Shoddy treatment of tribes comes back to bite CSEPP

Hermiston Herald Opinion
August 27, 2002
Reporter's Notebook
Frank Lockwood (F. Ellsworth Lockwood)

Several recent news articles have focused on the Confederated Tribes' relationship with the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP). I was present at the meeting when the CSEPP Governing Board was formed in August 2000, and gave the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation a shoddy welcome. Now the tribes want their own emergency center. No one should be surprised.

When Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Dale Klein met with local government officials on Aug. 13, Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty again expressed his dismay with the tribes: This time he feared that the tribes might be seeking more influence with CSEPP than in the past. "Undue influence," in fact.

But if, indeed, the tribes want their own program, Doherty can thank himself, at least in part, for that. The tribes got a cold welcome at best when the CSEPP Governing Board was formed, with Doherty as its chairman. Doherty and many others in the CSEPP community are correct if they say that the tribes should not require an emergency operations center, when their property lies only 10 miles beyond the one in Pendleton. They should not. Which is not to say, "they do not."

The CSEPP community, unanimously, if I recall correctly, denied to the tribes a full participation in the emergency planning during the very first month that CSEPP reorganized under Doherty's direction. What did the commissioner fear from the tribes? That their vote might sway the commission's direction? Not likely, in view of the strong consensus they normally reached when any issue came to a vote, and additionally, in view of the tribes' culture of always seeking to build consensus.

One of the arguments against including the tribes was that the tribes would make the board too large to come to deliberate. Yet the delibrations were short, with, it seemed to me, most of the meeting time going to reports from people who were not on the board.

There was also what I thought a rather weak argument, that including the tribes would encourage other entities to want representation.

So far as the large size of the board goes, the fact that it had at least seven members would have prevented any one member from being able to cancel any decision. But that was never an issue at any time I attended a meeting.

The votes were always unanimous or near unanimous.

So the decision to deny the tribes a vote was not made in order to keep the tribes from "making trouble" in terms of it coming down to a vote. Neither was it to silence the tribes' voice, since the tribes were allowed to sit at the table and even enter the discussion, they were only not allowed to vote.

And the fact that CSEPP allowed the tribes to voice their opinions while seated at the table shows that having the tribes there was not expected to make deliberations longer and more drawn out.

I don't pretend to know what the board members were thinking when they made that decision, can't claim to know how they felt. But I know how it felt to me: A put down. A keeping in place. Ifelt deflated. If it felt that way to me, I can only wonder what the impact was to the tribal representatives. The tribal representatives were very calm and meek about it. If I remember correctly, Minthorn told me it made him feel "sad."

In perhaps the most ludicrous reasoning of all, the board argued, "The CTUIR represents itself s a sovereign, parallel to the federal government, which is not a voting member." Imagine those on the board saying "Oh, but we are not Americans, we are from Umatilla County, or Morrow county, or from the fire department," and so-on.

The neighboring state has its role. As long ago as 1999, Benton County, Wash., received $1.5 million for preparedness efforts around Plymouth and Patterson. And what about other countries. If Pendleton were 10 miles from Canada, rather than 10 miles from the tribes, would the Canadian government then have nothing to say about our CSEPP project either, no role? As a matter of fact, international teams inspect our depot at least once a year as agreed to by international treaty.

Yet, the board reasoned with the (presumably rhetorical) question, "What does the CTUIR see as its role in doing the CSEPP mission?" Well, the tribes may soon have the opportunity to answer that question among themselves. As the governing board said, they are a sovereign body, what they do about their CSEPP program money, if they get any, is none of our business. But maybe will they consider letting someone from the county sit in on their discussions? Without any vote, of course.

Frank Lockwood is a reporter for The Hermiston Herald.

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