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A Paper for People who Care about tbe West

The land no one wanted

Ruby Valley, Nevada, site of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley that granted whites the right to travel through Shoshone territory The Western Shoshones look homeward

___ -lby Jon Christensen This year, Ruby Valley Treaty Days off among the willows lining an good." was much like a family reunion - not irrigation ditch, a few dozen adults The speeches went on, mostly in the UBY VALLEY, Nev. - Under really a powwow but more an "Indian settled around picnic tables for a meeting gutteral Shoshone tongue punctuated the severe shadow of his going- doing," as one participant called it- put about the treaty and the future of the with English words like "treaty," R to-meeting Stetson, Frank on by Frank Temoke, the 87-year-old Western Shoshone. "federal court," "Ruby Valley" and Temoke's etched face remained great-grandson of Te-Moak, the But even here on this "Washington, D.C." impassive, even as the tribal powwow in first man to put his X mark to the somewhat hallowed ground, an "Say, where'd you say that U.S. - his pasture veered toward chaos. treaty in this same spot so argument that has festered government can be found?" cracked one The Ruby Mountains rise abruptly many years ago. Although among the Western Shoshone burly, boozy old man. "He's a pretty behind Temoke's small reservation Frank Temoke has never held . for years broke out again, hard one to catch." Robert Burton and a ranch, dusted with the red and gold of an official position, many like an irrepressible family couple of buddies had stayed up late autumn willow.and aspen. Each fall, northeastern Nevada quarrel, dividing those who wagering on hand games and sipping Western Shoshone Indians from across Shoshone still consider him hold fast to a dream of prohibited liquor in the willows. Nevada gather here, in the symbolic their "hereditary chief." recovering lost land from "You're drunk," somebody heart of their territory, to mark the Around 250 people those who say it is time to bellowed. anniversary of their treaty of "peace and showed up for the venison and accept the government's offer Frank Temoke stared straight ahead friendship" with the United States. beef barbecue, round dancing of money and get on with their as his anniversary treaty meeting Signed on Oct. I, 1863, between the and hand games that lasted late lives. threatened to-fall apart, like so many "chiefs and principal men and warriors" into the cold, starry night. 10 the "The land is not for sale," meetings before. Burton rose tottering to of Shoshone bands along the Humboldt morning, late risers straggled from the declared Frank Temoke. "I don't care the challenge. "I may not have a big hat, Trail and representatives of the United tents and trailers scattered around the about that money," he said, referring to but I've buckarooed all over this ·States government, the Treaty of Ruby pasture to a big ranch-style breakfast the more than $65 million the Treasury country," he slurred. "Why, I know Valley remains the only accord with the served up by the Temoke women as the holds in trust as a final settlement of every watering hole ...." Western Shoshone to be ratified by sun warmed the wide Ruby Valley. As Western Shoshone land claims. "They He stopped to gather his thoughts. Congress. the ranch mongrels and children romped can keep it. Too much .money 's no CorrU"ued on page 10 2-Htgb (;QUfftry News -December 31,1990 . ~ Dear friends,

Mailbag "tree murder." Steve pointed out that if everyone in the North Fork Valley cut We are getting some nice incidental their own tree for Christmas the planting notes, many of them having to do with of 1,000 seedling trees as a result of trees, from readers sending in Paonia's Earth Day celebration would he SUbscription Checks. "Kieran O'Malley more than nullified. and I both work for the USFS (Hiawatha As you might expect, this initiated NFl," writes Julie Fosbender from quite a brouhaha in the office. It was Munising, Michigan. "We enjoy reading pointed out to Steve (the conscience of about what's happening in the West- past Christmases) that a "selective" cut he used to live in Arizona and would cause no lasting harm. Steve New kids on the block Washington, I used to live in Montana countered that already-cut trees from Anyway, thanks for helping to keep the tree farms were a preferable source, if Two new interns, Mike Bencic and FS honest in the West. People working one had to have a tree. But the best Erika Zavaleta, pulled into Paonia in mid- for change on the inside, and factual solution, Steve suggested, was for December. One of the first things they IDGH COUNTRY NEWS reponing on the outside, will make the everyone to buy a live tree (for a mere and fellow intern John Homing did was to (ISSN/!)191/5657) Is pUblished FS truly a multiple-use agency." $65) and plant a Christmas forest, lay in an enormous Woodpile for their biweekly, except fur one Issue during Mary L. Cookman writes from which he was doing. The debate historic and charming butllllher frigid July and one Issue during January, by Azalea, Ore.: "Thank you for your continued over lunch at Sunnyside, our little houses up at "Intern Acres," a brisk the High Country Foundation, 124 special issue! I've sat here at my kitchen local health food bistro, where Lisa walk (two miles) uphill from town. Grand Avenue, Paonia, CO 81428. table trying to pour out my 'floodwaters' second-class postage paid at Paonia, asked Steve what his firewood was Erika is a sophoolcre studying Colorado. of agreement and apprehension about made of. Steve said he burned only anthropology at Stanford University, where POSTMASTER: send address changes our small pieces of ancient, untouched down timber, which then brought the she and a friend recently revived the to HIGH COUNTRYNEWS,Box 1090, forest left. I ran into a 'logjam' trying to final rejoinder from Sunnyside's baker: outdoor program and fomded Outpost, the Paonia, CO 81428. keep it to a few words." Mary sent three ''Then you are robbing the soil of its campus outdoor and wilderness magazine. Subscriptions are $24 per year for copies of the issue to her grandchildren. needed nutrients!" Erika, who was born and raised in New individuals and public libraries, $34 "Dear Sirs and Ms and The world of Steve Hinchman left work early that York City, got to know the WesJ.through per year fur institutions. Singlecopies Sterling News Coverage," is the salutation day, saying he needed a "mental health" bicycle racing. After backpacking and $1 plus postage and handliog. Special of a note from Robb Brady of Idaho Falls. break. Don't we all! Issues $3 each. writing last summer in Alaska, she decided "Just want to say how serviceable your to take some time out and come to HCN - newspaper is to editorial writers for any Poetry notes ''to spend winter in the mountains and to newspaper anywhere. Comprehensive, Ieam moo: about the issues affecting the penetrating, accurate, and stimulating. We haven't received much poetry places and people I care about" Pardon an old bromide: keep up the good lately, unless you want to count a When not working for the Pad< work." rhymed couplet sent in by Jeff Davis of Service (most recently at Guadalupe North Little Rock, Ark.: Mountains National Park in Texas), Mike See you in Arizona ALGAE enjoys time off to expore new places and M..,.janett I'm situations. Last winter he bicycled in New DeputyE_ If you live in Arizona, you will get Slime. ' Zealand, and in Australia assisted an Undo BodpJupl an invitation to attend our usual potluck Our editor of real poetry, Chip Earthwateh group collecting insects from Aa.-odll_ h61U1HIr dinner following the HCN board of Rawlins, lives in Pinedale, Wyo. He sent the rainforest canopy in Lamington directors meeting Jan. 26. Both events the following message to introduce the National Pad< near Brisbane. Mike's fi!st will be held at the B umble Bee Ranch poems that appear on Pages 8 and 9: ' contact with conservation. in the West was north of Phoenix. The dinner starts "The poems in this issue begin a as avolimteer.On,the,CoIoradQMoon_ earlier, at 5:30 p.m., to give people a series of wbrk by lind about the • TraiL·9oo ofhis·stiI1UJ!l11etgo;jls"besays, chance to see the country before sunset. continent's native people. We'll be is io lind, and eat, the perfect pizza. Well- From Phoenix, head north on 1-17 to the publishing further poems in the vein, wishers around the office have suggested, Bumble Bee exit. No. 248. (The exit is along with our usualland-oriented just in case he doesn't find it in Paonia, that C.LRa_ 15 miles south of Cordes Junction.) The PooIry- poetry features, over the next year. The he learn to MAKE the perfect pizza and let exit ramp curves under the interstate. poems are distinguished (and selected) the rest of us meet the goal 100. Dlone SyInln Proceed Pro # ,,, IGfwpWa five miles to the Bumble Bee by their honest-heartedness, by their Ranch entrance, on the right. All refusal to pose and mystify. The writers Your winter break? subscribers are welcome, of course. range from justly famed to brilliantly Please call the office in Paonia if you obscure, full-blood to Anglo; the single When Ed Marston was writing this need more information. criterion is that the poems ring at the column, he would justify this newspaper's bone. It's a necessary body of literature, twice-annual suspension of publication for The Great Christmas Tree Debate too little remarked, and we're proud to one issue by saying that it was done to share it with HCN's circle of readers." give readers a break. How droll, we Gfttchen NkhoIoft' As those of you who have visited us Chip himself will soon begin thought Now we are writing this column ClaIre Moore-MuniU know, our offices afford scant privacy. writing a regular column for Sierra and are announcing the winter suspension -.. So when staff writer Lisa Jones called magazine about "the links between with this issue, the year's 25th edition. Both)...,." the local Forest Service office to find out literature, American culture and the The next issue will come out Jan. 28, John Horning Michael Benck how to get a permit to cut down a natural world." Hannah Hinchman, artist 199L And we are doing it, of course, to ...... zavaJeta Christmas tree, associate editor Steve and staffer from HCN's Lander days, give you readers a break. 1- Hinchman (and everybody else) was will also write and illustrate a new -Larry Mosher and Mary Jarrett Tom BeD,.lAfIMr, Wyo. immediately alerted to the impending column for Sierra. for the staff Lynn Dickey, ~ "'yo. Judy Donald, W.-sh6lgkM, DC Michael EhIen,lJoNItler, Cob Jdf-y,_I"""" the closed area and were arrested and later Bert Flneerhut, AlI/J'M, Colo. spring up in its wake. Earth Firstl , Tom Fn.nce,Mu MoMI. released. Alan GhaJeb, an attorney for the planned to continue the "howling, KariI Frohboese. P ary, l1I4I11 Tortoise and bikers Sahara Club, called the closure "an snarling, radical, wild and offensive" Solly Go_·U ...... IND Hedden, MfNfII, lJtM conflict in Mojave Desert unconstitutional, retaliatory maneuver tradition established by its predecessor, Dan ...... lJoMI.Nr, Colo. designed to abridge [club members'] will start publication in February under Lynda S. T.yIor.~ N.M. A plan to protect habitat critical to the freedom of expression," reports the ReM Herman WaJ"llh,li'~ MotIt the direction of a seven-editor Aftdy Wiessner, n.r...r, Colo. threatened desert tortoise has enraged Gazette-Joumd. The president of the club, "collective" based in Missoula, Mont. ban A. WIllIams, PIIonlJt, ArU. members of the Sahara Club, an otf-road- Rick Sieman, said, "We're not a bunch of -qf'--' The journal - whose articles have vehicle (ORV) group. The U.S. Fish and radicals. We're family people wbo like to recommended everything from ArtIcIm ~ In"." ~ NflIIJ. are Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for enjoy the desen." demolishing hydroelectric dams to Indexed fa Ii."'_ ...... ,,,, PfI'rlotllc,d. protecting the tortoise, believes MIlogrwpl.y. EnvIroruDenw Studla Institute, taking POi shots at cattle grazing on 800 Gudc:n St., Suke D, SMIa IIIIrIJuoa. CA 93101. motorcycles damage sensitive desert Eartb First! to keep public lands - will continue to be AD rI.... to pNketton. of artJcIet In dUI "'ue habilat. The tortoise population aIrealy has are reH:rwd. "rIIe for permlnloft 10 print any irreverent and controversial, Gabriela a contagious bowUng articles or UbtratJon •. Contribution. (manu- been devastated by respiratory Barrett, a member of the new editorial Kri.... photoe, ~) wm be .. d oed widl . disease. In an ongoing conflict, the BID'eaII The Earth First! Journal, which has the·M 1 ... tIwt the edI.,. cannot be held slaff, told The Billings Gazelle. relpoufble for 10.. or damate- EacIoee • -.eIf- of Land Management lemporarily been the mouthpiece for the radical Meanwhile, former Journal editor John iiidda sn:I! Mampeel amcIope willa all umollched prohibited access to'lands annually used Earth First! environmental movement for Davis and Earth First! co-founder Dave ...... AoIu to auare return. A:rtIcIo and Ieuen since 1967 by bikers racing from Barstow, _ ..._ .....,..- ...... the_of a decade, suspended publication in Foreman plan 10 start publishing Wild Ihe_ Calif., to Las Vegas, Nev. An alternative December. It shut down its operation in Ear/h, a quarterly focusing less on AdYertfala.8 Information I.... nable upon race was held Nov. 24 in the Johnson Tucson, Ariz., because of FBI RqUl!Itt. To Iaaft • MIll" co..,. HIlt 10 • friend, specific actions and more on biodiversity Valley, eX IS designated ORV in teod ... his or Iter· addra •. Write -to Box 1090. one areas harassment, discord within the group, and wilderness issues. Wild Eanh, due to hoDIa. CO .1 .... CaD ",." ea..." N... In the Mojave Desen, bot nine riders, angered and a workload that strained its four- CAlIooU> .. 30315.,.-. appear next spring, ~illnot be linked by the mginal race's cancellation, enleled person slaff. Two publicalions will with the Earth First! organization. Hlgb Country News - December 31, 1990 - 3

The Northwest's coming energy shortage poses hardchoices For decades the Pacific Northwest cogeneration plants, which use generators has been awash in cheap, plentiful to provide both heat and electricity. electricity - the bounty of a series of • Reducing the lead time it takes to massive federal hydroelectric dams on the, bring resources into production. The Columbia River. The glut is now over. council recommends that the Bonneville According to area utility and power Power Administration and utilities experts, the Northwest's traditional complete the pre-construction work power surpluses have been eaten up by (siting, licensing and designing) needed huge population gains and economic to bring on additional resources, so they growth. The shift has triggered what can go into effect quickly when needed. may be the region's most challenging • Confirming the availability of round of power planning yet "promising" but uncertain resources, The Northwest PowerPlanning including new conservation technologies, Council has released a draft 2Q-year plan solar and geothermal energy, wind power for meeting the Northwest's fast-rising andbiomass conversion. electrical needs. Right now the region But because alternative energy sits in "load-resource balance," the plan sources may not be able to keep' up with says, but utilities are searching for ways rapid growth, the council also recommends to avert an energy deficit by the mid- that three sites be secured for new, coal- 1990.. According to the plan, regional fired plants. In addition, the council asks demand by the year 20 10 may grow by that a determination be made whether two 7,000 megawatts - enough power for currently mothballed WPPSS plants, seven cities the size of Seattle. WNP-I at Hanford, Wash .. and WNP-3 at The council was created in 1980 Satsop, Wash., should be made operational when the Northwest Power Act or terminated. The Bonneville Power authorized it to guide the region's energy Authority and investors have been development and protect fisheries spending $11 million a year to preserve the affected by dams in the Columbia River plants. Both are more than half completed. basin. While the council is strictly an "If we have high rates of growth or advisory body with no regulatory lose large parts of the system, there's authority, it is required to give first always the possibility that we can't defer priority to conservation, followed by thermal resources any longer," says cogeneration and thermal resources. Washington council member Tom Only then can it recommend building Trulove. "That's why we have to begin traditional power sources such as answering the questions about them now hydropower, coal 'and nuclear plants. to the extent that we can." The council's draft 1991 Northwest For Golden, however, the nuclear Conservation and Electric Power Plan option isn't even worth discussing. includes conservation and alternative "We've tried that approach before and power supplies. But in order to meet Winds lit the Columbia River Gorge proved too strong for the bIggest wind what .we ended up with is a S()().percent rapid load growth, the plan recommends turbine in the world, erected and later dlsmanded near Golflendale, Wash. rate increase, mothballed plants and the that three new coal-fired power plants be ~ Northwest Power Coundlsays a new site in western Montana could largest bond default in history," he says. cons~Ied:·ItalsooSuggests·that,officials "You cannot simultaneously prepare for generate.up to 3,000 megawatts. "" , eoosillef 'reViViJfg'two 'of' the mothballed . ' and avoid a nuclear and coal energy nuclear powerstations owned by the conservationists, who petitioned under would result in "significantly different" future. The council's job is not just to sit Washington Public Power Supply the Endangered Species Act this year to recommendations. "It's clear to me that back and see how the world develops, System (WPPSS). give protection status to several stocks of no one has thought about how but also to shape the choices." Environmenlal critics say the plan is Snake and Columbia river salmon, are [agricultural] water conservation or A series of public hearings about the overblown and not aggressive enough unwilling to see fish continue to take a storage high up in the' basin would plan will be held throughout the about conservation. The Northwest back 'seat to hydropower - which benefit both fish and energy," he says. Northwest from January through March. Conservation Act Coalition has a provides two-thirds of the region's The plan's strategy calls for: For meeting dates and locations and a visionary plan of its own that would avoid electricity. "We need to start running the • Capturing low-cost, environ- copy of the plan, contact the council toll- the need to build coal or nuclear plants, river more like a river and less like a mentally benign energy in the 'form of free at 800/222-3355 from Idaho, says executive director K.C. Golden. power plant," says Golden. increased conservation and efficiency Montana and Washington, and 800/452- "Four thousand megawatts of That would mean ordering dam improvements in transmission and 2324 from Oregon. conservation -approximately the operators to release more water in the generation. The council also calls for amount of power that four large nuclear spring and summer to help salmon additional small-scale hydropower and -Jeff Mani plants produce - are not even migrate downstream, says Golden. considered," says Golden. The council's Water is stored in periods of high run-off plan says that 3,000 megawatts can be to make it available during the high- "International Sierra Society." Wall read captured through various conservation demand winter months. from the document: "Today we can measures over the next 20 years. Golden The 1,058-page plan says little Say Watt? proudly proclaim that in the state of says a more vigorous approach could about fish and adopts a wait-and-see Wyoming there is no logging on any yield 7,000 megawatts. stance toward the salmon petitions. The Former Secretary of the Interior public lands. Cattle and sheep grazing by As Golden's criticisms, reveal, the council itself is part of a "pre-decisional" James Watt is at it again. At a recent the profiteering livestock industry has contest of power planning has grown group, established by Oregon Sen. Mark meeting of the Wyoming Association of been eradicated, thanks to the untiring increasingly complicated. Once-popular Hatfield, that is trying to develop a Conservation Districts, Watt said that efforts of those pioneers of the 1990. coal-fired power plants' are now deemed recovery plan for the salmon that would environmentalists, journalists and who initiated our program, 'Cattle Free environmentally hazardous. The new avert their being listed as threatened or politicians represent the gravest threats in '93.' " Donn Kesselheim of the Clean Air Act amendments place further endangered by the National Marine to the Western way of life. According to Wyoming Outdoor Council says that restrictions on emissions of sulfur Fisheries Service. the Casper Star-Tribune, Watt said many of the audience members, most of dioxide and nitrogen oxides, precursors The plan demonstrates the lack of homesteaders and families like his who them ranchers, believed Watt was of acid rain. A proposed carbon tax to integration of the council's power turned an "undesirable desert into reading from an official Sierra Club reduce carbon dioxide, the major planning and fish protection programs, productive land" were "the real document contributor to global warming, would according to fish advocate Ed Chaney in conservationists." But, he said, "none of make coal power even more expensive. Idaho. Historically, the council has these conservation practices would be Public acceptance of nuclear power is produced an energy "plan" and dealt permitted today because the special- still low because of WPPSS's recent with fish in a separate-"program." interest groups have dictated excessive financial fiasco. Rising oil prices created "I've got a very fundamental and burdensome rules and regulations." That's one way to repel the Grincb by the Persian Gulf situation could cause problem with the council's approach," Unless locals organize, Watt said, who stole Christmas. - people to switch from gas to electricity for Chaney says. "Separate plans perpetuate multiple use on federal lands will be In an effort to dissuade people from home heating, adding to electrical the problems that got them into this mess entirely prohibited in the future. To illegally cutting Christmas trees from demand. In 1998, a 30-year agreement in the first place. When you do separate emphasize his point, Watt quoted from a campus grounds, the University of Idaho WIder which Canada has sold hydmpower plans, anything you do for fish is fictitious document that he wrote in Moscow sprays trees over eight feet to Northwest utilities expires. The 500 perceived as taking away from power." himself, dated 2090 and titled" A tall with a combination of skunk scent megawatts supplied under the agreement Chaney says he will urge the council Century of Progress and a Change for and coyote urine. The smell, then reverts to Canada. to scrap the latest plan in favor, of a the Future." Watt attributed the treatise unnoticeable in cold weather, becomes In addition, sportsmen, tribes and combined fish and power plan, which to a fictional organization called the extremely pungent indoors. Line R

4 -~Higb Co""",, News - December 31, 1990 How a gold mining company keeps expanding in Montana

The Little Rocky Mountains rise like a green island out of eastern Montana's endless sea of brown and golden plains. Once relatively unknown, the Little Rockies have become the center of a bitter dispute between two Plains Indian miles and a Canadian gold mining company. For both, the mountain range is a source of fabulous wealth. The Little Rockies were formed when an igneous intrusion pushed through the thick limestone underlying the Great Plains: The result is a convoluted landscape of rocky peaks, cliffs and caves, small streams and springs, and a globally unique plant community. Rich in both archaeological sites and metals, the mountains belong partly to the Bureau of Land Management and partly to the Fort BeUrnap Indians. The reservation's two miles - the Gros Ventres and the Assiniboines - have long considered the mountains therr home and a source' of the things necessary to life: meat, plants and herbs; The Zortman-Landusky mine In Montana's Uttle Rocky Mountains clear water, and places for prayer and proposed SuUivan Park pad would cover acres and include several cyanide heap- Butler insists that issuing a 'two- solitude. That solitude, however, was 100 acres and hold 50 million tons of leach pads. phased EA on the Zortman expansion is shattered when Pegasus Gold Inc., began ore, making it the largest heap-leach pad "They have done a tiered series of not a violation of the National turning the BLM section of the ever built in Montana, according to EAs in an attempt to avoid an EIS ," says Environmental Policy Act, which mountains into gold in 1979. , officials of the Montana Department of Marble. An EIS would force the requires the BLM and the state to Using cyanide' heap-leach State Lands, which oversees mine agencies to do in-depth studies of the evaluate all impacts and their cumulative technology, the company's Zortman- reclamation. mine's impacts, look at the cumulative effect. Construction of the pad and Landusky mine has become the 12th to But the gold comes at a high price effects of both current and past associated roads during the first phase 14th largest producer of the precious for the people on the reservation. Today expansions, re-evaluate impacts to the will cause "no significant disurbance," metal in the United States. Between 'the sounds of trucks and explosions are Native American religion and the two he says. Meanwhile, the state has 500,000 to 700,000 ounces of gold have heard throughout most of the range, tribes and bring in other agencies like the reserved the right to contrul how the pad been taken out of the Little Rockies over which is about 35 miles in diameter. The Environmental Protection Agency, says is used when the studies are done. The the last century, most of it by Pegasus. groundwater has suffered, and large piles Marble. second EA and permit will ensure there The Zortman-Landusky mine is part of mine and heap-leach tailings are He is also concerned that if Zortman is no significant impact there as wen. of the greatest gold boom ever 10hit the eroding into the headwaters of King wins the permit battle, the ,company may Marble says that is ridiculous. "We West - just one of scores of new Creek. The creek flows north through the soon ask for another EA to enlarge the say that is all the more reason to do an cyanide heap-leach gold operations to. be reservation. A series of beaver dams mine again and expand operations from EIS. In effect they are tiering the tiers." developed in Montana and other have been abanaon'ed as they became oxide ores to sulfide ores, which could He says Pegasus has·tremendous·clout in Western states in the last 10 years (HeN, choked with silt'from the mine tailings. ' poteittially cause: far more serloui water ,.Moriiiihii-iihtl 'liiilt'~lferi';ihe!Iiefuiiit\Vas 6/4/90). Today, that boom is still Further downstream, five decorated pollution.' , ','" .' ..,., "lipi\rovl!iffa§i"J'uii'e) SilfuSl~ptlei\s;' the growing. , poles mark the two tribes' Sun Dance "In 1979 we protested," says , 'state' s Repu blican: governor, hand With claims made under the 1872 grounds. Here, as in other parts of the Catherine Halver, a resident of nearby delivered the permit to Pegasus' Helena Mining Law, Zortman Mining Co., a West, there is a steady increase in Lodgepole, Mont. 'The insidious thing is offices, wholly-owned subsidiary of Pegasus, traditional Native American practices, that the mining began on a small scale "[The state and the BLM] have done recently proposed and won approval of a and the Sun Dance, the central religious and every year they have been granted a everything possible to facilitate these major expansion. The company wants to ceremony of the Plains people, is new permit. No one at first realized the mining expansions and have denied enlarge two open-pit mines, move its growing, extent of the project." every request for an EIS," says Marble. processing plant, expand one cyanide During last summer's Sun Dance- The Lewistown, Mont., BLM otfice 'They have ignored, the concerns of the heap-leach pad and build another within hours after Montana and the BLM and the Department of State Lands argue Native American people, which is massive new pad at Sullivan Park on approved the expansion - an explosion that they have looked at the cumulative especially relevant because the Rock Creek. shook the mountains. The blast disturbed effects. Scott Haight, the BLM's district Department of Interior is legally the The gold is obtained through a the dance and turned many of the geologist, says, "As long as we are trustee for the interests of Native cyanide leaching process. After the ore reservation's Native Americans into working with oxide ore bodies that are Americans." is mined and crushed, it is spread out in diehard opponents. non-acid-producing, using the same If an ,EIS is required, the tribes want a giant heap and sprinkled with a "It was hard to be in the Sun Dance mining and metal recovery techniques to know . more about potential cyanide solution. As that solution when the explosion went off," Rhonda that were analyzed in the original EIS, groundwater contamination, reclannation, trickles through, it dissolves the tiny Snell, one of the participants, recalls. "It we are comfortable that we can assess impacts to the ecology of the mountains, gold particles, which are then made me angry, and when Sun Dancing cumulative impacts in the EA process .... and alternative milling techniques such recapto.red. The cyanide is re-used. The one should not feel angry. I pray 10 the If they start looking at sttlfide ore bodies, as indoor vat leaching. But their real Great Spirit to let them know how they we will do an EIS. " concern is for their sacred grounds and are hurting our people." Haight says many of the problems religion. .Over the past year, two religious with the mine are addressed in the II For centuries the Plains Indians have ecological groups, Red Thunder and stipulations attached to the expansion come to this and other island ranges fOr Increased budget may Island Mountain Protectors: have formed permit. One prohibits blasting for four the Sun Dance, and have made their restore Montana's parks on 'the reservation. They appealed days a year during the Sun Dance. vision quests from the tops of the peaks. Zortman's permit to the Interior Board Another allows construction of the "They've been forced off most vision Montana's needy state parks may of Land Appeals. The Fort Belknap Sullivan 'Park heap-leach pad but quest sites in the Little Rockies," says receive an annual $6.3 million boost. A Community Council, the reservation's prevents the company from loading it or Marble. "Wherever you go there are committee formed in 1989 by the official government, joined the appeal using it until studies are done to evaluate huge, ugly mines and noisy trucks Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks this fall after the tribes rejected a plan to several unknown factors in a-heap-leach running around" has released a plan to salvage and drill for gold on the reservation by a pad of this size. John Fitzpatrick, director of improve the state's 60 ailing parks. referendum vote of two to one. Once the studies are done, the BLM communications and governmental Some Montana sites are plagued by The Indians want an Environmental and the state will write an addendum 10 affairs for Pegasus, says the company erosion, vandalism, problems with Impact Study, according 10 Don Marble, ,the EA and either require further has looked at the religious question. health and safety, and lack of attorney for Red Thunder.. When the environmental analysis or issue a second "There are no such sites in the area to be interpretive programs. Increased park mine first opened in 1979, the BLM and permit to operate the pad. That permit affected," he says. "Most of those user fees, higher taxes and restored coal- the Montana Department of State Lands will set operating procedure and identified by the appellants were miles tax revenue will pay the bill if the (which share permitting authority) wrote reclannation standards. away." • committee's plan is accepted by an EIS and permitted a small mine "We have not made a decision on The Interior Board of Land Appeals Montana's 1991 Legislature. Each year covering 530 acres. Since then the BLM Sullivan Park," says Tommy Butler, has promised an expedited review. In the an average of $25,000 has been spent to and the state have written 10 anomey fer the Montana Department of meantime, construction of the Sullivan maintain each park in Montana, Environmental Assessments - one a State Lands. "It's huge, and we were Park heap-leach pad is almost completed compared to $145,000 spent on year. - permitting 10 separate unable to make a decision on that and mining continues. Colorado state parks. The committee expansions, that total more than 1,200 without further study." - Greg Bechle, Steve Hinchman report expects an $8.6 million budget. I T!!9'! LRr.tIE+Y2

• Higb Country News-December 31,1990-5 The delicate job of transplanting the trumpeter swan

HARRIMAN STATE PARK, Idaho vegetatioo at Harriman this year to support - The trumpeter swan, a 25-pound an estimated 100 swans. The vegetation is adult female, was quiet as she was the winter staple for swans, which eat 20 banded, tagged and checked for gender. pounds per bird pet day, but stale biologisls She protested just once, flailing her legs say there is only about one-fourth the as she was flipped onto ber back to have normal growth. One possible cause, they the underside of her tail marked with a say, is severe overgrazing by the irK:reaWlg bright yellow dye. number of birds living in Yellowstone and Trapped in the morning at Red Rock wintering at Harriman. Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Trumpeter swans once ranged Montana, tagged at Harriman in Idaho throughout North America, wintering in and shipped that night to the Fon Hall places like Cbesapeake Bay and the Gulf Indian Reservation in southeastern of Mexico. Today two populations Idaho, this swan is pan of an aggressive survive. The Rocky Mountain population bid to move hundreds of scarce numbers about 2,000 and winters in trumpeters out of the western fringes of Yellowstone, and the Canadian-Alaskan the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. population numbers about 12,000 and Among all the uncertainties about winters along the Washington coast. this unique swan-capture program, there Earlier this year the U.S. Fish and is one overriding danger: If the swans Wildlife Service turned down a petition are left to winter in Harriman, they will to list the Yellowstone population of the run out of food and hundreds will die, rare bird as a threatened species. some within a matter of weeks. Eventually, Idaho biologist Ruth "The odds of them being alive at the Shea would like to see the Yellowstone end of the winter are not very high," said swans transplanted as far as the Ruth Shea, an Idaho Department of Fish Midwest. But the dozen federal and state and Game regional ,biologist who has agencies involved in this year's tracked the Yellowstone trumpeter for trumpeter transplant didn't have time to 14 years. "This is not the normal way put together such an ambitious plan. For you would do range expansion." now, the swans will be moved to six The Post-RegisterlRobert Bower Instead, it's an emergency rescue. - warmer locations in southern Idaho, Kent C1egg'Oeft) and Rod Drewien with a tagged trumpeter swan Faced with a shrinking food supply at Utah and Wyoming. Harriman, biologists realized last August Winter is a risky season for the which is then collected in a salmon neL Harriman. They are more optimistic about that the only hope was to move as many trumpeter, North America's largest This method only works during reuaining cygnets and young adult swans. trumpeters as possible before winter. waterfowl species. Two years ago, low about half of the lunar cycle. Wben the So far, the captured swans appear to When trapping got under way in water flows combined with bitter cold to skies are clear and the moon is bright, be in good physical shape, but many mid-November, more than 300 swans cause the Henry's Fork of the Snake swans can see trappers long before they trumpeters may still die, and this were already at Harriman, said park River to freeze at Harriman. More than get in range. The birds then flyaway. prospect puts Harriman park officials in manager Gene Eyraud. By late 100 swans died. Biologists don't know how the birds a delicate spot The wintering swans are November 70 swans had been moved. Trappers dnn'tknow the best way to will react to new winter range, or if. a popular attraction for cross-country But as winter unfolds, more swans are catch swans in the winter; it's never been they'll return to Harriman. One swan, skiers and photographers, who will not ",~~~!t\4,to.aqiv.e .atHarriman and.Red done before. So fll1;,the most effective released at Bruneau Dunes, returned to like ~ sight of dying and dead birds. RockLakes, and trappers will be, even method has been "spotlighting." Harriman within four days. "We knew the public would fry us if busier. Last winter more than 700 swans Wea,ring a football helmet with an "It may rot be a total negative," Shea we didn't do anything," said Harriman's wintered at the refuge - one-third of the attached light powered by a loud said. '"!bat bird now knows a wboIe lot of Eyraud. "It's been a generally well- wintering population in the Greater generator, a biologist floats the river late habitat 250 miles south ofbere." received program so far, but we knew Yellowstone Ecosystem. at night to approach a trumpeter at close Biologists say it will betougb to 1mlk we bad 10 handle it right," There is only enough aquatic range. The light and noise stun the swan, older swans of the babiFof wintering in - Kevin Richert 'Son of Sagebrush Rebellion' is now playing in Nevada, I CARSON CITY, Nev. miners in the new Western revolt The 500-pm:ent increase in public-land grazing Widespread reports of the resurrection of' current chairman of the Western States fees in the lmt Congress. And miners face the Sagebrush Rebellion are greatly Caucus is Albert Ouellette, a Republican an increasingly powerful effort to reform. exaggerated. So says a founder of the activist from Denver who moved to the controversial 1872 Mining Law, which movement, Nevada rancher and state Washington two years ago to set up his. virtually guarantees low-cost access to senator Dean Rhoads. But read on. own lobbying business. mineral lodes on public lands. , . Wool of a "revival" Or the Sagebrush "We're far broader than 'the Many of these battles pit repre- Rebellion srread rapidly around the West in Sagebrush Rebellion," said Ouellette, sentatives from Eastern states against December when 40 conservative who claims support among Western Westerners, especially in the Senate. The Republicans gathered behind closed doors lawmakers" mining and timber industry Western States Caucus announced its in Las Vegas to plot ways to take control of executives, recreation businesses, and resurgence in mid-December letters to regional development away from "conser- elected officials in towns hemmed in by President Bush and Western Republican vationists" and the administration of the public lands and limited water supplies. senators. The. letters called for "defining self-proclaimed "environmental pesident," Ouellette said many conservative Western problems and needs from the George Bush, Westerners are upset by Bush admin- West and not the East." Westerners are once again "irritated istration actions. These include the "People in the East who impose and disenchanted" with federal policy on appointment of an environmentalist, restrictions and pass laws have no idea of the effect on people," said Ouellette. "We public lands, said Rhoads, "but there is Dean Rhoads William Reilly, to head the Environ- no organized effort to recreate the mental Protection Agency, pledges of need to be more effective politically and Sagebrush Rebellion." The new revolt, other Western state legislatures. "no net loss" of wetlands, support for economically to control our own future." however, represents a "broad coalition While ranchers were the main protecting the spotted owl in Nonhwest Topping the new agenda of the with more support than the Sagebrush firebrands in the Sagebrush Rebellion, timberlands and the veto by Reilly of the Western States Caucus is an effort to Rebellion ever bad," he said. Rhoads said he was the only rancher at proposed Two Forks dam near Denver. draw the line in the U.S. Senate, the last The first shots in the original recent meetings of the Western States "The White House doesn't seem to redoubt of cons-ervative Western Sagebrush Rebellion were fired in 1979 ' Caucus, the group that is carrying the torch be paying attention to the problems in representatives at the national level. But from the Nevada state capitol in Carson of the movement's resurgence. Made up of the West as far as land use, jobs, mining, Ouellette said the Western States Caucus City when Rhoads sponsored legislation conservative Republicans, the caucus was water and the environment," said also will be a sounding board for 1992 calling on the United States government to fmned in the late 197~ to support Ronald Ouellette. "We're not happy with the presidential hopefuls - perhaps even a tum control of Western public lands ovec to Reagan's run for the presidency. Reagan way Bush bas allowed these problems to cballenger to Bush. the states. The Sagebrush Rebels argued was the titular bead of the group while be develop without an equitable solution." Despite the clear efforts to distance that Western states entered the Union on an was president, and many of the original Western conservatives feel ham- itself from the Sagebrush Rebellion, the unequal footing when the federal rebels became political insiders doring his mered by recent decisions reflecting the new Western conservative revolt is still government took control of the vast public administration. But the movement's leaders growing strength of the nationwide harkening to the past. The first public domain in the West. Federal agerries, SlrlI now feel betrayed by President Bush. environmental movement. And despite meeting of the rejuvenated Western as the Bureau of Land Management and the Rhoads compares the Bush regime to the the defeat of numerous environmental States Caucus will be a "Ronald Reagan Forest Service, today govern about 80 'tarter pesidency. measures 0/1 November ballots, they are Reunion" in Los Angeles early in 1991 percent of the region's land. As therebe1lioo. Meanwhile, urban politicos have still fearful of the future. to raise seed money. caught fire, similar bills were passed by five largely replaced ranchers and bardrock Western ranchers narrowly escaped a - Jon Christensen HOTLINE First bot dump in a decade? No low-level radioactive dumps have been built in the United States in 10 years. That could change in the near future when the California Deparunent of Heil\th Services decides on a plan by the U.s. Ecology Company to build a dump in the Mojave Desert. The dump, which could hold as much as 36 million cubic feet of contaminated materials in its 30- year life, would be built on a I,OOO-acre site west of Needles, Calif., just across the Colorado River from Arizona According to The Arizona Republic, the plan allows Arizona to truck its waste to the site if Arizona agrees to build a similar dump to share with California when this one is full. Critics fear possible water contamination; low-level radioactive waste dumps, unlike those for hazardous waste, are not required to have water-tight liners. Donna House, a resident of Needles and a member of People Against Radioactive Dumps, charges that U.S. Ecology has a poor track record and has built two previous dumps that have leaked. Officials from U.S. Ecology, who Bison at sunrise, Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin have already spent $20 million on design and planning, feel the site is ideal because the groundwater lies more than 700 feet Montana bison hunts presage a range war deep. But House, who has collected 4,000 Montana's largest hunting disagreed with the rationale behind the forest for thewinter, cows were not signatures on petitions- opposing the organization has joined' animal-rights hunt. The state and its livestock expected to move back onto federal project, says, "When they close the other activists and conservationists in producers spent $30 million trying to grazing allotments until spring, about the radioactive dumps in the West, we're condemning the state's hunt on bison eradicate brucellosis from its cattle same time the bison would normally going to be dumped on and dumped on. leaving Yellowstone National Park this herds, and finally succeeded in 1984, leave the Gallatin and move back into We've got to stop that from happening." • winter. when Montana was ,declared the park. K.L. Cool', director of Montana's "brucellosis-free:' Brucellosis, carried "How can bison spread brucellosis sotuuon to Colorado Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, by many wild animals, causes cows to to cattle if there's no cows around to conceded earlier this month that the abort their young. I catch the disease?" Scott asked. "In the drinking water pollutkm controversial nature of the hunt "had An estimated 50 percent of absence of domestic livestock, the A major pipeline plan will replace' given hunters a black eye." But Cool has Yellowstone's 2,500 free-roarning bison reason for shooting those animals nitrate-contaminated drinking water with since announced that the hunt would not are thought to 'carry brucellosis. Because . doesn't exist. There's no economic reason and there's no good disease clean mountain water in several northern be suspended, even after a lawsuit fJlect infection could decimate the state's Colorado towns. Some Platte Valley by an animal-rights organization, cattle industry. there seemed to be a reason." fanning towns have reached contamination criticism from conservationists and the compel1ing • reason to shoot' Bureaucratic turf warfare is the levels five times higher than the federal evaporation of support from the Montana Yellowstone's charismatic species. other major issue, according to Scott. He limit of 10 milligrams per liter of drinking Wildlife Federation. In 1985, however, some officials in said ranchers want no challenge to their water. The Northern Colorado Water A similar hunt scheduled for the the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department exclusive use of grazing lands on Conservancy District's $100 million National Elk Refuge near Jackson, opposed their agency's involvement in national forests surrounding project will pump water from the Big Wyo., was called off earlier this year by recruiting hunters to solve what was Yellowstone, and neither the Forest Thompson and Windy Gap projects to Wyoming's state game officials after an really a livestock protection problem. Service nor the states are likely to grant Platte Valley towns and rural areas of animal-rights organization sued, Nevertheless, legislators ordered the unilateral authority to the Park Service to much of northeastern CoIOOldo and pan eX charging that the biological review had state to allow hunters to kill bison that direct uses on lands they now control. Nebraska. An outline of the plan is not been thorough. However, Cool said crossed the invisible, man-made Former National Park Service director expected in early 1991. AcconIingkl Jerry his agency was mandated by the boundary of the national park. -Geotge B. Hartzog war,ned)ii ..I989: \ . "Competitiveness among government' Biberstine, head of the Colorado Montana Legislature to use hunting as a During the winter of ·i989, after Department of Health's drinking-water tool in halting bison from potentially forest fires within the park burned agencies for turf is as intense as between rrogram, nitrates threaten pregnant women spreading brucellosis' to state cattle herds critical range land and pushed hundreds businesses for market share." , and babies and are direcdy related to loss (HeN, 10/8/90). of bison across the northern park Earlier this month the Montana of lQ and slow. development in children. "It's been a real agony," said Cool's boundary, 569 animals were shot - over Board of Livestock added to the federal turf issue by asking the Agriculture Nitrates from fertilizers, feedlot animal assistant, Jim Posewitz,a respected half of the northern herd. That shooting - the largest bison Department to quarantine the bison by wastes and human sewage that seep into naturalist and sportsman. "Our ensuring that none stray out of groundwater cause contamination. A five- department had the reputation of being hunt in the U.S. since the 19th century - was done to protect an equal or lesser Yellowstone Park into forest year Environmental Protection Agency one of the finest wildlife agencies in the lands.Yellowstone Superintendant study found.low levels of nitrates in more West, but all this hunt has done is give number of cattle in the region from Robert Barbee said he was surprised by than 50 percent of drinking-water wells us a bad image." potential exposure to brucellosis, according to Pacelle. the request. "There's just no sense in nationwide. The unprecedented solidarity between sportsmen, anti-hunters and Michael Scott, Rocky Mountain exchanging cheap shots," he said. Bowing out environmentalists in opposing the hunt representative for The Wilderness Pubfic values, however, are has nothing to do with hunting. Wayne Society, says brucellosis is not the changing. Scott says reform is being Utah Gov. Norm Bangerter, R, has Pacelle, national director of the Fund For paramount concern of bison ushered in by millions of people announced that he will not seek re- Animals, which has sued the state to stop management, as the livestock industry nationwide who believe native wildlife election for a third term in 1992, the hunt, says parties to the controversy portays it. The more relevant issues are deserves equal, if not greater, footing surprising friends and foes alike. are realizing it is a land-use problem. geography and turf, Scott claims. He than cattle. This concern began with Formerly the speaker of the state House 'This is now a range war," Pacelle conceded, however, that there were executive withdrawals of public land to of Representatives, Bangerter has spent said. "It's foreshadowing a broader battle legitimate concerns in 1989 about accommodate wildlife more than a half 18 years in state office. In the past he to be fought on public lands: To me, it is bison's transmitting brucellosis to catde century ago. Now Congress is frequently voted against wilderness, but nothing short of outrageous to kill native, on private land adjacent to the park. appropriating millions of dollars to buy this year he moved to establish a state charismatic wildlife like bison on public The dynamics this year are winter range, he said. Department of Environmental Quality. land solely to benefit the interests of a markedly different, Scott said. Several Until this month the Montana In Colorado, Denver Mayor Federico few cattlemen on private land who want hundred bison from the Merty Mountain Wildlife Federation has been the leading Pena also announced that he will not to protect non-native species. The days of herd had massed along the western park private advocate of the bison hunt. But seek re-election for his third term in the cauIe barons are over." boundary that adjoins the Gallatin Scott Snelson, its conservation director, 1991. Pena led the campaigns for Since 1985, when the Montana National Forest. Eleven bison have been now sees the possibility of "a free- Denver's controversial new airport and Legislature ordered the state game shot this year in the Gallatin, although roaming bison herd" through "land convention center, but was also a leader agency to hold a lottery-based the closest domestic cow was more than acquisition and increased private in the city's clean air campaign. "reduction" of bison, few critics have 20 miles away. Driven off the national landowner tolerance of bison." c. T"M' LSI 'fLy?

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•• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~H~tg~b~Co~U~nI~ry~M~ew~S~~Dec~~ember~~~3~l'~1~990~~~7 On Dec. 10 the federation drafted a proposal that, without expanding the park boundary, would create a "wildlife Drought afflicts bison in Henry Mountains buffer zone" that would allow wildlife to roam freely outside the park on public A third of Utah's wild bison herd won't make it through Southern Utah needs snow this winter to put moisture back into me parched desert If it doesn't snow, the drought could land. Bison that approach cattle on the winter. Four years of drought have forced Utah's wildlife private lands would still be hunted. agency to issue 115 special bison hunting permits in addition continue next summer. Snelson, Pacelle and Scott all agree to the usual 65. ' "Drought is the main reason for taking so many buffalo," Karpowitz explained, "but we also have an agreement with the that accommodation must be reached if The herd in the Henry Mountains of Utah is the only free- Yellowstone's bison are to remain free- roaming, huntable herd in the United States. For 27 of the last BLM to limit the herd to 250." Grazing rights on the Henry Mountains have long been roaming and not restricted by artificial 40 years, a limited number of hunters have 'been allowed to boundaries. Scott and other kill these trophy animals in "once-in-a-lifetime" hunts. allocated to local ranchers. Bison, which eat the same things environmentalists believe a land-use It was no different this year until wildlife officers counted as cattle, are competition for an already scarce resource - plan similar to those adopted in cities the herd and checked the quality of their desert range. The grass. Under the 1982 agreement that limited the bison herd to should be drafted by the federal agencies biologists expected to find 350 animals;', but they counted 250 head, pinon and juniper forests were cleared to create to prescribe acceptable development almost 600. The bison had stripped their summer and their more forage for the cattle and bison. , activities on private land, which winter range,looking for food on drought-ravaged land. The long drought forced caulemen to take their livestock constitutes a large percentage of winter Fifty years ago, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources off the range earlier this year, and wildlife officials fear transplanted 18 Yellowstone bison near Robbers Roost and the another year of drought will kill the better grasses and do range for migrating park wildlife. An ) analogy, they say, is that most local , Dirty Devil River in southern Utah, an area so remote that it long-term damage to the bison's habitat Karpowitz points out that bison hardy animals that governments use standard zoning was one of the last places in the continental United States to are ~-~ be explored and mapped. The herd gradually moved west until have pulled throughdroughts before. "But," he adds, "the ordinances to prohibit industrial activity I in residential neighborhoods. it settled in the Henry Mountains. long-range future of the buffalo herd in the Henry Mountains "I' m not arguing confiscation of This small mountain range rises above the desert plateaus depends on improving their habitat" \ private property," Scott said. "But mere between Capitol Reef National Park and Lake Powell. Its Habitat improvement in southern Utah means clearing would not be a bison issue if there were highest peak, Mount Ellen, has an altitude of 11,615 feet. The some of the pinyon and juniper forests lhat cover the hillsides by dragging a massive chain across the ground to uproot the not private 1ands adjacent to the park." bison range from the scree-covered peak to the lowlands of The state, meanwhile, has Apple Brush Flat and the canyons of Tarantula Mesa. They trees. Last summer wilderness groups protested the practice. Karpowitz says without hesitation that selective chainings announced several management roam across 600 square miles. I alternatives that include trapping The herd usually summers on the hillsides of Mount Ellen create grassy oases for wildlife and cattle. The agency had plans for limited chainings in the Henry Mountains, but several j Yellowstone's bison and trying to and Mount Pennell. But this summer the bison spent August inoculate them against brucellosis - and September on their winter range, eating the scarce grasses environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, appealed the actions advocated by livestock between the sagebrush down to stubble. plan, stopping projects for the next several years. j interests. "Usually mere's four-to-six-inch-high grass for the herd Karpowitz warns: "Without any habitat improvement there Cool, Montana's Fish, Wildlife and to winter on. Right now there's nothing," said Jim Karpowitz, will be less wildlife, and livestock people can expect less forage Parks director, angrily blames the bison the regional big game manager. "If we have a severe winter, for livestock. There will be less of everylhing for everybody." problem on Yellowstone managers, who, some of the animals could starve. We're trying to avoid this - Vicky Osborn he said, have neglected their with a bigger harvest" Vicky Osborn is an associate news producer at KUTV, responsibility by allowing the animals, to The drought has put the buffalo in a no-win situation. Salt Lake City, Utah. leave the confines of the park. "We plan to do' a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement on bison management," said Yellowstone's Barbee. "The role of public lands outside Yellowstone will undoubtedly be debated."· . ~rl·Y'elIo'wsto~e's:tiiief'.Rang·er Dan Sholly, whobad readied his rangers to shoot cow bison this year, said he was "surprised" by the state's criticism of his staff. Alternatives to shooting bison outside the park, he noted, could be costly and ineffective. "There are a lot of ramifications to roaming bison is a major endeavor." Animal-rights activists, who vow to allegiance to a new slogan: "As the what they [the state] suggest," Sholly With a long-term management plan stand in the line of gunfire if necessary buffalo roam so goes the environment." said. "You're talking about a lot of at least a year away, the real test for to save the bison, claim the ecological impact on park resources when you talk Yellowstone and the state could come costs of losing a free-roaming bison -ToddWilJdnson about fencing the borders, building later this winter ifhundreds of bison on population would be greater than any corrals and trying to' inoculate the the western and nqrthern tier of the park costs of employing progressive, non- Todd Wilkinson is a free-lance lethal management. They claim writer based in Bozeman, Montana. buffalo. To try and manage 2,500 free- leave for Montana, , California's Sen. Pete!Wilson torpedoes a major water bill California's powerful agribusiness lobby. Wilson has defended his move, When a $1.5 billion federal water bill the final week of the congressional In fact, just weeks before Wilson blocked, saying that he acted out of "fairness" to _ was dropped in the rush of last-minute session, key Wes~rn senators and Miller small farmers who could lose subsidized congressional activity, fingers pointed to made a last-ditch attempt at - a the bill, his gubernatorial campaign water when they share farming California Sen. Pete Wilson, R. The bill's compromise. At istake were nearly $1 received $350,000 from a fundraiser at equipment to form more efficient supporters accused Wilson of II" eleventh- billion worth of water projects packaged the San Joaquin Valley spread of rancher operations. But according to Ed Osann, hour sellout to California's large in the bill, including reauthorization of John Harris. director of the National Wildlife agribusinesses, which opposed measures in funding for the completion of the Central Miller denounced Wilson's action, Federation's water resources division, the billlhat would reform federal irrigation Utah Project, wastewater treatment saying, "We made tremendous progress provisions for majOrSouthwestern cities; this year, with the House voting three-to- Wilson's concerns were addressed in the subsidy programs. legislation. "When he 'was/asked for In June, the House overwhelmingly new protections for the Grand Canyon,' one lor my amendment to end the specific recommendations for passed the Reclamation Reauthorization funding for the cleanup of the Climax taxpayer ripoff. Unfortunately, Sen. Pete improvements in the final text that was and Adjustment Act, a water projects bill mine in Leadville, Colo., and more. Wilson decided he could not break with being worked on, Wilson didn't have that included a controversial provision Enter Senator Wilson. Wilson had the- small groups of powerful farmers any," said Osann. by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., to taken little interest in the subsidy issue, who have contributed mightily to his , Miller has vowed to resurrect the reform the Bureau of Reclamation's and remained a passive player when campaign, and he blocked my bill from subsidy issue. "Next year I will again irrigation subsidy program (HeN, debate moved to the Senate. But just as it being enacted into law." insist on my reclamation reform 10(22190). Under current law, farms of looked as if Miller had broken through Over the years, Wilson bas received amendment before any new water more than 960 acres cannot receive the Senate impasse, Wilson stepped in hundreds of thousands of dollars from project legislation is approved," said federally subsidized water, which is from the sidelines and used his senatorial California's corporate agricultural Miller, "and I am confident it will meant for the small family farmer. privileges to put.a hold on the bill, interests, including J .G. Boswell Co., prevail.' With Wilson in the California Loopholes, however, allow killing not only subsidy reforms but which is often held up as an example of governor's seat next year, Miller agribusinesses to receive subsidized hard-fought funding for more than 20 the kind of huge hacienda that benefits certainly stands a better chance. water on enormous spreads that have Western water projects, many of which from loopholes in the current - Dena Leibman been broken into smaller parcels but still were supported by environmentalists for reclamation law. Boswell receives operate as one farm. their water conservation and pollution- subsidized water on one of his ranches, a Dena Leibman is the editor of When the bill moved to the Senate, control measures. 23,OOO-acre spread in California's Conservation 90, published by the it was stripped of Miller's amendment, Wilson's colleagues and the Central Valley that has been broken National Wildlife Federation in despite his threats to quash the bill if it environmental community were outraged, down into 300 smaller parcels, but is still Washington, D.C. , did not contain reform language. But in accusing the senator of catering to farmed as one unit un

• 8 - Hlgb ~ Nllfl)s - December 31, 1'J90 A CENTU

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A LoVE MEDICINE AT TIlE TRIBAL CEMETERY

Still it is raining lightly _Bythe fenced lawn a white Lincoln waits, its trunk open. in Wahpeton. The pickup trucks Where syringa blooms on a path through river stone, sizzle beneath the blue neon bug traps of the dairy bar. a man and woman are tendfug a fresh-heaped grave; the old man shivers, blows through his fingers; Theresa goes out in green halter and chains the woman shields a twig-fire from the stiff spring wind. that glitter at her throat. This dragonfly, my sister, They're from the reservation, survivors of the long summer she belongs more than I when Joseph's nation fled on the hunting trail into Montana, to this night of rising water. running nights from General Howard, old Him-No-Cottum-Arm, who chased them with crack troops up the Lolo canyon. The Red River swells to take the bridge. She laughs and leaves her man in his Dodge. In those days the Nez Perce cut syringa stems for arrows. He shoves off to search her out. Blossoms swirl in the Clearwater, mingling with bright fists He wears a long rut in the fog. of foam. Deep in the Bitterroots, bows are strung, yew limbs, heavy with spring rain .. And later, at the crest of the flood, when the pilings are jarred from their sockets William Johnson and pitch into the current, Lewiston, Idaho she steps against the fistwork of a man. She goes down in wet grass and his boot plants its grin among the arches of her face.

Now she feels her way home in the dark. The white-violet bulbs of the streetlamps are seething with insects, and the trees lean down aching and empty. The river slaps at the dike works, insistent.

I find her curled up in the roots of a cottonwood. I find her stretched out in the park, where all night "A Love Medicine" islrrim J""!dight, published by Henry Holt'" Co., C> Louise Erdrich, 1984, 1990. U After the Nez Perce" appeared. in slightly different form in Poetry FlASh. the animals are turning over in their cages. 'White Clay, Nebraska" is from Fire Water World, published by West End Press, Box 27334, I find her in a burnt-over ditch, in a field Albuquerque. NM 87125, ClAdrian C. Louis, 1989, 1990. that is gagging on rain, For an excellent booklist, mail a self-addressed. stamped envelope to: Native American Authors Distribution Project sheets of rain sweep up down The Greenfield Review Press to the river held tight against the bridge. 2 Middle Grove Road Greenfield Center, NY 12833

We see that now the moon is leavened and the water special thanks to Art Cuelho, founder of Seven Buffaloes Press, for the use of Badger Stone's drawing. as deep as it will go, stops rising. Where we wait for the night to take us the rain ceases. Sister, there is nothing Iwould not do.

Louise Erdrich Wahpeton, North Dakota . Htgb eo"""" News - De~ 31, 1990 -!J :ENTURY TO REACH THE OTHER SIDE

THE LIVING WORD

a home near the freeway

AFTER THE NEZ PERCE Omaha black sky (THE VETERANS) oil-rag stars

Because death is now moved so close, the living word all things are a moment more alive-- Christian Radio blankets the lost world beauty and the work of love, but also this sorrow, sorrow like winter, sorrow like arrows-- once home to the savage tribes and grief feels like bones broken in the throat. the Sioux

My friends, I have been asked to show you my heart. .their highest honor It does not require many words to speak the truth. to feed the old and clothe the needy There is only one war, all others now its battles. It will.not matter, ever, Charlie Mehrhoff if you won or lost or how you lived with these. Boulder, Colorado On a clear night you can see (yes) no history of others in the skies.

Iam tired of fighting. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes and no. WHITE CLAY, NEBRASKA

The young men are killed. It is the old men who keep the world breathless, These gray words slog in spring snow with the wind that feels like God and lose themselves in our history's mud. pushing us back past the stone of the world The bonelight wintered elm to the fire that becomes ice that knows nothing. whittled down to pencil points invokes the wrath of roots. My father said that no one owned our country. Yes, here is where our fathers died. A talking-ehief called Ulwyer sold nearly all our land. ',. - Snow bleached into the roadside soil Either you believe this or you do not. reveals twin rivers of emerald. You were paid or you were not, One for coming, one for going. defended the standard of oil, real estate and vacations, Green in purity. Green in spring, or fought for God and kept the colors wine bottles and cans wrap the dying road in a big house, in their place. Itmay not matter now. and eighteen crosses mark departure spots on the two-mile jaunt from Pine Ridge. My father said, When I am gone think. of your country. This country holds your father's body. Never sell Two miles, five years, and eighteen deaths the bones of your father and your mother. this blood road of wine.has reddened us past the mocking song of our skin. All our wars are fought for money, even. Yes, here is where our children die the last one, even (now, even on their way to getting born. now it does not matter) the one you fought. Soldier of fortune, misfortunate one, remember Adrian C. Louis the price of the prize of our division:' Pine Ridge, South Dakota the hills you left for the hills you took, now neither shared by us.

We never sold the land. It is still OUTS. , It may never again be our home, but my father sleeps there SUICIDE RACE FOR ALEC DICK and I love it as Ilove my mother. High summers in the Okanagan, You are the open secret here-- _ horsetribes bartered hides and ate smoked salmon by the river. your suicides, visions, caves, No bad whiskey or quick whores, no gravel road to the mines. dead children, the covered open sores. Where are these graves? At the close of the run, they would drive their horses to the shale-bank, thunder down swimming for their lives. Speak the secret that we know- It took almost a century to reach the other side, - look into the face of the monster- where the government housing tract it is looking into us. loomed gray as winter. •

Now, coup is a rodeo prize and a grandstand chokes the flat; FrankPaiz the Indian saddles up, a number on his chaps, Berkeley, California and sips neat whiskey from a flask before he rides. Thunder travelling {)ver the Mountains (Chief Joseph) 1877 and 1899. But you still listen: .after hooved thunder and the hawk's clear cry, something tingles at the bone-- dust on the carnival grounds, tipis packed, and gone.

William Johnson -Lewiston, Idaho \ r ";1 =- , -

10 - Higb Co.",try,NetIJs - December 31, 1990

have trod with decisive steps in recent cooks and maids. years. The other path continues in an Other forces also have worked to, individual direction. lt is the path the disperse the Western Shoshones. Many Western Shoshones have long favored, young children were separated from their defined more by family and horne. families and sent 10 board at the Stewan The meeting at Frank Ternokes Indian School in Carson City. ranch and others like it across Nevada Mechanical harvesters replaced the show how this conflict has split his large, often all-Shoshone haying crews people. The Western Shoshones, who on Nevada ranches. World War II, and have had their hopes raised and dashed later Korea and Vietnam, swept up men time and again, may have finally arrived who rarely returned home even when at an historic juncture. they survived their stints in the armed , forces. Finally, the general exodus from nthe waning summer months of stagnant rural areas to urban 18,63, James Duane Dory, the Indian opportunities affected everybody in I'superintendent of Utah Territory, Nevada. negotiated five treaties with Shoshone Most Indian treaties have taken land bands across what is now Wyoming, and given, reservations in return. Utah, Idaho and Nevada, The "Doty Although the Treaty of Ruby Valley did 'treaties" secured peace along the not explicitly confiscate Western Humboldt Trail during the Civil,War, Shoshone territory, it nevertheless when the Union desperately needed promised the Indians reservations. In access 10Western gold and silver. Of the 1877 the first reservation was established five, only the Ruby Valley treaty at Duck Valley, on the Idaho-Nevada remains essentially unsettled 10 this day. border, but many Shoshones refused 10 At the time, Te-Moak and the other move there. Later in the 1930s and Western Shoshone leaders agreed to 1940s, the BIA bought ranches to set up allow stage, mail, telegraph and railroad "postage-stamp" reservations for lines to pass through their territory Shoshone groups on the South Fork of "without hindrance, molestation or the Humboldt River, at Duckwater in injury," The Anny would be allowed to Railroad Valley, along the Reese River set up posts, and settlers could establish at Yomba, and in Ruby Valley. The BlA mines, timber mills, ranches and farms. also helped a couple of dozen Shoshone The Shoshone also agreed to move to families secure individual allotments reservations within their homeland during those years, So-called "Indian "whenever the President of the United colonies," small urbanreservations, were States shall deem it expedient for them set up as refuges - or ghettos - in to abandon the roaming life ... and Battle Mountain, Elko, Wells, Ely and become herdsmen or agriculturalists," Reno. Under the Indian Reorganizalion Unlike most other Western treaties, Act, rribal governments were formed at the Treaty of Ruby Valley did not each location. extinguish the Shoshones' "aboriginal The most recent Western Shoshone title" 10 their vast territory. However, by group to gain official recognition was granting right of way to the government the Timbisha Council in Death Valley. and settlers, the treaty set the stage for The small community lives' in the de facto taking of Shoshone land. ,government housing at the Furnace Later the taking would be legalized. Creek park headquarters but has no land. To this day, however, many Western Today, approximately 2,000 Western Shoshones are enrolled with Kit Miller Shoshones cling to a vivid notion of their reservations or colonies in Nevada, Frank Temoke with the skin of a covote shot by his nephew traditional land. They refuse financial compensation and continue to call for according to the BIA. Perhaps as many after 150 years of encroachment by recognition of their treaty and their as 5,000 more Western Shoshone Western Shoshones ... settlers, the railroad and the federal territory. Burmany others call for descendants live throughout the West government Their aboriginal land claim immediate distribution of the fund set and are not enrolled with any official (Corrttnuedfrom page 1) is mind-boggling in its reach. The aside in 1979 as final settlement of body. But the steady diaspora of the territory stretches across Nevada's Great Western Shoshone land:claims. Western Shoshones has not slackened Basin from southern Idaho almost 10 the Out of the conflict - which has their long struggle for recognition of "I'm a man of few words," he continued. Mexicail border in southern California. been brewing at least ,i since the Indian their original territory. Historical records "I am drunk. But you talk a lot and don't The 38,000 square miles of territory Claims Commission began reviewing the dating 10 before the tum of the century do anything. I've listened 10this goddam - about the size of Honduras ~ takes Ruby Valley Treaty in the 1950s - a document their numerous efforts to thing since I was knee-high to a in the headwaters of the Humboldt, Western Shoshone national identity has regain land under the Ruby Valley Treaty. ' grasshopper." Owhyee and Little Salmon rivers, all of emerged and a natioh may be forged Off 10 one side, a prim elderly lady the Reese River, the bountiful springs where, arguably, neith~ existed before, In 1946, Congress passed a bill said under her breath, "I'm the same and marshes in the Ruby and Pahlanagat Government Indian agents, creating the Indian Claims Commission way." Sophie Dick, Frank Temoke's valleys, and even the once fertile!Owens anthropologists and Ipdians themselves 10 settle such claims around the country. niece, was in no way under the Valley, now a source of water for Los have long argued about whether the The following summer one of the 'influence, but she too was angry. "I've Angeles. ' Western Shoshones erer constituted an authors of the bill, Salt Lake City been coming 10 meetings like this since I But what was once Shoshone identifiable "tribe" or ,"bands," let alone attorney Ernest Wilkinson, secured a was a lillie girl," she said. "My territory is now controlled by entrenched a "nation," Among the Western contract 10represent the Te- Moak Bands grandparents used 10 come up here for federal bureaucracies, industries, and Shoshones, wrote anthropologist Julian Council of Elko and a General Council talks. The people would spread a blanket people with economic stakes they are H. Steward, the family was always an of Western Shoshone before the on the ground and ask for money 10 go unlikely 10relinquish. These include the independent social and',political unit commission. Five years later, Wilkinson filed a claim with the commission on to Washington, We never knew what U,S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Before settlers encroached on their behalf of all Western Shoshones. happened with it" Management, ranchers with grazing territory, Shoshone families typically "It's ridiculous," Dick said. "We permits on these lands, military ranged over a 40-to-50-square-mile Although the proceedings would drag on want the money." Then she sighed, "It installations, a Department of Energy domain to sources of seeds, roots, for more than 20 years, the claim was goes round and round and round all the nuclear test site, and mining and energy wildlife and water. Alliances among nearly settled hefore opponents formally moved 10block a cash settlement. time. It's never gonna settle." operations, families separated by the vast valleys "Money only lasts a few days," So why do the widely dispersed and towering ranges of this country In 1972, the Indian Claims Temoke's daughter, Katherine, bands of Western Shoshones continue 10 were, by all accounts, as ephemeral then countered. "I've earned money but it's agonize over their treaty rights and as they are today. like quicksand. We can't hang on 10 it. debate whether 10 fight for more of their Even as late as 1980 the Bureau of Indian Affairs declared thaI "the Western , ' But the land never deterioolles. It is not 'original land or take the money offered taken from US unless we let it go." by the U.S. government? The answer Shoshone entities were and are The Western Shoshones' traditional may lie deep in the consciousness of a extremely scattered, lt is not possible 10 land, however, has slipped their grasp, people who have always had a deep describe the Western Shoshone in terms connection with a land that no one else of forming a tribe or a group of valued, and wbo now must make a hard organized tribes," One reason for this, choice of identity. the BIA observed, was the strong Today the original inhabitants of the proclivity of Western Shoshone families Great Basin stand at a crossroads. One 10 attach themselves 10 scattered ranches path leads IOward nationhood. This is the ' throughout Nevada and California where road some Western Shoshone leaders they worked as buckaroos, hay hands, CarrieDann • T LRT V2

Hlgb Country News-December 31,1990-11

Commission finally ruled that the Western Shoshones had lost more than 24 million acres in Nevada, Utah, Idaho and California. The commission calculated the fair market value of the land at the time of "taking" - 1872 was the date agreed upon in a legal stipulation - at $21.5 million, less than $1 per acre. The commission added $4.6 million for minerals removed before 1872, for a tota1 award of $26 million. The decision galvanized "traditionalists" such as Frank Temoke, who had walked out of numerous claims meetings in opposition to a money settlement. In 1974 they formed the Western Shoshone Legal Defense and Education Association, hired an attomey, and filed a petition requesting that the claims commission proceedings be reopened. At the same time, the nonprofit group decided to fight a trespass charge filed by the BLM against Western Shoshone ranchers Mary and Carrie Dann of Crescent Valley. The Danns refused to pay fees- for running their cattle on public land they claimed was rightfully theirs. "The United States chose to leave these Indians where they were in the 19th century because the white man could see no value in their lands," argued John O'Connell, a Carson City Theresa Temoke learned to make baskets from her maternal grandmot1her attorney who worked on both cases. played some role in the cases often being "The government simply forgot about proceedings. But in late 1979, the U.S. that, only an act of Congress could set dropped. The courts appear to want to them and never got around to stealing Supreme Court refused to hear their the payout in motion again. keep the issue of Shoshone title out of their lands. It now wishes to drive them appeal, and a special account containing The Dann case kept the issue of trials whenever possible. off while pretending it happened a the $26 million award was opened by the Western Shoshone title in the courts The council also filed a suit in 1986 hundred years ago." General Accounting Office. Divided through the early 1980s and created a challenging the authority of the Nevada Opponents of the cash settlement tribal governments, however, kept a special element of confusion for both the- Department of Wildlife to regulate went on to gain a majority on the Te- membership roll from being taken before federal government's efforts to base the Western Shoshone hunters. A court- Moak Bands Council, which then filed a the administrative deadline for MX missile in the Great Basin and the sponsored negotiation gave the national motion to stay the claims commission distribution of the funds passed. After Sagebrush Rebellion's call for turning public land over to the state. For a while, council jurisdiction over member hunters the 87 percent of Nevada that is owned throughout their traditional territory in by the federal government appeared -to Nevada. The- agreement created the be up for grabs. largest off-reservation hunting and But in 1984 the U.S. Supreme Court fishing area outside of Alaska until it ruled against the Dann sisters, upholding was overturned this summer, but the OlRlEGON a lower court decision that the deposit of issue is now under appeal at the Ninth the Western Shoshone award in a special Circuit Court of Appeals in San account constituted "full discharge ... of Francisco. all claims and demands touching any of The national council also has the matters involved in the controversy." orchestrated a statewide rebellion of The Danns may have an individual claim Western Shoshone cattlemen. In recent to grazing rights, the court ruled, but years, few have paid grazing fees despite Western Shoshone aboriginal title had warnings and fines - which the Indians been extinguished. also refuse to pay - from the Forest In the wake of the Supreme Court Service and BLM. In August of this defeat, the "traditionalists" joined with year, the national council attempted to tribal leaders who were seeking more extend its reins to wild-horse from a settlement than just money to management, rounding up 101 mustangs .~ ..-~ . ." ~. •• \ 'j"-'; , form a new nonprofit organization, on overgrazed range near Duckwater. A .Cl\l\SON audaciously called the Western few weeks later, the horses were tlTY Shoshone National Council. According impounded by the BLM at a to its charter, the council was "to foster slaughterhouse in New Mexico. and promote the establishment of a Raymond Yowell, the current formal Western Shoshone National "chief" of the Western Shoshone Government exercising the full scope o( National Council, said the council's governmental sovereignty, powers and actions were all designed to "make the wESTERN jurisdiction available to the Western United States realize they've got a Shoshone Nation." serious problem out here:" But'the lack SHOSHONE The national council consists of of progress has spurred increasingly LANDS r--.> representatives from each of the tribal vocal calls for a per-capita payout of the as defined by governments and various Western claims award. Shoshone organizations. Although none wESTER.N of the tribal governments has arlier this year, northern SHOSHONE relinquished any local control to the Nevada's Rep. Barbara national council,· and the federal EVucanovich, spurred by a newly NATIONAL government does not recognize it as a organized Western Shoshone group, COUNCIL thlPTl OIN11\ government, the council has in some introduced a bill (H.R. 3384) to make a ways begun to represent the Western per-capita distribution. Shoshones as a whole. The Western "It is not shameful to want a claims Shoshone National Council has even payment," said Elwood Mose, the tried to take on the administrative group's spokesman, at an April functions of government in a few congressional hearing on the bill. He symbolic areas. asserted that it could be the first step In 1986, for instance, the national toward pursuing further claims. Mose, council began issuing permits at the who lives on the rural South Fork Nevada Test Site, authorizing protestors reservation, agreed that an expanded ( 1 to enter "Western Shoshone territory." land base is needed. But he added that c;- The permits have not kept police from arresting demonstrators, but may have CoIftInuedo..page 12 ..

.. 12 - Hlgb eou..ny News - December 31, 1!J90

Western Shoshones ... joked recently. "We're all on this planet But for many ,others, returning to the If the Western Shoshones were to together; we need to share."" land is not the goal. The prize is a share gain control of all the federal lands they Tribal governments are now totally of the benefits the land now produces, now use, the tribal land base could be dependent on BIA grants and contracts, which includes the new bonanza from increased nearly thinyfold, from around 23,000 acres to roughly 700,000 acres, land would benefit only livestock Yowell said, and "they want to be gold mining in Nevada still a far cry from' their original 24 operators, so a payout would be a form economically self-sufficient." For urban "People laugh when I say the U.S. million acres and even from the 2 to 3 of parity for Shoshones who no longer bands, that means bringing businesses, government should take the settlement million acres envisioned by tribal have a tie to the land. small manufacturing and perhaps money and stick it in their ear," said leaders. If those public lands, mostly Many of the letters and statements gambling to the Indian colonies. For Allan Moss.' The chairman of the surrounding existing reservations, were submitted by the group spoke of rural reservations; it means a larger land national council's resource commission, turned over to the Shoshones, they relatives who had died without eve. base for caule berds and hay fields, and Moss lives in Reno. "With the land, we would gain control over any future seeing their settlement money. One letter funding for irrigation, improved could' offer $10,000 to $12,000 a year mineral developments and oil leases in seeking the payout came from Dannie management and marketing, per person .... he speculated. "Last year those areas, some of which may be Millett, the now deceased father of "We're willing to make agreements one gold mine in our territory produced promising. But the tribes are unlikely 10 Duckwater Chainnan Jerry Millett, who on some innovative stuff," Yowell 1.5 million ounces of gold ~ in just one gain control over any existing mining later testified against the bill. claimed. But when asked to give an year." claims, since those are excluded, even "We are notopposed to money," example, he demurred. "That's a secret _ In an effort to attract support for under the Ruby Valley Treaty. countered Raymond Yowell, the national right now. You don't tip your hand to the . their bid fa" land, the Western Shoshone Over the years the scope of the council chairman and a rancher. "Our government," said Yowell. National Council has offered vague Western Shoshone empire has been people raise cattle and do other hard The Western Shoshone National promises of a "better deal" for ranchers reduced drastically through invasion, work to raise their families. We know Council's vision of the futore is still very and miners on the public lands, even at takings legalized after the fact, the value of a dollar. But we also know much in the making. Run largely on the risk of undercutting their pledge to unfulfilled promises, and the extension that the future economic survival of our dedication and a budget of around be "better environmental managers" than of federal control over the public people depends on our land base." $60,000 a year, the national council has the federal agencies. The Nevada domain. Now the practical realities of a , "This bill represents the position of always been stymied by a lack of real Cattlemen and the Nevada Mining cost-conscious Congress limit the a minority of Western Shoshone resources to command. But in recent Association have given a polite ear 10the Shoshones' dreams. But Western people," asserted Bennie Riley, years a grant from the federal Shoshone proposal. But so far, outside of Shoshone leaders have the initiative for chairman of the Ely Shoshone Tribe. Administration for Native Americans a few individuals, caulemen and miners the time being. And with all sides ''Rather than coming out of a traditional has enabled the national council to begin have declined to support the Western clamoring for a solution to the standoff Western Shoshone concern with sacred defining what tribal leaders call their Shoshone. - in which money accumulates in a and aboriginal land rights, it comes from "needs" for land and economic Wayne MOOIsaid that adding more government- account for the' Western a far more modern tradition (would call development monies. Federal officials, money to the settlement is out of the Shoshone but nobody benefits - tribal the 'Take the Money and Run ~ on the other hand, have always insisted question, but that expanding the tribal leaders have their work cut out, Reid's tradition." on calling it a "wish list." landbase is possible. "Any federal office is already being inundated with Payout supporters, however, The council used the first stage of concessions," he warned, "would have to requests for him to support a payout bill. claimed more than 800 members, while the grant to draw up a legal description be met with the end of Indian claims for The founding vision of the Western active opponents 'numbered around 400, of the Western Shoshone territory, further land." Shoshone Natiooal Council - to forge a including key tribal leaders. But no one expanding the boundaries named in the Moreover, Reid has a strong unified Western Shoshone nation and has ever conducted a poll or referendum Ruby Valley Treaty through interviews environmental bent that will guide any regain their treaty territory - may never to find out where all the Western and research on the aboriginal territory legislation he sponsors. Indian be realized. The Western Shoshones may Shoshones stand. inhabited before settlers arrived. In the allotments around Duckwater, South never travel that road together. But a ,What confounded the hearings, second year, leaders of the various Fork and Yomba have been overgrazed, negotiated legislative settlement could however, was the disclosure by the constituent bands identified their according to federal range provide a more secure footing for Bureau of Indian Affairs that the federal "needs." This year, the national council conservationists. "The federal lands are Western..$hQshone~ both on and off the . government was willing to go back to was set to develop economic plans to suffering," said Wayne Mehl, "and we • reservations to choose their own paths to the table and negotiate a land deal with justify the requests. want something done about that, The the future. the Western Shoshone leaders. Walter Many Western Shoshones believe land is in bad shape now; it needs 10be Mills, a BIA deputy assislant secretary, that family members' would return home refurbished." said the payout bill "igncre$ the tribes" if they could find work nearby. That Mehl said that grazing fees paid by • and was designed for the "convenience desire wa~ affirmed by many at this the Western Shoshone could be put into and' satisfaction of a group of year's Ruby Valley Treaty Days. One of a special account, jointly administered individuals." Frank Temoke' s granddaughters, a for range improvements on tribal lands 1bis BIA initiative later collapsed. recruiter with a data processing fmn in and allotments. Grazing allotments now But Ii new negotiator for the Western Sacramento, said she was trying to flOd a used by Western Shoshone cattlemen Shoshones may yet help them forge a way to move home, at least to Elko. might even be turned over to the tribes. political solution to their land and money Another woman had recently moved her But he said Reid would hold out for dilemma. This is Nevada's Sen, Harry upholstery business from California to some kind of joint supervision of range Reid ~ be close to her family. conditions by the federal agencies. Reid declined to sponsor several bills proposed by Western Shoshone leaders in the final days of the IOIst Congress, but he offered to take up the Western Shoshone cause in the' next Congress. The senator, according to his top legislative aide, Wayne Mehl, will travel throughout Shoshone country early this year to meet with the tribes and their neighbors. He will press tribal leaders to come up with an alternative that-reflects a consensus among the Western Shoshones, Mehl said. But if they can't agree on what they want, he warned that they will have to face a payout bill again. "We want to solve, if not all the , problems, at least the big ones," Mehl said, "- like the land and money conflict, grazing and hunting. Senator Reid is looking for a settlement that clearly would not be challenged in the future, not something that will take care of one problem but leave 14 others."

xcept for a sprinkling of national forests, wildlife refuges, military Einstallations and a nuclear test site, most of Nevada's Great Basin is run by the Bureau of Land Management. Only 13 percent of Nevada is privately owned, and none of that land is contested by the Western Shoshones. "We're not that hard-nosed," the national council's Raymond Yowell Old and new mlx at Ruby Valley Treaty Days T Un-tllE4"V2

•••••••• IIIIiH.ti\g.biiCo.uii"'•• Y.N.ew_S.d~De{:ember 31, 1990 -13

,WANTED: RAINFOREST RESEARCHER The Rainforest Alliance is accepting applications for a fellowship to research ' medicinal plants in Brazil. The goal of the COMPANION TO SAND COUNl'Y fellowship is to discover ways to cultivate, When you think of Aldo Leopold the harvest and process medicinal plants. The - writer. A -Sand County Alma11tJc comes to Rainforest Alliance, a New York-based mind, but probably little else. A new book of nonprofit organization, hopes research will his euly writings will do much to further benefit rainforest conserv ation and local communities by providing. sustainable understanding of Leopold's work as a / conservationist. Aida Leopold's Wildemus, economic alternative to current destructive edited by David Brown and Neil Cumony, forest practices. The fellowship begins in shows the young Leopold grappling with September 1991. Applications ere due Feb. -:l issues he confronted at the grouod level as a 15, 1991. A grant of $15,000 per you for le~""'!!!F''''''lIi three years is provided. For more NKI'NE GARDENING IN THE forester. As he says in one article, "So far information, contact Eliane Souza Edelstein . SOUTHWEST little has been said about remedies, winch are Fellowship, Rainforest Alliance, 170 When all the big dams silt up and of course, the thing really worth talking Lafayeue St., Suite 512, New York, NY irrigation water is no longer available. the about." These writings ue compelling 10012; 212/941-1900. . people of the desert Southwest may be exactly for that reason: They sbow Leopold thankful for the work of Native Seedsl debating solutions to the things he is best SEAReH. Preserving traditional crops of known for, wilderness preservation and native peoples of the greata' Southwest is the wildlife and range management. Many of the focus of the organization. Much of the stafrs 26 essays and reviews included in the book time is spent collecting seeds and assessing were written berween 1916 and 1924, while their nutritional and medicinal value. The Leopold_was in the employ of the U.S. Forest Seedheod News, the organization's quarterly Service in New Mexico and Arizone, In ''The newsletter. recently published an article on Wilderness and Its Place in Forest HIGH IN THE ROCKIES Recreational Policy," written in 1921, the importance of preserving crops' genetic For four and a half months Dwight Smith, Leopold recognized that "a decreasing but resources in Hopi agriculture. The group's a wildlife biologist at Colorado State 1990 seed list, which is available to the inexhaustible number of small patches of University, lived high in the Colorado rough country which will remain practically public, includes more than 30 varieties of Rockies in an 85-year-old mining cabin in wilderness condition ... have a high and native plants with descriptions of their uses. located just below the Continental Divide at increasing recreational value," The attitudes Another catalog includes more seeds and 11,740 feet. His thoughts and experiences formulated then led directly to the herbs. native crafts and cookbooks: ana a - make up Above Timberline':"" A Rocky preservation of our first designated plethora of regional books on related MountainJolU'nal. 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Forget The Gas P.".ps . . protect the rock art from vandalism.. may submit up to three unpublished poems, NOKl'HWEST POWER PLANNERS Johnson Books, 1880 So. 57th Ct., Paper: $3.95. 85 pages. Marathon Inter- accompanied by a $3 entry fee per poem. WAN!' PUBUC INPUT national Book Co., P.O. Box 33008, Boulder, CO 80301. Paper, $15.95. 280 pp., Enclose two copies of each poem. one with The Northwest is desperate for new Louisville, KY 40232. illustrated with photos. maps and drawings. your name, address and pQone number and the energy resources since growth and demand second anonymous. Send entries by Feb. 15, have depleted the surplus es of the 1980.. The 1991, to POETRY!Utah Wilderness Northwest Power Planning COlU1Cil recently :'~,1;~~~~~Association, 455 East 400 South, 1/306, Salt released its Draft 1991 Power Plan for public ::oc::::o ~ Lake City, Uf84111. review and comment. The plan forecasts the electricity needs of Idaho. Montana. Oregon ':J~:,-_""",.p-::7.::.~~.. . -~ ~~ GUIDE FOR NOVICEX·C SKIERS and Washington over the next 20 years and ? ..-... If you're interested in getting away to the identifies ways to meet those needs. 1he

w ... _~ ~' • exhi,laration of cross-country skiing but you council hopes to guarantee adequate energy C> .. ' _ don ~ have .the s~ills, th~n a new book by at the lowest cost to the Northwest. and also ~~~~~~~~~ . Laune Gullion nught be Just what you need. protect and rebuild fish and wildlife 5 ... With step-by-step instructions and numerous populations in theColumbia River Basin. illustrations, The Cross Country Primer is a The council is considering a mixture of thorough introduction to cross-country and energy sources, including solar, nuclear. telemark skiing. One chapter is devoted to geothermal, wind, hydropower, cogeneration, detailed descriptions of the eight fundunental natural gas and coal. Energy conserv ation skills: sliding, gliding, moving from ski to measures are expected to save more than ski, pushing off, poling, edging, skidding and 1,350 megawatts over the next 10 years. steering. Other chapters explain both classic There will be hearings in each state from Jan. and freestyle techniques. If you ere thinking - 9, 1991 through Much 6, 1991. To receive about new equipment, the book can help you information and a copy of the draft plan call make those decisions, too. 1-8001222-3355 outside Oregon, and 1- Lyons and Burford Publishers, 31 W. 800/452-2324 in Oregon. Send comments 21st St., New York, NY 10010; 212/620- before Much 15, 1991, to the Northwest 9580. Paper: $14.95. 160 pages. Illustrated Power Planning Council, 851 SW6th Ave., with over 50 line drawings. Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97204.

, , , ~- "' . Refl_aT: l

14-Hlgb Country NewS-December~1IIii3Iil,.11i990•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ,~_

down 500-year-old trees. to make boards Jhe California Trucking Association, two number who wouJd protest if timber sales is like killing wild horses to make dog motorcycle- associations, Pacific NlI1hwest cont1icted with !heir use. food. I also feel that public lands should Four Wheel Drive Association, Conference Robert E. Wolf FORESTS AND be managed according to the wishes of of National Park Concessioners, National St, Leonard, Maryland TREE FARMS their owners - the public. Water Resources Association, National Dear HCN, However, to make up for the Cattlemen's Association, American ExpM The writer is a professional forester. Recently I received a free promotional shortfall in timber availability resulting Trade Council, Washington Citizens for He has worked for several congressional issue of High CoUlllryNews in the mail. from these set-asides, private timber World Trade, Association of American committees and the Congressional Normally I toss this sort of thing onto the growers should be encouraged to Railroads and two national inholders' Research Service. and helped draft the recycle pile but, noting that this issue dealt . manage their lands to maximize wood associations. What is fascinating is the National Forest Management Act. with forestry topics in the Northwest, I production without undue interference (/1\\1I11/) elected to scan it My interest arises out of from regulatory agencies, environ- an IS-year career as a forest scientist mentalists, small mill owners, labor HIGH COUNfRY NEWS classified ads cost 30 STRING BAGS - Large string bags knit in working primarily on problems of forest unions, and others. It is true that "tree cents per word, $5 minimwn. Display ads 4 USA using seine twine. Cottm webbing handles column inches or less are $tO/col inch if -long enough 10 fit over your shoulder. Take regeneration in the Douglas-fir region. farms are IIOtforests" and that "trees are . camera-ready; $15/coL inch if we make up. shopping, on boat cruises. or use to separate A couple of observations regarding not cows," but if we want to save our Larger display ads are $30 or S35/coL inch. We things in your pack. Lightweight enough to be .! various articles in High Country News: forests we need tree farms. Tree farming reserve the right 10 screen all ads. Send your ad shoved in your pocket Very strong when filled, With respect to taxol, the anti-cancer on private lands should be encouraged,' with payment 10: HCN, BOx 1090, Paonia, CO $12 includes shipping. Send orders to: 117 E. ,i drug found in the Pacific yew tree, I fostered, lauded, and rewarded with the 81428 or call 303/527-4898 for information. Louisa Slreetlll40. Seattle, WA 98102.(6x25p) understand that Weyerhaeuser Company same enthusiasm and good will as are "WALK SOFTLY IN A DANCING ARIZONA RETIREMENT HOME - has begun a research program to learn to wheat farming, dairy 'farming, apple MANNER." We are looking for people who are Wbeelchair aooessible. Roll-in .rower. Ten-year- grow yew in a nUIllC1)'environmentto belp growing and all the other agricultural interested in living in an ecologically sound old, 2-bedroom + den, 2-bath house in Green meet the predicted massive demand for enterprises upon which we all depend. village! Your involvement in this venture can Valley, AZ. TWO-<:afgarage, tile roof, fenced taxol and to take pressure off of wild- make a difference in our Planet's future. yard, central air, covered patio with mountain EARTII VllLAGE is a laboralory designed for view. $89,500. Owner 615/890-0229. (2x25pp) growing trees. They don't expect to make Gary A. Ritchie ecological studies and the expression of much money on it, however, since it takes Olympia, Washington sociological and spiritual ideals. Near Crested ALTERNATIVES TO THE PILL AND many tons of biomass to produce a few Butte, Colo. on 300 acres of land. you now have DISPOSABLE TAMPONS AND PADS! grams of the chemical and yew is a "MANDATING" an opportunity 10 be a parl Call 303/349-7156 or Nonprofit mail order service for condoms, notably slow-growing conifer. ' writer Earth Village Institute, BOx 221, Crested spermicides, recyclable mentrual pads and TIMBER SALES Butte, CO 81224. (2x24b) sponges, books, lubricants, Safe. Effective. Up The assertion made in one article 10 50% below standard retail! Send SASE for that "intensive forestry has cut the cycle Dear HCN, HOME IN THE GILA - Ten-year-old 3- FREE mail order brochure to ZPG-Seattle, of forest renewal" is simply not The Nov.' 19 issue of High Country bedroom, i'bath house in Silver. City, NM. City Dept. HC. 4426 Burke North, Seattle, W A supported by fact. Researchers in this News, which I much enjoyed, was water, natural gas beat, fireplace, 2_ garage, 98103.206/6334750. (21, 23, 25p) ·field around the world express only exceptionally well done. Steve all appliances. On 1.4 acres 3 miles from Gila National Forest houndary. Guest house, great EARTH SCIENCES/ENVIRONMENT AL optimism about future yields from Forrester's piece ["Why the timber war views. 589,500. Owner 615/890-0229. (2x25pp) STUDIES: The Center for High-Elevation properly managed forests. Visit Japan, is so bitter"] was perceptive and Roy Studies at Montana State University seeks where forests have been intensively Keene's two pieces ["Raping the public SKI 'CONDO - SUMMIT COUNTY" Assistant/Associate Professor of Earth Sciences managed for wood production for over forests," '''New perspectives' to limit : COWRADO - Near Keystone, Breckenridge, starting August 1991.Ph.D. in Geography, Earth _:Copper skiingjwalking access to Gore Sciences or closely related field required. 500 years (using clonesl), for some clearcutting'1 were revealing. Wilderness Area. 2 bedroom, 2 both. $7&4 + $5 Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate examples of what enlightened The National Forest Products p.p. 303nSS-2110, 303/2384992 (2x25p) and graduate courses in physical geography management can produce. Association and 80 co-signers sent a letter and/or human-world regional geography, and My own view is that ancient forests to Dale Robertson, chief of the Forest 160 ACRE WESTERN COLORADO developmlt relationships, I conservation and sustainable development. ! "OUTDOOR PEOPLE" lists 50-word biogeography and/or resource geography, Last chance descriptions of active, outdoor-oriented Singles particularly as related 10 mountainous regions. and Trip companions nationwide. S2!copy, Send application letter stating research SIOIad. OUTDOOR PEOPLE-HCN, PO Box experience and/or interests, curriculum vitae, for gift 600. Gaston, SC 29053, (6xI5pd) transcripts, and three letters of reference to: Chair, Seatt:h Conunittee, Department of Earth subscriptions NEW WATER PUBLICATION: An Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Introduction to Water Rights and Conflicts MT 59717-0348, Deadline January 18. 1991. All holiday gift subscriptions are with emphasis on Colorado. For information Vets Pref. AA/EO Employer. (2x24b) $20 (sorry, no discount on your please write: ..Network Marketing, 8370 personal sub). Gift recipients will Warhawk Rd .. Dept. HC, Conifer, CO CREW LEADER. The Student Conservation Association needs youth leaders to supervise be sent a gift card in your name. 80433, or call 303/674-7105. (12x16p) high school volunteers on trail All holiday gift subscriptions will THE EARTH FIRST! WOLF ACTION construction/maintenance projects in national start with the first January issue. NETWORK's function is to help assist and parks and forests. Monlb.-\ongsummer projects Orders must be received by inspire pro-wolf advocales in working 10ward the require supervisots with significant wilderness January 10. no-cemprcmise .reintroductionrM/or protection travel experience and first aid skills/certilieate, of wolf populations all across North America. Construction experience and skills helpful. o Yes! Send a gift subscription to those I have named below. We encourage people like yourself to take Training available. For application call ·'action" through pablic education, Jeltl:r writing, 603/8264301 or write SCA, P.O. Box 550, Sign my card _ furxlraising, demonstratioos, direct intelVeruions Charlestown, NH 03603. (4x24b) and any oIher ways that benefit wolves m11heir MEET OUTDOOR SINGLES, ages 19 to 90, Your name necessmy habitats. For more infonnation on how we can belp you and visa versa, c:ontaet POB bi-monthly newsletter lists active outdoor- Address ...... : _ 6733 BOzeman,MI' 59881; 4061585-960'7. oriented singles natioowide, I-year subscriptioo $15, trial issue $3, place ad $15, no hidden . " --"" - ~ - " charges, free informatioo and ad form for self- ZIP _ SOLAR ELECTRICITY City, State Complete water pumping & remote home power \ addressed stamped envelope, OUTDOOR systems. Gas refrigerators, wind generators, etc. SINGLES NEIWORK-HCN, 1611 Cooper 117, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601. (6x2Op) Preferred Payment: , Design & local installation_available. $2 catalog o Check is enclosed o Please bill ine o Visa o M~terCard' YELLOW JACKET SOLAR Box 253, Yellow Jackel, CO I. Card # "'SOLAREX 81335. PH (303r-562-~884 " ...-...- - Expires Signature _ Ecollama Wilderness Llama Treks NOT ALL Send my HCN gift to : RECYCLED PAPER

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~ EQUALl Address -r-r- _ "For the environmentally- We feature products with minded ill Montana's wildest." high post-consumer waste content City . such as 100%pew, unbleached legal pads and toilet paper. 17060·Roman Creek Road State, ZIP __ --:,.- _ Stationery, envelopes~mium xerographic, Frenchtown. MT 59834 printing. computer, tissue products, more. (406) 626-4676 I Mail to: HeN Gifts, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 Box 5086 Bozeman, MT 59717 406-586-5287 , LRT 4-V2

Hlgb eo"",,,, News -December 31, 1!J90-15 ~ f A peaceful woman explains why she carries a gun

____ ...thy Linda M. Hasselstrom driveway, and a large gas tank empty. A light shone in instinctive. Each time I've drawn my gun - I have the house; I couldn't remember leaving it on. I was too never fired it at another human being - I've simply 'ma peace-loving woman. But several events in embarrassed to drive to a neighboring ranch and wake found it in my hand. the past 10 years have convinced me I'm safer someone up. An hour of cautious exploration I was driving the half-mile to the highway mailbox Iwhen I carry a pistol. This was a personal decision, convinced me the house was safe, but once inside, with one day when I saw a vehicle parked about midway but because handgun possession is a controversial the doors locked, I was still afraid. I found a .22 rifle in down the road. Several men were standing in the ditch, subject, perhaps my reasoning will interest others. a closet and put it by my bed, but I kept thinking of relieving themselves. I have no objection to emergency I live in western South Dakota on a ranch 25 miles how vulnerable I felt, prowling around my own house urination, but I noticed they'd dumped several dozen from the nearest large town; for several years I spent in the dark. beer cans in the road. Besides being ugly, cans can winters alone here. As a free-lance writer, I travel alone My first positive step was to lake a kung fu class, slash a cow's feet or stomach. a lot - over 100,000 miles by car in the last four where I learned to define the distance to maintain The men noticed me before they finished and years. With women freer than ever before to travel between myself and a stranger. Kung fu teaches made quite a performance out of zipping their trousers alone, the odds of our encountering trouble seem to evasive or protective action once someone enters that while walking toward me. All four of them gathered have risen. And help, in the West, can be hours away. space without permission. I learned to move around my small foreign car, and one of them Distances are great, roads are deserted, and the terrain confidently, scanning for possible attackers. I learned demanded what the hell I wanted. is often too exposed to offer hiding places. how to assess danger and techniques for avoiding it "This is private land. I'd appreciate it if you'd pick A woman who travels alone is advised, usually by without combat. up the beer cans." men, to protect herself by avoiding bars and other I also learned that one must practice several hours "What beer cans?" said the belligerent one, putting "dangerous situations," by approaching her car like an every day: to be good at kung fu. By that time I had both hands on the car door and leaning in my window. Indian scout, by locking doors and windows. But these married George; when I practiced with him, llearned His face was inches from mine, and the beer fumes precautions aren't always enough. I spent years how close you must be to your attacker to use martial were strong. The others laughed. One tried the following them and still found myself in dangerous arts, and decided a l20-pound woman dare not let a passenger door, locked; another put his foot on the situations. I began to resent the idea that just because I six-foot, 22o-pound attacker get that close unless she is hood and rocked the car. They circled, lightly am female, I have to be extra careful. very, very good at self-defense. I have since read thumping the roof, discussing my good fortune in A few years ago, with another woman, I camped articles by severaJ women who were extremely well meeting them and the benefits they were likely to for several weeks in· the West. We discussed self- trained in the martial arts, but were raped and beaten bestow upon me. I felt very small and very trapped and defense, but neither of us had taken a course in it She anyway. they knew it, was against firearms, and local police told us Mace was I thought back over the times in my life when I "The ones you just threw out," I said politely. illegal. So we armed ourselves with spray cans of had been attacked or threatened and tried to be realistic "I don't see no beer cans. Why don't you get out' deodorant tucked into our sleeping bags. We never about my own behavior, searching for anything that here and show them to me, honey?" said the belligerent used our improvised Mace because we were lucky had allowed me to become a victim. Overall, I was one, reaching for the handle inside my door. enough to camp beside people who came to our aid convinced that I had not been at fault I don't believe "Right over there," I said. still being pohte, " - there, when men harrassed us. But on one occasion we visited myself to be either paranoid or a risk-taker, but I and over there." I pointed with the pistol, which I'd slipped a national park where our assigned space was less than wanted more protection. under my thigh. Within one minute the cans and the men 15 feet from other campers. When we returned from a were back in the car and headed down the road. < walk, we found our closest neighbors were two young Tbe btg step I believe this small incident illustrates several men. As we gathered our cooking gear, they drank beer important principles. The men were trespassing and and loudly discussed what they would do to us after ith some reluctance I decided to try carrying kuew it; their judgment may have been impaired by , dark. Nearby campers, even families, ignored them; a pistol. George had always carried one, alcohol. Their response to the polite request of a v rangers strolled past;, unconcerned, When we asked the W_ . despite his size and his training in martial woman alone was to use their size, numbers and sex rangers point-blank if they would protect us, one of arts. I practiced shooting both of his pistols, a .357 ., to inspire fear. The pistol was a response in the same them patted my shoulder and said, "Don't worry, girls. magnum and a .22. The .357 threw my hand in the air language. Politeness didn '( work; I couldn't match They're just kidding." At dusk we drove out of the park with every shot, convincing me that if I missed the first them in size or number. Out of the car, I'd have been and hid our camp in the woods a few miles away. The time, I might never get another chance. I settled on the more vulnerable. The pistol just changed the balance illegal spot was lovely, but our enjoyment of that park .22 and bought a used one at a pawn shop. of power. It worked again recently when I was was ruined. I returned from the trip determined to Next we talked bullets. A standard .22 bullet, tired at driving if! a desolate part of Wyoming. A man played reconsider the options available for protecting myself. close range, can kill - but many news stories describe cat-and-mouse with me for 30 miles, ultimately attackers who were still advancing after taking five trying to run me off the road. When his car passed Steps toward a aectsto» bullets. George suggested I load with magnum shells, mine two inches away, I showed him my pistol, and which pack a greater wallop. I practiced shooting until I ~e disappeared. t that time, I lived alone on the ranch and was sure I could hit an attacker pose enough to endanger When I got my pistol, I told my husband, revising taught night classes in town. Along a city street me. Then I bought a license from the county sheriff, the old Colt slogan, "God made men and women, but A I often traveled, a woman had a flat tire, called . making it legal for me to carry the gun concealed Sam Colt made them equal." Recently I have seen a for help on her CB, and got a rapist who left her But I was not yet ready to defend myself. George gunmaker's ad with a similar sentiment. Perhaps this is beaten. She was afraid to call for help again and stayed taught me that the most important preparation was an idea whose time has come, though the pacifist inside in her car until morning. For that reason, as well as mental: convincing myself I could actually shoot a . me will be saddened if the only way women can because CBs work best along line-of-sight, which person. Few of us wish to hurt or kill another human achieve equaJity is by carrying a weapon. wouldn't help much in the rolling hills where I live, I being. But there is no point in having a gun - in fact, As a society, we were shocked in early 1989 when ruled out a CB. gun possession might increase your danger - unless a female jogger in New York's Central Park was As I drove home one night, a car followed me. It you know you can use it. I got in the habit of beaten and raped savagely and left in a coma. I was passed me on a narrow bridge while a passenger rehearsing, as I drove or walked, the precise conditions horrified to read interviews with children who lived flashed a blinding spotlight in my face. I braked that would be required before I would shoot someone. near the victim. One 12-year-old said, "She had sharply. The car stopped, angled across the bridge, and People who have not grown up with the idea that nothing to guard herself. She didn't have no man with her. She didn't have no Mace." And 'another sixth- four men jumped out. I realized the locked doors were they are capable of protecting themselves ~ in other grader said, "It is like she committed suicide." Surely useless if they broke the windows of my pickup. I words, most women - might have to work hard to this is not a majority opinion, but I think it is not so started forward, hoping to knock their car aside so I convince themselves of their ability, and of the unusual, either, even in this liberated age. Sometimes could pass. Just then another car appeared, and the men necessity. Handgun ownership need not tum us into in the West, men seem to consider women another hastily got back in their car. They continued to follow gun-slingers, but it can be part of believing in, and me, passing and re-passing. I dared not go home relying on, ourselves for protection. The pistol only possession to protect, as they protect their dog and pickup; women who are without obvious male because no one else was there. I passed no lighted adds an extra edge, an attention-getter, ownership may be considered "loose" and thus fair houses. Finally they pulled over to the roadside, and I game. I am a widow, not manless by choice, and my decided to use their tactic: fear. Speeding, the pickup Ltvtng wttb aptstol work requires me to travel. horn blaring, I swerved as close to them as I dared as I We must treat a firearm's power with caution. roared past. It worked; they turned off the highway. o be useful, a pistol has to be available. In my "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts But I was frightened and angry. Even in my vehicle I car, it's within instant reach. When I enter a absolutely," as a man (Lord Acton) once said. A pistol was too vulnerable. T deserted rest stop at night, it's in my purse, with is not the only way to avoid being raped or murdered in Other incidents occurred over the years. One day I my hand on the grip. When I walked from, a dark today's world, but, intelligently wielded, it can shift the glanced out into a field below my house and saw a man parking lot into a motel, it's in my hand, under a coat. balance and provide a measure of safety. with a shotgun walking toward a pond full of ducks. I When I walk my dog in the deserted lots and alleys drove down and explained that the land was posted. I around a motel, the pistol is in a shoulder holster. In politely asked him to leave. He stared at me, and the my motel room, it lies on the bedside table. "t home, muzzle of his shotgun began to rise. In a moment of it's on the headboard. In short, I take it with me almost • utter clarity I realized that I was alone on the ranch, everywbere I go alone. and that he could shoot me and simply drive away. The Just carrying a pistol is not protection; avoidance Linda Hasselstrom ranches and writes near moment passed; the man left. is still the best approach to trouble. Subconsciously Hermosa, South Dakota In 1990 she became the first One night, I returned home from class to find deep watching for signs of danger, I believe I've become woman to win the Western American Writer award tire ruts in the wet ground of my yard, garbage in the more alert. Handgun use, not unlike driving, becomes from the Center for Western Studies in Sioux Falls.