Custer could tell you the truth!
By Ron Ewart, President national
organization of rural landowners, 8/24/07
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What has been going on in the Federal courts for
the last 35 years on Indian issues, totally eclipses
the humiliating defeat of Custer's Last Stand at the
Little Big Horn. With gaming casinos popping up
everywhere, the Boldt decision (1974) and other
court decisions on Salmon preservation and so-called
treaty rights, Americans are being taken to the
proverbial cleaners. Fleeced, as it were. The
Indians are getting even, big time and it's costing
all of us billions of dollars. Ever since the
Puyallup Indians of Western Washington (all 1,200
of them) won a massive $160,000,000+ settlement
from the Federal government several years ago (our
tax dollars), after clouding the title to
thousands of acres in Pierce County, Washington,
Indian tribes across the country have sought
billions of American dollars in the courts. We
believe that the Puyallup case prompted the Coeur
d'Alene Indian tribe to make a federal claim in
court that they owned Lake Coeur d'Alene, in North
Idaho. Now the Coeur d'Alene Indians don't care one
wit about owning the lake. What they are after is
federal dollars. As far as we know, that case has
yet to be decided and will probably run through the
courts for years. The Indians are patient. They can
wait for the millions they will receive of our
money, by legal blackmail. The Boldt and Puyallup
decisions have embolden the Indian tribes and they
are after more and more. They have found a welcome
ally in our Federal courts.
Some of you are aware that we have taken on a
local issue, having to do with very expensive fish
and habitat culverts being installed on creeks,
streams and rivulets throughout Western Washington,
but more specifically King County rural roads, paid
for by rural taxpayers. Today we learn that the
Indians won another Federal court decision that
mandates that all culverts on all streams in Western
Washington, no matter whether the water course is
Salmon bearing or not, must be replaced with these
expensive fish and habitat culverts. Our research
has uncovered that these culverts are even being
installed on creeks that dry up in the summer, where
no fish habitat could exist. Ludicrous!
You can read the full article from the Seattle
Times
HERE.
State and local budgets will be strained to the
breaking point and they will come after you, the
taxpayer, for the money. But this isn't the worst of
this court decision. Road culverts are one thing,
but the Federal court decision mandates that the
entire habitat be restored. The entire habitat runs
over millions of acres of private land. Guess who
will get to pick up the tab for water course
restoration on private land? The private landowner!
Guess whose ox will be gored the most? Rural
landowners, because that is where most of the water
courses are located. Then comes the excessive
setback regulations (in some cases up to 450
feet) that will be applied to these small water
courses on private lands. Many of those setback
regulations have already been passed into law in
spite of vociferous objections from rural
landowners. Certainly you don't think the court
would ever mandate that streams, creeks and rivulets
running under city streets would have to be
restored, do you? Once again, the city folks will
get off scot-free and the rural landowners will take
the full brunt of this environmental fish
preservation insanity. What most rural landowners
don't know, is that Washington State has already
granted legal authority to force rural landowners to
restore fish habitat on their land, at their cost.
From the article: "Oh boy, this is a celebration
day," said Billy Frank Jr., a Nisqually elder and
chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries
Commission, formed to implement the Boldt decision.
Frank went on to say: "But we have to do a better
job at what we are doing. We have to have the
leadership and the guts to make it happen, and we
haven't had the political will for salmon in this
state," Frank said. "We need the political will to
bring the salmon back and have a home when they get
here."
"Political will? Bring the Salmon back? A home
for Salmon?" Be serious!!! Rural landowners are
being inundated with the abusive "WILL" of the
government to give into the legal blackmail of the
Indian tribes and the wild-eyed, radical
environmentalists over salmon preservation, fish and
animal habitat and environmental protection of any
and all kinds, real or imagined.
Again, we repeat a paragraph from our August 16th
article on the same subject:
"All across Western America, these kinds of
preservation and conservation projects are
unnecessarily sucking up taxpayer dollars for a
fish that is supposedly endangered. But not only
is it not endangered, it is heavily fished by
commercial fisherman out in the ocean and by
native Americans who install triple nets across
rivers to catch 50% of the northwest spawning
salmon. (The Boldt decision) If these fish are
endangered, then why are we harvesting them in the
first place? Why do native Americans get 50% of
the catch? Why don't we shut off the fishery for
four years and quit eating salmon, so that the
species will recover? Why indeed!"
"He who does nothing when confronted by a bully,
encourages the bully." - Ron Ewart
Have we encouraged the bully? You bet! And we
still are.
August 24, 2007
© Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved
~ The Author ~
Ron Ewart is the President of
The National Association of
Rural Landowners and may reached
for comment via email at
[email protected]. |
