View of tribe disturbing
Re: “House hesitant on Lake CdA plan,” April 4:
It is amazing that the Idaho Legislature, now in session, is questioning funding Idaho’s share of the Lake Coeur d’Alene Management Plan when the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, who owns one-third of the lake, is committed to putting up half of the plan funding.
I am dismayed by Rep. Harwood’s statement, “You’re going to let them rule over us that live there. Boy … I’m uneasy about this.”
Mr. Harwood, the Coeur d’Alenes have always lived there; you are the “newcomer.” The Coeur d’Alenes were dispossessed of most of their hereditary territory, but the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that the southern third of the lake was never ceded by the tribe to the U.S. government or the state of Idaho.
Lake ownership by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe carries with it responsibility for managing the lake resources, water quality and public safety. It appears to me that the tribe is doing a good job and putting their money where their mouth is for protection of the lake’s water quality. What’s wrong with letting “them rule over us”?
Rep. Harwood, you just need to get rid of your pre-1900s attitude toward Indians.
Mark Weadick
Coeur d’Alene