Fort Bridger Treaty presenters.
By LORI ANN EDMO
Sho-Ban News
BOISE — The legal and tribal significance of the Fort Bridger Treaty was explained to attendees at the University of Idaho Native American Law School Student Association seminar November 2 in Boise.
Speakers gave their perspectives on the Fort Bridger Treaty regarding the importance and significance of it.
Don Burnett retired University of Idaho Law School dean talked about the Tinno Case where the State of Idaho prosecuted Shoshone-Bannock tribal member Cleo Tinno for violating state fish and game laws. The Tribes off reservation Treaty rights were upheld in the case. He said the Fort Bridger Treaty is a living document; it needs nourishment to give meaning to it today. He recalled waterfowl hunting trips with attorney Ben Davis on the Fort Hall Bottoms when the two would have discussions about the “Armies of might and armies of right,” and Burnett said he wanted to become a member of the “Army of Right.”
Mark EchoHawk, an attorney for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes said he appreciated the words of Burnett, he’s grateful for the opportunity to speak and come up with ways to be an effective part of the Army of the Right. An enrolled Pawnee, he spent most of his time growing up near Fort Hall and is honored to be a participant in legal representation for the Tribes for about 18 years. He’s honored to talk about the Treaty, “It’s an important document,” and it deserves respect and reverence. Growing up with his dad as an attorney – he loved to talk about treaty rights – Article IV – how the Treaty applied in various cases over time.
Under Article IV, the Tribes agreed to make the reservation their permanent home – they shall have the right to hunt on unoccupied lands of the United States – EchoHawk said the Treaty was the first government to government politically based agreement. A right based on the political relationship the Tribes have with the federal government. He added there is great language in Tinno – subsistence and cultural right. “Tinno is the nature of right – supreme law of the land – it’s clear language that generally takes precedence over state regulations.” He said Treaty provisions off reservation aren’t a gift – it’s a right to hunt since time immemorial.
EchoHawk said in advancing off reservation Treaty rights it’s important to know history, know the Treaty inside and out – understand why it’s important to the Tribes. He said the Tribes needed to control when arguments are made, be involved in every aspect because one can’t make effective arguments without the Tribes in control. “Be smart about what cases to bring up,” he continued. “We have to be engaged in the fight, thinking ahead, making tribal regulations solid, protect the Treaty right, engage in conservation efforts, educate tribal members and fight.” He said question the authority, hustle out there, create the case, tell our story, engage the elders and find out what the true story is. “Consider creative arguments that haven’t been told before,” EchoHawk said.
Top left: Mark EchoHawk; top right: Don Burnett, retired UI Law School dean; bottom left: Fort
Hall Business Council Chairman Nathan Small; bottom right: Shoshone-Banock Fish and
Wildlife Director Chad Colter.
Chad Colter, Shoshone-Bannock Fish and Wildlife Director, a UI graduate in Fisheries Management, said he’s pleased to serve the Tribes and Article IV of the Treaty is his marching orders. He said the department is there to educate and they’re not environmentalists. The Snake River Policy the Tribes developed in the 1990s is what helps them guide as fish and wildlife managers.
They have 60 permanent and season employees under a $5 million annual budget with numerous funding sources – the largest is the Bonneville Power Administration mitigation for the Columbia River power system. It includes 11 projects and the department just completed the 10-year Fish Accords that included a funding agreement for $61 million. The agreement was extended for the next four years through 2022 – a status quo program while they complete a NEPA document. A lot of work has been done on the Salmon River sub basin that was once the largest spawning area in the Columbia Basin. The goal is to restore through processes to emphasize channel interaction. He presented a PowerPoint featuring the projects including the Yankee Fork where they’re trying to open the channel up for the flood plain to be used by salmon. They’re also working with production on Chinook salmon and steelhead to supplement wild populations. They monitor returns for tribal member harvest and for conservation.
Colter said concerning protection, the Southern Idaho Wildlife Mitigation Program has allowed the Tribes to acquire over six properties – 10,000 acres to protect in perpetuity for the benefit of wildlife. Access is allowed for tribal members and non-tribal members as long as it doesn’t impact wildlife.
He said the Fort Hall Bottoms, in his opinion, is one of the coolest spots his program manages within the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. Colter said the Tribes manage to conserve one of the most diverse habitats in about a 3,000-acre wetland depending how high the water is. It’s undeveloped and habitat for numerous species including threatened and endangered species. The Bottoms contains one of the largest cottonwood corridors on the upper Snake River that is important to the Yellow Billed Cuckoo, an endangered species that is an interesting little bird with odd behavior. It lays its eggs in the next of another bird, has her raise the young. The cuckoo is reliant on a cottonwood interface. In addition, the Ute Ladies Tresses orchid is found n the wet riparian area of the Bottoms. The two species on the Bottoms shows the amount of consideration the Tribes have for them. He noted agriculture is heavily developed all around the Bottoms.
Colter presented a number of slides showing a diversity of species that were discovered through a camera a wildlife biologist set up on a two foot by two foot platform with a ramp on an unnamed spring in the cottonwood corridor. The biologist wanted to find out if turtles were in the Bottoms and they are. In addition, muskrat, mink, river otter, American Bitters (a species of bird), egrets, Ibis, Blue Herons, red headed ducks, wood ducks and trumpeter swans were found.
“We are providing not just out there taking,” Colter said. “I’m proud to do it and appreciate the Tribes giving the opportunity to do it.
Lionel Q. Boyer, Shoshone-Bannock tribal elder and Culture Committee chairman, said he’s retired but advised our tribal people lived on this land for many years, are still here but the encroachment by non Indians is trying to take it away from us. He initially spoke in the Shoshone language and asked the audience to raise their hands if they understood what he was saying and two did. He noted there was very few and that is how the Treaty came to be, “That is how we had to negotiate – you couldn’t understand me and how could they (the Treaty negotiators) understand our ancestors? He said the Tribes have inherent sovereignty before encroachment of tribal land when they tried to remove us.
Blaine J. Edmo, former Fort Hall Business Council chairman, said it seems the dominant society wants to forget the promises made for our people and our people hold those pledges are sacred, “The Treaty our ancestors signed was a pledge and we expect the United States to live up to that.” He said the language allows us to hunt and fish off the reservation – the federal agents realized the federal government wasn’t going to live up to the obligations. In order to accommodate the immigrants, the federal government needed to get rid of aboriginal people. He said American Indians survived contrary to what the dominant society expected. “We have lived for the last 200 years plus celebrating 150 years of the Treaty goes along with that. The survival of the Treaty is the survival of our people’s existence.”
FHBC Chairman Nathan Small read the different articles of the Fort Bridger Treaty. Article I – the words forever in perpetuity – it will never end. He said there are always attempts to end the Treaty by courts, state but it means forever the rights and responsibilities – the treaties are part of our identity.
Article II – the Kamas Prairie should have been part of the reservation. A survey error resulted in the loss of over 600,000 acres. The Tribes were working with the Obama Administration to get it returned but now the Trump Administration said the Tribes would have to go to court to get it returned.
Concerning Article IV – as long as game found thereon, it’s not about where we’re at but about where we were and the Tribes still come back to the areas, “We still gather where our ancestors roamed and continue to do that.”
Small said the Tribes have to maintain the reservation and talked about the railroad yards in Pocatello that rightfully should be returned because the agreement when the railroad was built said when the land is not being used for railroad purposes, it would revert back to the Tribes. However the Tribes may have to go to court over it because the agreement is not being recognized.
Gaylen Edmo, UI law student and co-organizer of the seminar, said when one talks about the Chiefs who signed the Treaty, they were strong leaders, “What they did, it’s how we have our rights today because of them. “I felt that, the people passed it to me – the stories they fold me, I felt that love, that power and strength.”
He told a story about a Boise State teammate he wrestled with that asked why he said “we” when talking about the Treaty, “You say we – you weren’t there.” Gaylen said he got pissed off when his teammate said that and told him to shove it. “I wish I could go back in time and tell him I was there – I was there for my people, my history, my traditions, just as much as they are here with us today.”
Gaylen said the Treaty means so much to him because everyone is talking about hunting – he grew up with that, “When I think about treaties, I think of my dad teaching me how to tie my spear hooks, I think of him teaching me how to make a spear pole. I think of my uncle Blaine taking me out elk hunting and showing me how to gut an elk and the feel of elk fur in the snow.”
He recalled seeing Nathan Small at 5 a.m. at the Sawtooth Hatchery because they both were fishing. He could hear the sound of the river knowing there’s salmon in the water, knowing that we fish the same places as our ancestors did from time immemorial, “That means something and that’s strong.” He’s also seen Lionel and his family up at South Fork. Gaylen said he worked under Chad at Fisheries and knows the kind of work that’s done. He also worked for Mark EchoHawk.
“Being able to have an event like this means so much to me because there is so much more to our Treaty than the writing and the language, it’s a direct link of our people, to our history and our traditions, to carry on,” he continued. “I’m a young man, I’m still walking my path, a lot of these men have walked theirs in a good way, and I appreciate them and respect them because they’ve all helped to retain our rights in some way.” He added growing up and being the young man he is today, he sees that our people are so thankful for that.
Gaylen said he took his first buffalo last spring up at Gardiner, Montana and he takes elk every year, along with deer and moose. “When I take them I do what I was taught, I leave an offering sage, cedar, tobacco, say a prayer for not only that animal for taking it’s life but for ancestors for what they preserved and thank our leaders for continuing to carry that on because we are going to have to defend for the rest of the time – something that’s going to have to happen.”
He wanted to express his thanks for the speakers for being present and everyone else to take time to learn. “Just know that it means so much to people like me, so many of our tribal members – it’s a lot more than just a document, it’s a part of our lives, our history and our culture, the love that we feel for the land and our people, and our way of life,” Gaylen concluded.