Tribe members cash $10,000 settlement checks

POLSON — Members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have received $10,000 checks — their share of a $1 billion settlement over mismanagement of assets and natural resources held in trust by the federal government for the tribes.

Tribal members lined up outside the tribally owned Eagle Bank in Polson last Wednesday to cash or deposit their checks and talk about what they plan to do with the money.

“They come out of the bank, and you can see the relief on their faces,” Revan Rogers told the Missoulian. “They haven’t felt that way in a long time.”

Rogers was also gathering signatures on a petition advocating full dispersal of the $150 million settlement, rather than just over half distributed this week.

“I’m getting a white Impala tomorrow,” said Barbara Finley, a certified nursing assistant for the tribe. Part of her job is to drive elderly clients to medical appointments and physical therapy, but her sister totaled her pickup truck two months ago. Since then, Finley has relied on a tribal shuttle system to transport her clients.

Finley posted on her Facebook page a top-12 list of purchases and investments her friends and family members have planned with their share of the so-called Salazar settlement.

“Cars, housing, furniture, savings, child care,” she said. “Someone I knew already moved into a new apartment today. There’s been concern it’s going to be misspent, but I think we’re spending our money wisely.”

Randy Milliron said he paid off his trailer.

Members of the tribal council are still discussing what to do with the remaining money. Among the options being considered are elder care, education, economic development, language and culture preservation and land acquisition.

In June, Rogers organized a group called People’s Voice, and hopes that with enough signatures tribal members will be allowed to vote on the distribution of the rest of the money.

“It’s overwhelming. The people want their money,” she said. “This is a new beginning for them. It may be as simple as a washer and dryer and a refrigerator. But it’s a new beginning.”

Erica Shelby, facilitator of the Ksanka language summer camp in Elmo, said she donated her money to the program, which aims to teach younger generations how to speak the Kootenai language.

Shelby initially supported investing half of the settlement money in tribal programs, but changed her mind after the tribal council failed to come up with a specific spending plan that its members could comment on.

“These people desperately need the money,” Shelby said. “They are always in desperation. They are always in crisis, and to put that on hold for a little bit, it helps a lot.”