Indian leaders from a dozen Western tribes will gather in Salt Lake City Saturday to confront perceived threats against treaties with the U.S. government and to draft a plan to take their cause to President Bush.
The meeting, sponsored by eastern Utah's Ute Indian Tribe, is the second conference tribal officials convened in response to a controversial Salt Lake meeting held in January by non-Indian officials from throughout the nation.Indian leaders from across the West said that meeting, held by the National Coalition on Federal Indian Policy, was an attempt to wreck Indian treaties giving tribes land, political power and status as sovereign nations.
Following that meeting, tribal officials met in Rapid City, S.D., on Feb. 22 to plan a strategy to counteract the coalition's plans to lobby Congress to look into the status of treaties governing Indian-non-Indian relations.
Tribal leaders will vote Saturday on a compact urging tribes "to the best of their individual and collective powers, (to) protect their rights to maintain and operate their respective nations."
Ute Tribal Communications Director Larry Cesspooch said the group believes Indian treaties deserve the same kind of respect afforded to the U.S. Constitution and international pacts signed by the United States and foreign powers.
"Our message is that if the treaties (with tribal governments) are no good, neither is the U.S. Constitution or other treaties," Cesspooch said.
The compact, now in draft form, says tribes entering into the agreement "shall come to the defense of each other against all attacks or threats of attack on their sovereignty . . . and treaties by any government."
The Indian Policy Coalition's attempt to urge Congress to investigate treaty relationships is one such example of "attacks" on tribal sovereignty, Cesspooch said.
"When you see groups like the (Indian Policy Coalition), we aren't going to stand around and just let things happen," he said.
Other perceived threats include a list of 72 bills in Congress printed in the March 14th edition of the Ute Bulletin, a tribal publication. One such bill calls for a presidential commission to review Indian treaty rights off Indian reservations.
Saturday's conference will serve to build a coalition against such movements, Cesspooch said. The group will debate final wording of the compact and smoke a traditional pipe during signing ceremonies, he said.
"The next stop is (Washington) D.C. We're planning a summit with the president and probably Congress. Congress and the President are the only ones that can take any action on treaties," he said.
Cesspooch said tribal officials were working on an appointment with Bush.