about “making the Indians within the territorial limits of the United States subject to the same laws and entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as are applicable to other citizens of the United States, to end their status as wards of the United States, and to grant them all of the rights and prerogatives pertaining to American citizenship; and assuming their full responsibilities as American citizens?”  

What if we also told you that in 1953 / 1954 the majority of adult members of the CS&K Tribes were in support of the termination of federal supervision? 

In 1953 and 1954, the tribal membership collected enough money to send three tribal members to Washington DC to testify in support of the termination of federal supervision over the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. A fourth tribal member, living in DC because her husband was on active duty, also joined them:

    • Lorena Burgess, Perma, MT
    • Anastasia Morigeau Wievoda, Ronan, MT
    • Vera Voorhies, Polson MT.
    • Lulu G. Charrier, Washington DC

These women and the majority of tribal members that sent them to testify clearly saw the writing on the wall.

In 1953, they were close enough in time to have experienced, and to know that the 1904 Flathead Allotment act was the fulfillment of Article VI of the tribe’s treaty, via private property ownership of allotments with the intention of providing an individual homeland to every tribal member. See also Article VI of the Treaty with the Omaha referenced in Article VI of the Hellgate Treaty.

The tribal membership could also see movement by the tribal government to “reclaim” those allotments.  (Indeed that is exactly what the land reconsolidation money awarded to the tribe’s in recent years by the United States is intended for).

By the 1950’s the tribal government was also hiding the profits from tribal enterprises from its membership for the purpose of artificially restricting the amount of tribal member per capita payments.

Despite the fact that the tribal government has become a multi-billion dollar corporation with a multitude of taxpayer funded tribal “sub-corporations”, the per capita payments to the tribal membership are a pittance in the grand scheme of federal money laundering largesse that the C$KT Inc. actively participates in.

These women also lived through, and spoke in their testimony about the corruption that brought forth the fraudulent “historic” CSKT vote that cemented the individual tribal members to the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, forcing upon them a Communist form of government under the guise of “self government.”

Remember, that the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act upended any federal government notion of a trust responsibility for individual Indians and instead replaced it with a trust and financial responsibility only to the federally chartered tribal government corporations that this legislation created.  In the same sleight of hand, this act also made individual Indians wards of these new tribal and arguably communist government corporations authorized by the act, once again under the guise of “self-governance”.  See: Revisiting the Indian Reorganization Act

These women, and the rest of the tribal membership were well aware that the corruption of the tribal council would not be stopped unless federal supervision over the tribes, and their tribal form of government was terminated.

We believe that their testimony will give you a fairly good idea as to what the term “tribal inheritance” meant to the Indian people, rather than the modern day “IRA tribal corporate government definition of a tribal inheritance” that is reacquiring a tribe’s ceded lands via corrupt federal and state governments and passing it on for the benefit of future generations the CSKT tribal corporate government.

Pages from CSKT Mission Statement

We think it is important to provide their Congressional testimony without any additional commentary.

The full 12 page transcript of their testimony can be found at this link. It is well worth the read:

CSKT Tribal Member Testimony in Support of S. 2750 and its companion bill in the House, H1. R. 7319 

See Also: