Commission Can’t Please Both Sides In Hunting Dispute

The Washington Fish and Game Commission is about to make a decision that will satisfy no one, not even the commissioners.

The commission will be damned by Indians if it votes to allow non-Indians to hunt on their own land within the boundaries of the Colville Indian Reservation and will be damned by non-Indians if it extends an agreement made with the tribe in 1982.

If it makes a decision the Indians don’t like, the tribe may tie the state up in long, expensive litigation. It might also end an arrangement that permits non-Indians to fish the tribe’s portion of Lake Roosevelt with only a state fishing license.

The debate over the 1982 decision depriving non-Indians of their right to hunt on their property is a rancorous one. Indians are furious that the commission decided to review the agreement. Non-Indians who own land on the reservation wanted the agreement reviewed, but they’re convinced commissioners are not really ready to restore their rights to hunt.

There’s no doubt non-Indians were treated unfairly when the 1982 commission negotiated the controversial agreement. They shouldn’t have been deprived of the right to hunt on their own land.

The Colville tribe is not a party to any treaty with the United States and does not have a treaty right to hunt or fish on non-Indian-owned lands within or outside the reservation boundaries.

Conversely, it has no right to prohibit non-Indians from hunting on the land they own within the reservation’s boundaries. Only the commission could have done that in 1982. And it did in a politically correct decision.

Basically, non-Indians have just as much right to hunt on their own land as the Indians do on their reservation. Naturally, Indians disagree.

In recent months, the commission and tribal leaders have negotiated an amended agreement that the commission will consider soon. Non-Indians would get a few bones, but they’d still be prohibited from hunting big game on their land.

Neither the Indians nor non-Indians who own land within the reservation are happy with the proposed amendments. They took out their ire on Jeff Tayer, Columbia Basin regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Department, at an Aug. 28 meeting in Okanogan, where he outlined the proposals.

Non-Indians have spent thousands of dollars in attorney fees trying to have their hunting rights restored. They’ve assembled scores of documents to support their stand, but they’ve had trouble, until this year, getting the commission to acknowledge that perhaps they’ve been treated unfairly.

Ervin Palmer was one of several landowners who submitted documents to back up their stand. He and other non-Indian landowners were hooted by some of the Indians who disagreed with them.

As chairman of the commission, Lisa Pelly of Bainbridge Island, wrote letters to some persons who attended the meeting. She said, in part, to Palmer:

“The current agreement has been in effect for 15 years, resolving difficult and expensive litigation. The litigation threatened to pre-empt state authority over fish and wildlife management on the Colville Reservation.

“The agreement was obviously very controversial, but did retain non-member (of the Colville tribe) hunting and fishing opportunity on the reservation. Even more important, the agreement protected the state’s role in fish and wildlife management on the Colville Reservation. Unfortunately, the agreement did not provide for hunting big game, grouse or doves.

“The question squarely before the commission is whether the current agreement or an improved version of the current agreement is more, or less, beneficial to the state than no agreement at all. This is a very serious question that will be decided in a deliberate, thoughtful manner.”

At least one more public meeting will be held to help the commission make the best decision, she said.

Most people who own land within the reservation boundaries are so cynical now that they doubt the commissioners will do what’s right; namely, permit them to hunt on their own land.

Commissioners know that they’ve put themselves on a seat as hot as the lava from an erupting volcano. The question is, will they get third-degree burns? , DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review