Editorial

Earlier this month, this newspaper documented a pair of closed meetings held by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

I want to make it clear to our readers that this newspaper stands behind those stories. We granted space for a lengthy letter by Swinomish tribal attorney Stephen LeCuyer to express their version of the truth.

Our stories provided another example of how Swinomish and other tribes are given a venue to manipulate public policy that affects all of us by holding closed meetings with public agencies funded by taxpayers.

As we pointed out, it happens with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior.

It happened with our state Department of Ecology, to the peril of land owners and farmers, who cannot use the groundwater under their own property, lest it somehow disturb tribal fishing interests.

And it happened in La Conner, when tribal lawyers and unelected bureaucrats in the state Department of Revenue crafted policy that convinced our county officials they had to take homes inShelterBayoff the tax rolls. That maneuver opened the door for Swinomish to tax non-Indian homeowners. Tribal members who own homes inShelterBaydon’t pay that tax, by the way.

This backroom dealing is called “government to government” consultation, and it never seems to turn out very well for the people who actually pick up the tab in the form of taxes.

According to retired attorney Gary Jones, treaties between tribes and theUnited Statesgive credence to a “government to government” relationship between tribes and theUnited States. The federal treaties do not extend to our state bureaucracies, however.

And as everyone knows, new discoveries change “facts” every day. Swinomish quoting 3-year-old statements from Samish Indian Nation Chairman Tom Wooten aside, more thorough research by the Samish has convinced that tribe that the Swinomish Reservation never included March’s Point.

An 1871 official survey that helped lead Samish to that belief appears on our website today linked to Maria Matson’s story. A map created earlier that year used by Swinomish to back up its claim to March’s Point is also there. Find them at http://www.laconnerweeklynews.com

While Swinomish, Samish, SkagitCountyand the taxpaying property owners try to sort this out, I cry foul on tribes crafting public policy in secret. – Sandy Stokes