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 http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date=022700&ID=s748652
 

Tribe moves to preserve land's health
Traditional foods and herbs becoming scarce on CdA Reservation

Tom Davenport - The Spokesman-Review

Tiffany Allgood, project manager for the Coeur d'Alene's
environment action plan, asks members of the tribe about
their environmental concerns Saturday at the Coeur d'Alene
Tribal Casino.

Becky Kramer - Staff writer
 

WORLEY, Idaho -- Bingo SiJohn remembers riding horseback through the Lovell
Valley near Plummer, picking wild raspberries with her sister.

Her family also dug camas roots and gathered herbs for traditional
medicines. They harvested the huckleberries that grew on Mica Peak.

Traditional foods are starting to disappear from the Coeur d'Alene Indian
Reservation.

''You really have to look for them now,'' said SiJohn, a 65-year-old member
of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. ''There are so many things that are gone.''

SiJohn was one of about three dozen tribal members who gathered Saturday to
talk about ecological concerns on the 334,471-acre reservation.

The health of the land is important to preserving many aspects of the Coeur
d'Alene's culture. Tribal members talked about how to keep what is important
to them -- traditional food sources, clean water, and native plants and
animals -- in the face of population growth and land-use changes.

The meeting is one of five that will help the tribe develop specific goals
for addressing environmental issues, human health concerns and quality of
life on the reservation. The goals will become part of an ''environmental
action plan'' adopted by the tribal council.

The discussion is open to non-Indian residents of the Coeur d'Alene
Reservation as well, said Tiffany Allgood, project manager.

About three dozen non-tribal members attended meetings in Tensed, Plummer
and Worley last week. A final meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday in
the Avista Corp. Auditorium in St. Maries. Comments on the draft plan will
be accepted through March 24.

Land use on the reservation has changed dramatically since
European-Americans began settling in the area around 1850, Allgood said.

About one-third of the reservation's forest, grasslands and shrub habitat
has been converted to farmland and other uses. In 1910, the federal
Homestead Act sped those changes by allowing whites to settle areas of the
reservation against the Indians' wishes.

Farming and logging have had economic benefits for Indians as well as
non-Indians, Allgood said. In 1997, for instance, individual tribal members
earned about $2.5million from the sale of timber and lease of farmland.

However, the changes have also resulted in loss of old growth timber, fish
habitat and diversity of plant and animal life, Allgood said.

Elders discussed the negative effects of agricultural chemicals, soil
erosion and the impact of timber harvests on stream flows. However, Allgood
warned them that suburban sprawl might pose the gravest threats to the
reservation's ecological health in the future. ''We worry about logging and
agriculture, but believe me, that's not the worst thing that can happen to
this reservation,'' she said.

Tribal and non-tribal members alike listed rural living -- including peace
and quiet, hunting and fishing -- as important to their quality of life.

More people will want to live in the reservation's pastoral setting as
improvements to U.S. Highway 95 make commuting to Coeur d'Alene easier, she
said. The tribe's own economic vitality, including ventures such as the
Coeur d'Alene Tribal Casino, also are attracting new residents to the area,
a report prepared by an outside economist said.

The tribal council needs to prepare for the growth by getting adequate
zoning laws into place, tribal member Charlie Morris said.

''I've lived in Florida, and I've seen developers' unmasterful use of
growth,'' he said. ''I'd hate to see it happen here on the reservation.''

---
Becky Kramer can be reached at (208) 765-7122 or by e-mail at
beckyk@spokesman.com.
 

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