72 years later, a tribe still waits

WASHINGTON – An official with the Bureau of Indian Affairs once tried to convey the urgency of compensating the Spokane and Colville Indian tribes for lands used to build the Grand Coulee Dam.

“We cannot too strongly impress upon you the importance of this matter to the Indians and therefore to request that it be given careful and prompt attention so as to avoid any unnecessary delay,” William Zimmerman Jr. wrote in a letter to an engineer working on the dam.

The date on that letter was Dec. 5, 1933.

The Colvilles received their settlement in 1994. The Spokanes are still waiting.

“Every time it seems like we’ve been close, something happens,” said Warren Seyler, the tribe’s vice-chairman.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last year that would settle with the Spokanes. But the Senate version of the bill is stalled, thanks to an informal Senate privilege called a hold.

Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office identified the source of the hold as Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who chairs the conservative Senate Republican Steering Committee.

Sessions’ office would not confirm the hold. But congressional sources said it is standard practice for the Steering Committee to hold bills that propose spending money, putting the onus on the sponsoring senator to justify the bill.

Cantwell, D-Wash., is the primary sponsor of the Senate settlement bill. Her spokeswoman, Charla Neuman, said Cantwell has talked to Sessions about the merits of the bill.

“Considering he hasn’t stated specific angst with the bill, there’s not a whole lot you can argue,” she said.

Amy Flachbart, a Washington lobbyist for the tribe who also worked on the legislation as chief of staff for former Rep. George Nethercutt, said she is hopeful the bill will pass the Senate this year.

In an interview in Washington, D.C., Seyler reflected on the frustration of the Spokanes’ quest for fair compensation. When the dam was finished, the Lake Roosevelt reservoir flooded tribal lands. The Spokanes received $4,700 in return.

“It’s hard coming here and going back home,” he said. “It’s hardest to explain the situation to the elders, especially those that lived on the river, the ones who saw the water wash over the orchards and the gravesites.

“When the elders pass away, that’s the hardest. Of anyone, they deserve it the most. Having to go to that funeral and have nothing to tell them. I’ve been doing this for 14 years now, and to have to go back home and try to explain how Congress works … they don’t understand the magnitude of national politics.”

Under the principle of tribal sovereignty, the U.S. is supposed to deal with Indian tribes on a government-to-government basis. But the Spokanes’ efforts at a settlement have consistently been submerged in national politics.

When the Colville and Spokane tribes sent representatives to Washington in 1941 – days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – they were told the government had other priorities and a settlement would have to wait.

When the Spokanes settled a claim with the federal government in 1967 for their present reservation, the two parties were still negotiating over Grand Coulee. But after the tribe settled its claim, the federal government did a “complete about-face” and began asserting defenses against a settlement regarding the dam, said Howard Funke, an attorney for the tribe.

The Colvilles got court approval to include Grand Coulee in their claim, giving them leverage to negotiate their settlement in 1994.

When the late Sen. Warren Magnuson, D-Wash., was making progress toward a settlement with the Spokanes in the 1970s, he lost his seat to Slade Gorton, a senator known for his perceived hostility to tribal issues.

In 1994, with the help of then-House Speaker Tom Foley, the Colvilles received a settlement of $53 million, plus annual payments based on power production and prices. In the next few years, the Spokanes tried to negotiate a settlement based on what the Colvilles received. But the issue was bounced around between Cabinet departments, and ultimately the federal government refused to negotiate, Funke said.

“The Spokanes are the only entity that hasn’t been compensated for the dam,” Funke said.

The tribe began working with Rep. George Nethercutt, at first hoping for legislation that would let them take the case to federal court. Nethercutt encouraged the tribe to work toward a straight settlement. He first introduced such legislation in 1999, but that and subsequent bills never made it out of committee.

The legislation finally passed the Senate in 2004 but failed to pass the House, meaning the legislative process had to start anew.

When Nethercutt gave up his seat in 2004 to run for the Senate, incoming Rep. Cathy McMorris inherited the issue and helped shepherd a bill through the House last summer. The Senate bill cleared the Indian Affairs Committee, but the hold could stall the legislation indefinitely.

This is now the fourth Congress to consider the Spokane tribe settlement.

One section of the settlement legislation has drawn concern from local and state officials. Under Section 9, jurisdiction for land along the Spokane River Arm of Lake Roosevelt would be transferred from the Bureau of Reclamation to the Bureau of Indian Affairs – both agencies of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The land would be put into trust for the tribe, and the National Park Service would still manage the recreation area.

Officials from Lincoln County and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife were upset at not being consulted when the legislation was drafted, and they aired their complaints at a meeting with McMorris staff in September.

The tribe says worries about jurisdictional problems and access to the lake are unfounded. Seyler pointed out that the legislation covers land only up to the high-water mark, leaving landowners unaffected. Moreover, Funke said, the legislation would remedy “major encroachments” by the state, which has used decisions in two court cases to assert its authority on the water and above the high-water mark.

Seyler cited numerous efforts by the tribe to improve the lake as a sign of good will.

“If it wasn’t for the tribe, Lake Roosevelt would be a dead body of water,” he said. “It’s taken a lot to make Lake Roosevelt such a wonderful place.”

The Spokane River was central to the tribe’s existence long before Grand Coulee. Ultimately, Seyler said, the settlement is about emotional and spiritual reparations, not just financial.

“History shows that we are close to that water,” he said. “The legislation is more than just a dollar; it’s 10,000 years of history.”