Dear Frank
Wallace, Ed Bartel, Roger Nicholson, and the
Klamath Basin Alliance:
I just received
your invitation to come and listen to Philip
Brendale to speak about the Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and lend weight to your
opposition.
By "opposition" I
presume you're referring to opposition to the
Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. Indeed, for
the many reasons posed in the media and elsewhere,
I remain opposed the proposed settlement.
The Settlement
Agrement that you so vehemently oppose was crafted
by a cross-section of stakeholders in the Klamath
Basin who spent huge amounts of their time and
money to talk the problems through, to put the old
grievances aside, and to come up with a way to
live and work together in relative harmony. After
two and a half years of open hearted and sincere
regard for people who had different interests,
over twenty-five different stakeholders found a
way to put together a package deal that would work
to some satisfactory degree for all concerned.
The Agreement is fair and balanced with everyone
giving up something significant in exchange for
something in return that would help offset the
sacrifice they have made. These parties were
constructive and creative and were tired of the
rancor, the lengthy and costly court battles, the
nasty behaviour that hurt peoples sensitivities
and undermined relationships. They sought a
different way of solving problems, and should be
heartily congratulated.
Describing a
handful of environmentalists, irrigators and
tribalists as 'a cross-section of stakeholders'
strkes me as disingenuous. The implications of a
proposal of this magnitude will effect the lives
of many who have interests beyond those which this
agreement represents to address. While striving
to reach an accord between environmental,
agricultural and tribal interests is in itself
worthy, the larger community can not be ignrored
or forced to sacrifice without compelling reasons
beyond those posed in this document..
You were invited
to participate in this wholesome activity but
instead you were never prepared to participate in
the "give and take" of the negotiation process.
You did not listen and look for common ground like
everyone else did. You stuck to your
non-negotiable demands and failed to learn another
way of being. It is clear now that you were driven
by your baseless hatred of the Indian people who
have lived in the Klamath Basin for
centuries, since "time immemorial" according to
the courts. It is clear now that no proposal could
have satisfied you short of taking the Klamath
Tribes' water and giving them nothing in return.
The whole basis of your relentless opposition to
this hard won settlement is that the Settlement
Agreement set aside certain benefits for the
Klamath Tribes just as was done for every other
participant in the negotiations. Because of your
hatred for the Indian people and your narrow
context, you are willing to reject a Settlement
Agreement that has solved some very thorney
problems, a Settlement Agreement that promises to
bring predictability and economic viability to the
agricultural community, that promises to restore
water quantity and quality that will benefit tens
of future generations of your fellow citizens,
that will bring back the natural beauty and health
of the rivers, lakes, springs and streams, and
that will restore eco-systems in ways that will
once again support fish and wildlife.
"Baseless
hatred," "nothing in return, and "relentless
opposition" are in themselves baseless. I am
surprised, appalled and frankly, disheartened that
a man of your education and committment to
improving relations would resort to use such
common rhetoric.
Thanks but no
thanks. Philip Brendale has for years had his own
private axe to grind but he is not entitled to
come to the Klamath Basin area to lend your
distorted arguments and deliberate misinformation
any credence. He does not realize how you are
using him, and you should be ashamed for doing so.
The truth should be known.The Klamath Tribes were
terminated in 1956 by the federal government. The
Tribes were deprived of their land base and means
of economic livelihood--they were forced to sell
over 1.2 million acres of rich timberland. Much
of it ended up in the hands of private landowners
and the rest went to the federal government to
manage. This policy of "termination" was later
judged to be misguided and the Congress restored
the Klamath Tribes to full legal status in 1986.
No land was returned, however, and the Tribes have
had to complete their own restoration process.
Purchasing private forest lands as part of a
comprehensive economic development strategy is a
right all citizens in a democratic country
enjoy. To begrudge the Tribe from doing so, to
falsely attribute ulterior motives to the Tribe
for having an interest in private forest land,
only reveals that your motives are not pure and
that you have learned nothing from your fellow
citizens who chose to embrace uniquely American
values, to treat all people with dignity, and to
finally bury race prejudice once and for all.
Philip Brendale will have to respond to the
above.
Have the courage
to look into your heart and discover and dissolve
the hatred that is eating at you. You will
be healthier and happier men for it.
Frankly, I would find it difficult to respond to
your apparent vindictiveness. I'd be willing to
engage in a dialogue of Klamath Basin issues
without resorting to hateful diatribe,
inflammatory rhetoric, and uninformed assertion.
Steven
Haberfeld, Ph.D.
Executive
Director
Indian
Dispute Resolution Services, Inc
1621
Executive Court
Sacramento,
CA 95864
(916)
482-5800
(916)
482-5808 Fax
"Working
things out by talking things through"
KBC
note: the following meeting was supposed to be
by invitation due to lack of space, however it
somehow was forwarded by an invited guest to
dozens of people not on the invitation list.
From:
Ed Sheets [mailto:ed@edsheets.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:47 AM
To: Subject: FW: INVITATION -
Tribal member Philip Brendale speaks on KBRA
I am forwarding information about a meeting
sponsored by the Klamath Basin Alliance.
Sent: Monday, May
19, 2008 4:51:52 AM
Subject: INVITATION - Tribal member Philip
Brendale speaks on KBRA, brought to you by
Basin Alliance
The Klamath Basin Alliance, Inc.
invites you to a meeting on the
Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement
featuring tribal member Philip
Brendale.
MAY 27, 2008, 7:OO P.M. at Shasta View
Grange
(Corner of Shasta Way and Madison)
Expert in tribal law and Federal
Indian Policy (FIP), Cowlitz Tribal
member Philip Brendale, grew up on
Indian reservations. As a young man,
he watched the obstacles that tribal
government placed before his
grandfather as he exercised his legal
right to transfer his allotted land to
fee land.
As a result of these injustices,
Philip has studied FIP, tribal
government and court case histories
for 45 years. He took the Tribes to
the United States Supreme Court and
won the Brendale case, a ruling that
gives zoning jurisdiction to
counties. He also won a district
court case allowing non-tribal members
to access roads and private properties
within a closed section of the Yakima
Reservation where they had been denied
access.
Philip's wife Sandra has been an
activist for the rights of citizens
for nearly 17 years. She attended
school in the middle of Indian Country
and is an Eagle Forum trained lobbyist
and media expert with extensive
experience. She hosted a local TV show
for three years, IF NOT YOU…THEN WHO?
She taught others how to lobby from
home and often took viewers to lobby
in person. She headed several
citizens' committees and is Yakima's
leading taxpayers' advocate.
Brendale
has also mentored and advised
citizens' groups on how to prevent
tribal expansion and how it affects
communities economically and socially.
Philip and Sandra founded "Brendale
Belzer, Federal Indian Policy Trouble
Shooters." He mentored Cherokee,
Elaine Willman, author of
Going to Pieces; the Dismantling of
the United
States of America,
regarding tribalism and tribal law.
Administrator for the town of Hobart,
Wisconsin, Willman served as chair for
CERA/Citizens for Equal Rights, was a
member of Toppenish City Council, and
a teacher in the Masters Programs of
Public and Business Administration.
With a 15 year career in city planning
and administration, she encourages all
city and county representatives to
attend Bredales's presentation. "You
must protect their constitutional,
civil and property rights from
inappropriate goverment decisions,
whether from federal, state, county,
city or tribal governements.
Government decision-making is a very
seperate issue from respect for
culture".
Philip will explain how tribal
expansion, the purchase of 92,000
acres of the Mazama Tree Project
included in the Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement with federal
funds for the Klamath Tribes, would
affect all citizens of Klamath County.
The Tribes could place this property
into federal trust thus paving the way
to an interagency trade with the U.S.
Forest Service for up to 690,000 acres
of their old reservation which they
previously sold. Sandra will tell us
what we can do about it.
The future of our community is at
stake so please join us for an
interesting evening with the Brendales.
There will be an opportunity at the
conclusion of the presentation for
comments and questions.
The Klamath Basin Alliance, Inc. Frank
Wallace, Chairman
541-798-5759
541-882-6562
