Newspapers to sponsor CdA debate COEUR d' ALENE - City Council candidates and the media have
responded to businessman Steve Badraun's call for a debate on ls¡ sues affecting this community. The seven candidates will meet he,ad-to-head at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall to answer a series of quesUons from local journalists in a "Meet the Press" format. The debate will be sponsored by The SPokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle and presented by Cablevision. It will be aired live on Channel 13.
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"We are accepting candidate Badraun's challenge," said Julie Titone, regional editor of the Spokane newspapers. "We hope our format will allow considerable give and take among the candidates." Earlier this week, Badraun challenged the three incumbents council President Dixie Reid, Ron Edin&er and Bob Macdonald - to a debafe within the next 10 days. He said it was important to get the i. eues before the public early in the campaign.
Equally important, he said, was to adopt a format that allows candidates to challenge each other's
~ of three reporters will ask questions of specific candidates, who will have three minutes to respond. The other candidates then will bave a minute to challenge the answer or give their own view of the subject Finally, the original respondent will have a minute to rebut other comments. North Idaho College instructor Tony Stewart will moderate the debate. Following 90 minutes of questions from the reporters, the candidates will answer questions from the audience for about a half hour. Titone said officials of her newspapers were encouraged to stAge the debate after the recent success of a similar candidates' forum they sponsored in Sandpoint She invited residents to attend and ask questions. Besides the incumbents and Badraun, candidates are attorney Chuck Sberoke, former Councilwoman Lois Land-Albrecht and taxpayers' advocate Jennie Mar.-
~The League of Women Voters has
scheduled its annual candidates' fC>-' rwn for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28, also at City Halt
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the coeur d 1alene
~OL 81, NO. 64
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1987
TONY STEWART Cly of birth: Robblnsvllle, C. R1lldenN. Coeur d'Alene
Vocallon: Polltlcal scientist, North Idaho College.
eornmunn, Involvement Chairman of the board of directors or Hospice or North Idaho, board member of the Northwest Coalltton Against Mollctous Harassment, member of the executive board of Kootenai County Tasldorce on Human Relations and program producer and moderator of the weekly NIC televtsk>n public forum with channel 7, KSPS TV, Spokane Hobbles and lnterNtl: Tennis, hiking, whitewater rafting and reading. Molt reoent accompllthment: Chair of the 19&7 Convention Commmee of the Northwest
Coalition Against Malicious Harassmt ,t, scheduled Oct. 23-25 at The Coeur d'Alene., A
Resort on the Lake. Favorh saying or qud9: "All persons are born with the natural right to freedom and equanty."
Pet peeve: lndMduols who espouse a philosophy of equality and yet act In a prejudiced manner. DrNrn or goat To see the Northwest Coalition become successsful and to be able to open and staff a ful1-Hme office. What I Ike belt about my communltr. "The total commitment of so many of our citizens to helping othet's, both through their actions and ¡ gh their gMng of time and finances." (ProFile is a u•eekly feClture of tl1e Coeur
2 SECTIONS, 18 PAGES
'Baby' solons test mettle Legislators don't view their youth as handicap By JAY GRIFFITHS North Idaho News Network
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It's a script from one of those wann-your-heart-atth~nd-of-the-show movies. Young man, fascinated early by the workings of politics, volunteers for campaigns, becomes a student body senator and president and is elected to the state House of Representatives at the pink-cheeked age of 24. lf that's a movie plot, North Idaho has a doublefeature - two representatives who started their statehouse careers at age 24. When the Idaho State Legislature convenes in January, two of the state's youngest legislators will sit on the Democratic side of the House. Besides age, Gino White from Cataldo and Tom Giovanelli from Coeur d'Alene have striking similarities. They attended North Idaho College together, participating in the same political simulation games, and then moved to the University of Idaho to lock away political science degrees. They organized NIC's Young Democrats club and found themselves passing out pamphlets and grinding through the rain, walking door-to-door eliciting support and votes for Mary Lou Reed, Jeanne Givens, Larry LaRocco and Art Manley. But the rain was a plus, remembered Giovanelli, now 25 and heading into his second legislative session. "Everybody takes pity on somebody out in a downpour," Giovanelli said. "It takes a little bit longer, but the people get to know you." Tony Stewart, NIC political science professor who worked with both men through their early college years, remembered how they stood apart from other students. "They were the two that chose very early to be politically active in the sense of being a candidate," Stewart said. " .. .It's rare to find two young men or women at that stage in their lives to be elected to public office." Giovanelli was elected to represent Kootenai County in 1986. January began his first session as a representative, but still he was no newcomer. He was an intern in the office of Gov. John Evans in 1984's legislative session. Considering age, Giovanelli could not think of how being young has helped him, but neither could he spot ways it had hurt him. A variety of ages is essential to a body that represents the state's entire population, he said. "If everyone begins monotonously saying the same thing, (the Legislature) would just dry up," Giovanelli said. Giovanelli said his interest in politics was sparked early in elementary school. In 1968, when his peers were figuring fastballs and pass patterns or scuffling over marbles on the playground, Giovanelli was under the spell of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. When Kennedy was killed, Giovanelli watched the funeral on television. That year, he watched the presidential conventions on television. He watched them again in 1972. In 1976, he became more active, bringing campaign literature home to his parents to get them interested
TOM GIOVANEW and GINO WHm
have gotten into it at an early age,'' said Giovanelli, who wears a trimmed beard and a lapel pin in the shape of Idaho. As Giovanelli grew older, he married and had a daughter, now 6, and he saw that things in Idaho could be better. "There comes a time when you look at the state and say things aren't so hot, you either move or you ve got to try to solve the problem, " said Giovanelli, who serves on the local government, judiciary, rules and administration and education committees. "I love it because it's something new every day, every day is a new problem," he said. " .. .I love to solve problems and that's essentially what it is; I can't think of any other job better than that.' ' While Giovanelli took to politics at age 6 or 7, White waited until high school. He worke<l on various campaigns before attending NIC. White, a hired hand on Rep. Tim Tucker's Porthill ranch and substitute teacher at Kellogg High School, was a student senator at NIC and student body president at the University of Idaho. He also worked as a lobbyist for the UI White grew up nextdoor to the Cataldo Mission, where his parents were caretakers for 20 years and still live. White, who was appointed last week to the District 4 Floterial , covering Idaho's five northern counties, credits Former Rep. Tom Snyder, Cataldo, for sparking his interest in politics. "I think I have a knack for politics," said White, who also interned in Gov. Evans' office with Giovanelli. "Some people can be artists, some people can be jet pilots, I can be a politician. If I could do those other things, I probably would. " Political science teacher Stewart said one of White's strengths is his ease in speaking to large crowds - and his ability to drop humor in effortlessly. For example, responding to press accounts in which he is constantly referred to as " Gino White, 24,... " White assures people that the 24 actually is not part of his given name. "He's just in his top element before a large group, in voting. Tom is at his height talking the issues one-on-one," "Most people who do get involved in Politics tend to Stewart said.
Professor to speak here Mamie Oliver, Ph.D., a facul-
ty member at Boise State Uni¡ versity will be the keynote speaker at Coeur d' Alene's third-annual Martin Luther
King Day celebration Jan. 18. Oliver, who works in BSU's Center for Public Affairs, is immediate-past chairperson of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Governor's Task Force. "She's one of the most energetic, dynamic speakers in the state, and she's been involved in human rights her entire life," said Tony Stewart, a North Idaho College political science professor who is helping to organize this year's celebration. In her speech, Oliver will examine the life of Martin Luther King and relate it to what ls going in human rights today, Stewart said. For the past two years, Coeur d'Alene has had Idaho's largest celebration to honor the slain civil rights leader, Stewart said. More than 1,000 people attended in both 1986 and 1987, making Coeur d'Alene's celebration also among the largest Martin Luther King Day celebrations in the Northwest, he said. This year's celebration, to take place at NIC, is sponsored by the NIC Popcorn Forum and
the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.
Jl -----------------~---~--~---~-- - -
Year Wassmuth - - - -
, when the neo-Nazi
NaUons group {n Hayden twn.acs up the volume on its or llatred and rac~ sepa• uth emerpd as the hlllder of what has become one of moat~ve and bonored ~ tf&bts movements in the ~ e is of the Kootenai CountY Task Force on Human llelatfons and IUltll December was presklent of the Northwest CQalidon ~ Nlaiiclous Har-
ebaidnan
~ . work he describes as "a
realJ~-,
also helped push five key plecea of hl,unwl ~ 14'gialatlon through the 1987 Legislature. The new laws made Idaho one of the moat progressive states on that count.
lll87 has been the most successNI year for .human rights in Idaho, ' said Tony Stewart, president of the Northwest Coalition and a longtime friend. "And Bill Wassmuth has been right in the middle of aU of lt." 'He~ unite the community,t sald:Larry Broadbent, undersheriff of Kootenai County and an on the neo-Nazi move-
men ...More than any other sin·
IN WASSMUTH, Ba Page
Continued lrom Page 1A gle organization, he helped make human rights a popular cause again." It was for his leadership, courage and grace under pressure that the energetic 46-year-old pastor of St. Pius X Church was named The Idaho Statesman's Citizen of the Year for 1987. Wassmuth confesses he ls not sure where the seed to his dedication to human rights was planted. He does believe that "being a follower '>f the Gospel Is building a just world," but he adds, "I never had that strong a commitment to all that until I got up here." Wassmuth grew up in Greencreek, population 50, a homogeneous German-Catholic farming town on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation north of Grangeville. He jokes that he became a priest out or necessity. Everyone in town was his cousin; there was no one to marry. More seriousJy, he said he realized "that working as a priest was a way to do something good for society and the world. It was a way to make a difference." lt was not an unusual choice among Greencreek natives. He estimates 15 priests have come from that area in the past 60 to 70 years, Growing up there, his parents taught him the basic worth and dignity of all people, and they lived what they taught. Wassmuth's late father, Henry, was a farmer, but during the winter he opened a roller skating rink inside the town's community center. Once a week, he rented skates and provided music, "more to provide the kids with something to do than make
money." In the early 1980s, a Job Corps site opened in Cottonwood, six miles away. Henry Wassmuth in· vlted the young people, most of whom were black, to skate. Many of the townspeople disapproved and asked him to revoke the invitation. Henry Wassmuth refused. The adults retaliated by keeping their children away. Eventually, the rink closed. ..My father only had an eighthgrade education," Wassmuth said. "He didn't know about civil rights, but he. had an instinctive sense of what was right." Wassmuth earned that instinctive sense to Coeur d'Alene. He was outspoken In bis opposition to religious cults and in early 1985, when the Aryan Nations stepped up its rhetoric, he was asked to head the Task Force on Human Relations. "They jokingly told me I should be the chairman because I didn't have a wife and chlldren for the Aryans to harass, and my (church) buildings were brick. But my house was wooden." That joke became a near-tragic prophecy less than two years later. He already had endured vague threats and harassing phone calls, but at 11 :45 p.m. on Sept. 15, 1986, the human rights issue in Coeur d'Alene literally exploded. Wassmuth's house was bombed by white supremacists. Law enforcement officials believe three neo-Na.zis placed a pipe bomb in the garbage can outside the back door of Wassmuth's single-story, wood-frame home on North 6th Street. The bomb "blew the back door to smithereens and down the back stairs," he said. It broke glass
. ,,.,. A look at the Rev. BIii Wassmuth Born: July 19, 1941, Greencreek. Occupation: Roman Catnolic priest, pastor of St. Plus X Church, Coeur d'Alene. Education: Bachelor's degree from St. Thomas Seminary, Kenmore, Wash., 1963; master's of divinity, also from St. Thomas, 1967; master's in relfgious education, Seattle University, 1976. Ordained: May 1967, Greencreek. Aaalgnments: Associate pastor for St. Mary's Church, Caldwell, 1967-69; pastor for Our Lady of the Lake Church, McCall, 196970; director of vocations, Diocese of Idaho, 1969-76; associate director of education, Diocese of Idaho, 197(>-72; director of education, Diocese of Idaho, 1972-79; Pastor of St. Pius X Church, 1979-present.
throughout his house and in several of his neighbors'. There were shrapnel holes in the kitchen. What was left of the garbage can landed on a neighbor's roof. The damage totaled $4,000. Only later did Wassmuth learn from Robert Plres, the suspect who turned state's evidence, that the group had every intention of killing him that night. Pires told police he persuaded suspects David Dorr and Edward Hawley to put the bomb outside the back door instead of through the front window. That change in plans probably saved his life, Wassmuth says. Though he spent that night "frightened and confused.," he recovered quickly, and with characteristic humor. His outspoken opposition to the Aryan Nations had angered group
Selected organlzationa: Member, Idaho Citizens Prison Review Committee, 1979-80; founding member and chairman, Hospice of North Idaho, 1979-83; chairman, Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, 1985present; member and former president. Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, 1987. Awards: Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen of the Vear, 1985: Leo J. Ryan Commemorative Award from the National Cult Awareness Network, 1987; co-recipient of the Raoul Wallenberg Civic Award, 1987; The Idaho Statesman Citizen of the Vear. 1987. Salary: $15,000, including all allowances and benefits.
leader Rev. Richard Butler, wbo, shortly before the bombing, accused Wassmuth of being "a closet Jew." A few hours after the bombing he called Marshall Mund, a Jewish member of the Human Relations Task Force. "I've only been a Jew for a couple days," Wassmuth told him, "and already I don't like It." Ten days later he helped organize a rally to reaffirm the community's commitment to human rights. More than 700 people attended. "The bombing solidified the community more than anything I could have ever done," he said. This unique combination of attitudes and talents has earned Wassmuth respect and affection throughout the state. At just under 6 feet tall and 170
pounds, he is not an imposing figure, and he does not have an outgoing personality that would mark him instantly as a leader. "He has a quiet, unassuming warmth and strength," ¡ said Kootenai County Prosecutor Glen Walker. "He is the type of leader that comes to the forefront after a while." The Most Rev. Sylvester Treinen, bishop of the Diocese of Idaho, ordained Wassmuth and has known him for 25 years. "He's done wonderful work for the parish and the city," he said. Friends and acquaintances tend to use the same words to describe him: quietly charismatic, a leader, caring, warm, inteUJaent, a good communicator, Intense but approachable, energetic. He works hard and plays hard, they say, especially at downhill and water skiing, racquetball and running.
"I'd rather bum out than rust out," Waasmuth said. Remarkably, be remains an exemplary pastor. His leadership, along with city growth patterns in Coeur d'Alene, have pushed st. Pius' membership from eo to a families In his nine years. "He makes the church a center for all famUy activities, not just on Sunday," said parish member and teacher David Peters. "Community groups of all kinds 1.118 the St. Plus Center. He makes them feel welcome." "This (civil rights work) bas taken me away from the part.ab." Wassmuth admitted. "bUt people were very supportive. I see them as two variations of tbe same goal.'' Or as Terry Peters. a longtime friend and parish employee, put it: "He's willing to risk living tbe Gospel, even when it's uncomfortable."
TV show finds CdA winning racism fight By D.f. Oliveria
the community effort (against rac-
Staff writer
COEUR d' ALENE - No news is good newt ln tbls small North Idaho community. NBC pn;,clucer Sam Hurst of Los Angeles may use that angle to lead
offlia part of a segment on racism
scheduled to be aired tlrla Sunclar, momillll on Ure "Sunday Today ' show. Hurst feels the- Coeur d'Alene area, after years of tunnOil, bas won its battle with the white sup~ maclst movement. Tliat will be his message to the nath>n early Sun-
da:f,e ""minute "'-~dcast -·"'""" Tb .,,. UlVCI . ...._.at 6 o'clock on Channel 6 with Boyd Matson and Maria Shriver as a. cbon. Burst and cameraman Keith Hathaway interviewed leaders of tbe ltootenai Countyand Task ForceNaon Human Relatlom Aryan tlons leader Richard Butler on Tueldav and Wednesda°/lt. They COD· ~ eluded Wednesday · · ternoon by fllminl a task force executive comm1ttee meeting. "rm genuinely impressed with
______________,;.___:_
ism)," Hurst said afterwards. He has been to the regio11 once before to film a segment Ori wolves in northwestern Montana. Be said be found Butler'$ ~ Nations movement in full retreat bere !n the face of a genuine grassroots movement eom_prised ol ''real people who felt their community was threatened," A veteran of such stories, Hurst admitted .be has become very slteptica.1 when communlUes claun to have organized. efforis to combat racism. '()sually, be said, that
l,!':~em
means the to mayor a bureaucrat study bas the assi.ioied or a few memben of the ber of commerce are ti'ying to gloss over a bad image created by race-
motiYated incidents.
However, be said, be found resi-
dents here sincere in ~ e f forts to combat racism. Among those interviewed by Hurst were task roree Cbalrman
Bill Wassmut.b, real estate agent Marshall Mend, Nortb Idaho Col-
Racism on page 1.2) - - - ~- - - - - -L----------~ (See
Racisim --------<Continued from page 1,___ _ _ __ lege instructor Toay Stewart and President Bob Potter of Jobs Plus. He was assigned the story after hiB New Yorlt-5ased editor read an article tn last Saturday's New York
Times featuring Wassmutb, Mend and the task force. New York sUll ls reeling from racial tension caused by the death
of a young black man during a pursuit by a white mob ln December 1986. Stmday's feature will .lnelude a
~ t filmed in New York featuring Marla Shriver. Hurst pre-
dicts his piece will be far more ''upbeat." lie Ba.Jd he has concluded from bis travels and stories about racism that the big Ea_stern cities are teeming with nclaJ hostilities. "New York is hope.less," be said. In contrast, be said, be is im-
pressed that a community the size of Coeur d;Alene can attract 1,000 people to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. each of the lut two years.
The next test i.B to see bow the
community handles an influx of minority groups possibly attracted here by the suceese of Jobs Plus re-
crultlng efforts, and whether it can
"You nave a bilher conacious- deal with Latent dlscrlminatlon
ness of Martin ~Iher King here aptnst American Indians. t.ball 90 r,;rcent of the cities ill this At the meeting, Mend promised country, ' be said. ¡ Hurst said be also was amar.ed Domnick Curley, the newest taak that the effort was made by an al- force member repreaentlng the d'Alene Tri6al Oooncll, to most enUrely white commllDity and Coeur that it .obviously baa hurt the white look for ways t.o provide jobs for tribal members here. snpremactst movement here. As evidence, be said, Butler bas State Rep. Jeanne Givens, Dbad to cancel bis Wednesday ser- Coeur d'Alene, a tribal member, vi~. and only 10 to 1$ people now said it is important to have mlnori-are attending Sunday mornln& ser- Ues in higb-vislbility jobs, aJtbouab vices. such a move might be viewed f.oThe cb.allenge for the task force, kentsm at first. he added, iB to sustalo lb momen"Tb.ere are a lot of (minority) tum "now that It's obvious the op- people out there . wbo want lo ponent ls dejeatetf, .. work," she said.
as
Staff photo by STEVE THOMI
TV photographer prepares the Rev. Bill Wassmuth for lntervi
the caeur d 1alene
THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1988
OL 81, N0.132
2 SECTIONS, 22 PAGES
'Today shows Cd'A anti-racism struggle Sy CHARLOTTE MALLOY
Press llfestyle editor
Coeur d' ,\lene isscbeduled to appear on television screens acrou
the nation Sunday, as NBC's "Sun-
day Today'' prepares a segment on the community's effective battle
against racism. NBC producer Sam Hurst of Los Angeles and cameraman Keith Hathaway spent Tuesday and Wednesday interviewing leaders of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler for the broadcast set for 8 a.m. on Channel 6.
The focus of the broadcast will be how the Coeur d'Alene community bas successfully countered the white supremacist movement represented by the Aryan Nations. Questions directed to task force members were geared to their In-
TODAY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 tion at the state level, plus local efforts toward developing bmnan rights education programs through school district curriculum and community-wide symposiums - ''all the kinds of things that help us understand and appreciate bu路 man rights,'' Stewart said. Stewart said Hurst also asked for bis opinion on "what the situation would have been if the task force did not exist and the community bad not rallied in support" of human rights.
di vi.dual mlea in the,Gr(IIMNw.ioa
North Idaho College mstructor'. Tony Stewart said today. In addition to St wart, those interviewed for the broadcast were t.ast force chairman Bill Wassmuth, real estate agent Marshall Mend, and Jobs P us President Bob Potter. As a task force executive committee member and president of the Northwest Coalition AgaiDlt Malicious Harrassment, Stewart was asked to provide information on the history and background of the task force. "We dealt with the pbaaea and programs we've gone throup In relation to human rtpts," Stewart said. Stewart d.iscuaed, in part, efforts mounted by the tut force ''to support individuals who become victims (of racism)." He also was asked about lepla-
Pleale ... TODAY, page t4
"My conclusion was that without the task force, the Aryan Nations would have been very large," be said, adding that be shared Kootenai County Undersheriff Larry Broadbent's opinion that, without opposition, member路 ship in the Aryan Nations would bave reached 300 by this time.
Hurst said, however, Sunday services at the compound currently are attracting only 10 to li people - leading him to conclude that community efforts have been successful in undermining the supremacist movement here. At a Wednesday afternoon ex-
ecutive committee meeting, Bmst listened to presentations by committee members Including Actinl
Coeur d'Alene School District Superintendent Doug Cresswell, who spoke on the issue of education, and Ginny De Long, who cba1rl the task force victims' committee. 1be broadcast was prompted by an article in last Saturday's New York Times featuring Interviews with Wassmuth, Mend and Rep. Jeanne Givens, D-Coeur d'Alene. NBC field producer Rick Romo said today the length of the set路 ment will not be known until all editing on the story bas been com路 pleted on Saturday.
AL
- -- ~ w w i,{
GORE - -- President
'--a.a- - --
March 1988
Kootenai County Democrats, My campaign is all about restoring the bold, honest Democratic tradition of John Kennedy and Frank Church -- the tradition of standing up for American values in the world and our people at home. I come from a small town in Tennessee, where my father served in the Senate with Frank Church for two decades. I had many opportunities to admire his leadership and courage. I want to change the future and our party and our country. It's time for us to take the lead in standing up for arms control and economic progress in the world, and improving the quality of life In America. Democrats in Idaho know better than anyone that our party desperately needs to nominate a national candidate who can bring back the independents and swing voters we need to win in the general election. I think our party can once again carry the South and the West. We need a nominee who can strengthen the Democratic ticket and help local candidates in places like Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls and statewide candidates in states like Idaho. Does anyone remember the last time a Democratic nominee carried Idaho? It was 1964. That also happens to be the last time we sent a Democrat to Congress from the First District. The students at NIC, the teachers at Post Falls High, and small business people on Sherman Avenue deserve a friend In the White House, not another Republican landslide. With your help, I hope to do well in t he West on Super Tuesday. I am proud to have earned the support of State Senator Mary Lou Reed in Coeur d'Alene and former Mlnor1ty Leader Ron Twi legar in Boise. I have also gained endorsements from Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, Congressman Norm Dicks of Seattle, and former Governor Ed Herschler of Wyoming. March 8th will be our best chance to restore the Democratic Party's great and progressive and winning t radition. Together, we can turn this country around. - Thanks for your support. Best wishes, Al Gore
P.O. BOX 15800 â&#x20AC;˘ ARLINGTON , VA 22215-0800 â&#x20AC;˘ (703) 979-1988 PAID FOA BY A LBERT GOAE. Jfl. FOIi PAESJDENf COM MlnEE, INC
NORTH IDAHO SUNDAY SUN., FEB. 28, 1988
Dukakis wins big with Northwest youths nates the candidate who gets 50 North Idaho was represented at percent of the delegates plus one. the convention by student delepNorth Idaho News Network And also as at the national con- tions from Coeur d'Alene, St. ventions, multiple ballots are cut Maries , Moscow, Lakeland, COEUR D'ALENE -With Su- untilonecandldateemergesuthe Wallace, Post Falls, Bonners l)er Tuesday's 1,307 Democratic clear winner. Ferry, Kootenai, and PoUatch delegates in the offing for the canStudents from Idaho favored hllh schools. didate that captures the hearts and Gore while Wasbinlton students With 30 students attending, minds of voters in 20 states, includ- were decidedly pro-Dulit:ia, said Coeur d'Alene high school bad tlie ing Idaho, the Junior State Prell- Tony Stewart, political llclence in- most delegates of the North Idaho dential Nominating Convention structor at North Idaho Collep schools and the second-hlpest toheld here Saturday portends well and c»cbairperson of Gore's !Coot· tal of the convention, behind for Massachusetts Gov. Michael enai County campaJp. Cheney High School's 53 students. Dutakis. "It was a two-way race all the While the " real" candidates for way through, but the majority of Stewart said most of the stuthe democratic pres.idential noml- students from Idaho voted for dents probably decided who they nation were debating in Atlanta, Gore," Stewart said. "Since most wouldvoteforduringthetwoboun about 500 high school students of the 398 students attending the of speeches, questions, and meetfrom throughout the Northwest convention were from Washing- ings that preceded the balloting. met at The Coeur d'Alene, A Re- ton, however, Dutakia won." Sen. Mary Lou Reed, D-C.oem' sort on the Lake, and gave Dutatia In the balloting process, eacb d' A1ene, and Boise attorney John a third-ballot win over Sen. Al school was asked to respond from Greenfield gave speeches supportGore, Jr., D-Tenn. thefioorbowitsdelegatesbadcut ing Gore and Dutat.ls, respectiveBob Rapp, Program Director for their votes. On the first ballot, 141 ly. the Pacific Northwest region, said students chose Dutakia versus 105 The convention was jut lite tbe 9 out of the past 10 Junior State for Gore. Rep. Ricbard Gepbard~ real thing, Stewart said, eicept conventions have selected the win- D-Mo., Gary Hart and the Rev. that many of the students voting Ding candidates. "We've been Jesse Jackson split the other 44 for the Democratic candidates pretty accurate," be said. . votes. were Republicans. And today, By the third ballot, u students when the Republicans nomlnatiOIII Sllllday tbe students turn Re- switched their votes to the leading are cast, Democratic students will publican, and elect delegates for candidates, Dukakls pulled to a vote for Republican candldates. the four candidates still in the nm- 223-to-120 victory over Gore. The issues students seemed ning - Vice President George David Garcia, student campaJgn most interested in were education, Bush, Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., manager for Dutakia at the con- the economy, aD(l the a.nm race, Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y., and Pat vention, explalned the strategy be said. Robertson. that helped bring bis candidate the This weekend's convention could Nationally, 17 states bold prima· nomination. be a good barometer of bow Idaho ries Super Tuesday - March 8 "We built up the impression that citizens will vote March 8, when for Republican candidates witb 712 there was tremendous support for the state bolds its democratic -NIS phOIO bV ED McKEEV~ delegates at state. Dut.akis, and the momentum car- caucus, Stewart said. White a Mike Dukalds supporter waves an "I Uke Mike" sign, John As in the national conventions, ried bun tbrowdl," said Garcia, a "I think the students will reflect Greenfteld, headotthe Idaho Dukalds campaign, voices his the Junior State conven = tion =-=nomi =:.;·......:b::ilgb c..:s::::::: cboool:..:::: stua = eea:::t~fr:,::om : ,:;S:.;:;;w..,-==.: ea th.;e:.a:e=.:.J= neral li:::·c:.1.'...; ' be :::..:s=a ld =. _ ___:support at the Junior statesmen conference Saturday. ~-~___.. By JOHN SWENSON
and DICK WOLFF
.t 1HE COEUR D'ALENE PRESS Thursday, February 25. 198â&#x201A;Ź
NIC Demos like Gore Student Democrats at North Idaho College were to meet at noon today to support U.S. Sen. Al Gore Jr., D-Tenn., as the Democratic nominee for president, Keith Boone president of the Young Democrats, said. The Young Oemocr.ats ofNIC recently completed a recruiting campaign on campus and expected at least 30 members at the meeting, Boone said. David Potts, chairman of the Kootenai County Democratic Central Committee, is to be guest speaker, although he said he will not be supporting Gore for president. "I 11 be going to the national convention uncommitted (to
any candidate)," Potts said. Potts expects it to be a "bro-
kered convention," with none of the candidates getting enough votes to win the nomination, he said.
"We don't get much attention in our state because of the size
of our state," Potts said. "I want to be in a position to negotiate with the candidates for
some benefits for Idaho."
Boone said the early endorsement is aimed at increasing public awareness of the M.arch8 Idaho caucuses. "If we make a strong showing at NIC, it will make a difference in Kootenai County," be said.
-·"©'~"~The Idaho
Boise State Broncos get ~en wfth Idaho 62-44 ·r -Page1B
tatesman
123rd year, 205th Issue
•
Canyon economist Reed tells of bip to Poland - Page 1F
A Gannell ne wspaper
Ada blacks see bigotry behind smiles Thls ls the first of three pans. By CHARLES ET'LlNGER The l<lthO Slatnman
A young black women last year went to an Ada Coun1y warehouse thal had advenised Job openings, only 10 find 1he door or equal ~ ponunlly slammed shuL The women was 1old 1here were no vacancies. She duly inlonned Benha Edwards, president ol the Boise branch of lhe National ASSOCJ.ation [or the Advancement or Colored People. Edwards de<:lded to conduct a lmle experiment. She called the buSlness, without mentioning her AACP al!llla!lon. "Yes, we do have some posit ions." she was told. So Edwards sent another young black person 10 1he business ln search ol a Job. When he go1 there, he wa.s told, "No, we don't cnmlnallon or slurs from th have any available. " 011erwl'lelmlng whne majority. Judging by such repons and by Perhaps only once dunng two complainls 10 the Idaho Human decades or living in Idaho could Rights Commission, lherl' 1s an Lee Mercy say he really experl· undercurrent ol racism 1n Boise. enced "$ystenuc" racism, In Allhough Idaho has gained a which whnes were ,n cahools rcpu1a1ion as a hav n lor white against blacks. That was In 1!1114. supremacists, largely becall'.se or when. as a Boise State Unlvem1y lhtt Aryan Nations group In 1he olhc1nJ. an Invitation 10 be com• Panhandle, Edwards said. "In mencemenl sp,e111tera1 a nonhem Idaho. you do not expect 11 (dL~· ld.::lho high school was canceled. crtmina1Ion) 10 be 10 the ex1en1 11 "crcy." music business owner, t 'i, " !IQ1d, "II I'm very poslllve, I can Motl don't dl1crimlnate pr •11y much ,:et lhe things th.It I But some bluck res1dcn 1s of \lio fU11 , '" The pk:rures pro~lded by Ed· l\cla Counly say 1hey generully go , llOUt their bu.'11oess wnhout di~· wards, Mercy and others suMe5t
1wo races of while Bo se: one co.nslderably colorblind and tile other masking bigotry with a smile, Marilyn Shuler, Idaho Human Rights Commission dlre<:tor, SU$-
peclS thal Boise's while populatmn believes "n's OK to have .,
,r
rew blacks hen!, they keep ,n their place. But 1f 100 many blackS came or srnned rocking 1he boat, they wouldn 't tolerate
1h.lt very lonA,"
Nearly lnvlslble I ronlc:ally, blacks In Boise are in II sense nearly lnvls1ble. because they a re few and scam,red. From bank vi~ pres den1 to
Janilor, blacks number only about one reslden1 In 300 In Boise and Its suburbs. The 1980 U.S . Census counted 6&I blackS in Ada County, SI l of them In Boise. Even so, the county was home for one-fourth of Idaho's 2,716 blacks. The census sho)Oled that high percentages of blacks were college graduates and held mana· gerial and professional Jot>s. However, recent lnterv ews Indicated lhat reloUvely few blacks bave risen 10 middle management. And. the census found that a higher propon lon of blacks, when compared with wh ites, held janitorial and Dlher service Jobs. Black households In the county averaged about $3,000 a year less Income than while households in 1980. And blacks were overrepresented below che poveny line In comparison wnh whites. Aller de<:ades of discrlmina, tlon, blacks sull are playing ca1clt-up, observed Mamie Oliver, associate professor or social work a1 Bose S1ate Umverslly.
The unemployment rate ror blacks wos sllgh1ly higher thnn for wh11es In Ada County, accord· Ing to lhe census. The AACP's Edwards disputes the 7.8 pen:ent rnre for blacks In 1980, however. She estimates that it has hovered at about 20 percent since 1980, boseod on her ellons 10 find Job$ ror members of mlnonty groups. 0,scrim,nauon has been S.. BLACKS, P~ IOA
'Ada County statistics .
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Hlr9 . . IIOffl9 ~ conoeming blacu In Ma County, trom lhl 1 c:anaJL •• . . '-. • •
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HCIIIIIW9f, blact.s more often have Joos -1 percent as OQP<)eed 10 12 percent or wh ites.
aemce
least 25
i yean old !_
Jobi: About 35 percent of blacb hold managerial Of professional jobs, companid with 28 pe,cen1 to, whites.
EducM!on:: About 34 · percent of blacu'at
college graduates. compared with 22 percent ol whilas. At the other end of the spectrum , 16 pen::ent of blades at least
25 yea,a old got no further than their Junior yea, In high
school, compared with , e percent or whites.
e
lncom« Average IOf btad houlllhOlds waa S17,522, compared wltt'I 121 , 159 fOf white hOUSeholds In the county. I
U-.plo,-i,t; ff WU 7.8 percent ror bleck.s and 6.3
Weltarw: Blacils received public assistance sl.ghlty less often In proportl011 to population lhan whlteti seven blaek households, compa,ed with 2,721 white households: 3 percen1 va. 4
percent.
Ponrty: Blacll lamlhes had ncomes below the poveny hne about twice as commonly as whiles- 17 pe,cenl vs. 8 percent
percent !of whites.
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: Coftll-M IToM Page tA : : • •
blamed for minority unemployment and lor underemployment, In which workers are overquallhc,d lor lh,•ir Jobs. Ada County blacks have hlod 13 cnmplnlnls over Illegal Job dlscromlnollnn, Including failure 10 hire, wllh lhe Idaho Human RIKhlt Commission In 1hr pasl 2'h years Consld,.rlng lhal esllmau,s ploce 1he coun1y'1 curn,nl black popul3llon 81 800, rhat 's a subs1anllal number The complaln1~ also allei;e failure 10 promore, unl!qual pay, hnrnssment from other employees and firing and reslgna11on forced by bad cond111ons. Shuler es11ma1i.s th111 for every black who hies a complalnr, lour or five believe rhey have ~n d1scnm1nn.1et.1 n~a1ns1. They '311 1n file ou1 of r ar of re1:1lla11 on or , caus1ng 11 ~llr. nr because of lack of documen1a1 inn. she srud ··11·s 1he lip of the lceherg lhal we handle:· ~huler said.
: Employers make excuHI ; Once. employers openly stated : they wouldn't hln, blacks, she : said. In the past 10 years, those who discriminate have come to tell apphcants more frequently that they lack experience, or use some other sub1erfuge. Here are summaries of two cent Ada County cases the commission has handled. Shuler is strlcted from divulging many details: • A bl:ick production worker chnrged th:11 a white lor mnn found f.iult wuh every1hlng he did, 1n con1ras1 10 white employees. A s1i,, 1n the work place sa id, "Be Amenc:in. Offend All Minorities Equally." The block worker quit and filed a cnmplolnl with the commission. He ond the company agreed to n "no-fault" seulement that Shuler would not re11eal . She so11J 1he company removed lhe sign ohcr the comm1ss1on complained. • A block opphcon1 for a prof«"'L"'lmnnl joh wrii not chosen ovur
a r11r l,es, c;npuhh.· while p,•rson, d1•sp11e ou1"nnd1n11 1cs1 ,;core,;. Thta ("('lmm1-..~,t"tn '1e tcrm1ned lhc
t>mployer v1ufa1e<.1 suue on11-<.11s, crlmma11on laws. The employer ni:recd to p.,y I he applicant d.:lm• ages. In two of 1he 10 resolved Job d1acrlmlnn1 Ion cn~f'S. lhe commla· !.Ion dt'C1<'l1•d lhe charges were haseless. For exan,ple, 11 black oflice worker who complained about nol rece,vmg a bOnus and r,romn1 11m :" luund 10 hove per, rorm.-d 1n:1<h'<jua1 •ly, o 1he employer coni e-nd :d. Celt 11111 Jobs ls not always the problt,m for blacks, BSU's Oliver sold. 11·~ keeping 1hem, she sold. Shr rit,'<1 ca~ of a woman who w:i~ lran,;ft•rred 10 Boise by nn 1nsur:.,n, ,. company. Allhough o mrmo wns ,;enl nhcod, 1he womnn "''"' lold wht>n she r pont'tl ror work he didn't hBve a po~111on.
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l1olaUon She did, but her boss then said "Let me tell you What happens to black people In Idaho," Oliver related. The woman found out what can happen. She was Isolated: coworkers would not go to lunch or talk wllh her. She finally left after six months. To stay on lhe Job, blacks need "a cenaln dlsposlllon and determination when living In a community with mixed allitudes " Oliversatd. ' It Is the subtle racism blacks c:rn't deal with, Oll11er said, Uken. Ing It to a "ghost that's always Nnnlng that you can't see." Some Boise-area corporations do a good Job trying to recn.tlt blacks, according to Shuler of the Human Rights Commission. "Employers wlll tell you they have a dlfUcult time recrulllng blncks to come to Idaho. It's not on et1n1clive pince for some block ," she said. Mnny Boise whiles acknowledge I h111 rnfnorUles an, disc rl ml· Mled aga1ns1 111 another crucial arcn, the housing market. About 40 percent of whites and three-lourth.s of blacks who responded in a 1984 survey of I ,OCO 801seans sold housing dlscrimln11!lon exists In Boise. The survey wa,s done by 1he Boise/Elmore Community Hou.sing Resource Board, whh lhe advice of Boise State researchers.
Few hou1l119 'complalnta Few complaincs over housing d1scrlmlnatfon 11n, made to the Human Rights Commission, but 20 percent of mlnorUy pollees said they were discriminated agn lns1. Illegal housing dlscrlmin:ulon in Boise "Is n far larger problem than the number or reponed Incldents would indicate," the study said. About half of all residents surveyed professed a arrong behef In fair housing laws. But they also expressed preferences for not living In nelghborh<><>ds In a varlery or religious, elhnlc and racial groups, the study round. The NAACP's l:'.dwards ro1ed houslni; 11nd Job d lsc rimlnouon 111 Rnl~ tngcrhcr 01 7:; on a scale or 11~1 lor dlsc:rlmmofum. 1 Ju• I lum:m 1<,ghls ,umm"'"'" z,l . . u tu-Jr'\ or puh, ·t· har-;l';'.nu•m •.ul·h "' J>111 ro1 ull1w•rs .,1np11111~ ltt.i, k ,Jnvt'rs for ru, huua r1t1 .. n ..·•• · ~.Ult Au~ ll ft.:t.:Cl\'l.*S CUIHph.uut.s vt uu,'tlual t rea1 mc111 en pulllic pln<"c, ~uch as bn rs. (In addition to bennlntc dlscrlmlnallon In employmenf, lnbor unlnn.s. 1-dueot Ion. hour.In•! illtd lt•hl l'Slnltt
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"Employers wlll tell you they have a difficult
time recruiting blacks to come to Idaho. It's not an attractive place tor some blacks." - Manlyn Shuler prohlbus discri m ination ,n public accommodations.) Shuler stud a black woman received compenso11on from II bar after she complained that a waitress dumped a drink on her head . That allegedly happened when the waitress finally brought the drlnk to the customer·s tnble after O(herwlse providing poor service.
Edward:; recalls nn 1nrur1111lng 10.minute wall 10 buy p doughnul al a supermorke1 counter In Boise last year. When lhP clerk a1 lest furnished service. II was not 10 Edwards but whh o, "May I help you. air?': to II white man who hod Ju,1 slepped up to the coun1er. In one or the most chilling recent Instances of bigotry In Boise, a $-foot cross was set afire In April In lront ot a black man's home on Stot!' Street.
It haa been more than three decades since Rosa Parks refused to move to the rear or a bus in Montgomery, Ala., the act 10 which some observers date 1he contemporary push for equal nghls. But as recently as two years ago, Edwards spoke to high school students In Boise who weren't aware black!! once hod 10 sit In the bncks or buses. Ending dlscrlminntlon has 10 llart with the education of chil· dren, she said. BSU's Oliver said : ''People need to get away from color and pigment and stan to accept~ pie as people."
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Copyright© 1987 The Idaho Statesman
e 123rd year, 206th issue
0 *
A Gannett newspaper
Black roots go deep in -ldah·o Jiny, quiet group ~elps build. state 9espite racism · This is the second of three parts.
By CHARLES ETLINGER
the Idaho Statesman · Idaho territorial Gov. Caleb Lyon's dream Is a fanciful footnote to Idaho history. · Shonly atler the Civil War, Lyon proposed that a large colony of blacks be imported to Idaho. They would mine gold to pay the war debt. • And they would give Idaho enough residents for admission to the union. The state would have had a substantial, if not predominant, black population. Lyon's plan, of course. never got anywhere. Brotherhood may have been implicit in the plan, and Idaho, as historian Arthur Hai:t points out. has in some ways done well by i:111noritles. Idaho was the foorth state to give wOF,en the vote and the first state to elect a Je~·sh governor, Moses AJexander. · t blacks often have been victims of rac• ism as they quietly made their contributions to Ii ln the state. · . Bl ck Idahoans, although given scant auention y histonans, have a history reaching
York was considered "great medlclne" by the Indians he encountered on the trip. When Idaho Indians were told a blackskinned man was in the expedition, "they seemed quite as anxious to see this monster as they wer(e) the merchandize which we,had to barter for their horses," Meriwether Lewis wrote In his journal. Blacks trickled into Idaho during the Boise Basin gold rush. before the Idaho Territory was established in 1863, according to historian Merle Wells. "In the early days, they most often came as hired hands, domestic workers, miners, a sprinkling of cowboys, and later, .as railroad workers, military-attached persons and a · few proressionaJs," Mamie Oliver, an associate professor of social work at Boise State University, said. . • They came to Idaho like everyone else, looking for work, said Oliver, who is writing a book on the bJack experience in the state. Blacks homesteaded in the 1860s, she said. A 99-year-old Boise woman is the daughter of a pioneer black ramily that settled in Nampa . cr.1,~en. Idaho Hll1oltcal ao-; '"-Idaho.territorial law was tinged with racism Elvina Moulton was a former slave. typical' of the times: In criminal cases, the law banned testimony against or for whites by back as far as that of whites. blacks, r®lattos (people with at least oneYork, a Virginia slave owned by explorer eighth Negro blood), Indians or Chinese. William Clark, was ln the Lewis and Clark When blacks surfaced In the press, It often party when It crossed the Continental Divide was in crime stories. The Idaho Tri-Weekly into Idaho at Lemhi Pass in August 1805. See BLACKS, Page 8A Ebony ~nd possessed of herculean strength,
AM LaRoM/StllH~
suburbs, blacks no longer live In gheuo-llke c1111cen1ro 11ons such os once ex llilcd nt'11 r Rl•tlr S1 rca1. Asked for uccou.,,s of "llll crcsl • Ing" blacks In Boise or the pasl , Ollver clled o seemingly com• monplace ex11mple: Mamie Green, 11 refined ond enterprising cook who worked for we11lthy romill es and lea rned 10 make money by cater ng. Green I\Jllllled her ombul on 10 own a house on Hamson Boulevard, although some belie ve she was not accepted by whiles as un equal, Ollnr $!lid. "I think It's remarkable rhal some blacks can stay In lsotarlon out here without the com mun11y aome blacks h•ve 10 hove;· she &a id. "11'1 1h11 whole hl!tory of block people - surv iving ln spi te or oppre1o11on, negativism and lnequal· lty."
110n Anm. lie, klll~...r two mt1n who ca me 10 11r"'-"1 Mm, only 10 be shot 10 death hu r In o hall or bul· SIIH esmnn reponed n 1869 1h1u John Wei.1 ~hol 10 denlh Bob leu by a SO-man poo;se. The son ol a Forest Service Moody , lhe "10nef'r blnck oorb<,r mnger Involved In lhe lnclden1 of n oi~e. Inn JlDmhllng qunrr I, said years later the go vernment T hen· 1~ nnothcr m'"nl lon of John West In lhe po per, s ix ejected lt endrlck:;on, bul nol months la1er, ns " 11 colored cl!l- whi te squaners, because or his •en or Ro15" (who) made several skin color. lfo rt 5 on Mond11y 10 depo5lt his Had lo 1lay In her room bo ll OI, hul WIU r" fui,cd lh!!! r1ghl." The same year, lamed con· Poll omcu, ls probably did not trallo Mar 11n AndeT500 WH al• know o l a ledHnL law ensur ng lowed 10 ~Illy al 1he Owyhee thol blncks could vote, the article Plata Hotel while In Boise ror a sa id. concert - but on 1he condition Rlack women were l!Yen less she r1!ma n In her n,om wh le al v1S1ble. One wns Elvina "Aunt the hotel. nccordln& to Warner Vina" Moullon. 11 lorm1:r slave. Terrell Jr .. 1 waller there at the She was on her way to Calllorn l lime. Terrell's wife, Clara, 111111 In 1867 wllh a while ramlly when pictured In The S1atesman holdshe hod enough of travellng, hav- Ing her Infant son, Warner Ill, ing walked port ol the wo.y bare- with 1he great ,Inger looking on. loot . So she sellled In Boise. The Terrell fomlly lllmtrate.1 Moullon knew her place, even the deep roo1s ,ome blacks have In de:llh. She said everyone In the In Boise ind how clrcums1&11ces predomlnan!ly while First Pres.- have Improved for black.I 1lnce l>y1 er1an Church, of wh ich she World War I I. was a charter member, treated Warner Terrell Ill Is a .vice her well . Bui she said she pre- pre.1lden1 of 1he Idaho Flnt Na!erred a !uneral In a mortunry, lional Bank and handles S7SO mil• not the church, because "there lion In Investments. His 9randla· m1 gh1 be some !eel ng:· 1her, Warner Sr., a tru.ln porter Some people JUSI would nol and a Janitor from Kentucky, Ml· roc k rhe boal because they had 10 tied In Boise In lhe early lllOOI. survive, Oliver said. Blacks came to BolH In In· creasing numbers with the openChurch 11ctl111tle1 By the early 1900s, church oc- Ing of Cowen Field durlna World 11 vn les h:ld become a rocal point War 11 and with the es111bllahmen1 !or Boise blacks. she said, wl1h i<>- or Moun1aln Home Air Force cia l events, lomlly golherlngs and Base. Some were hired by large corporation,, and others came 10 communi ty and women's groups. Still standing Is 1he 1921 building be S1uden1-a1hle1es 11 Boise State 1h:i1 houses the Si. Paul Mlulon· University and stayed. The Southern raclol upheawls ary Bapt ist Church, 12B 8roadwny Ave. The church dales a1 least to or the 19605 1ouched Boise slowly. Only gradually did black loaders 191. Like Southern rural black openly confront whites with the . chu rche.~. St. Poul's "provided the racism In 1helr midst. It Is• mauer or populallon, 011· much-needed spiritual and soc: lol ver explained: "People become onler 1ha1 enobled people who felt op11 res~ and allcnated 10 wllh· more vocal about aoclnl 1t111udes s1and 1he pain ond sufferlns," 011· , oboul race as lhelr numbers In, er DIM!, A •m•II number of people Vl' r s:,,d. fc,el powerless." A s l hll! cen1ury 1umll!d, Boise'• The pr.,sldent of the BolM hl,,ck populollon was 9row1ns lt1Mer than 1he YAJlly laraer white NAACP then, lhe Rev. M .A. pn~lo11on. The African-Amer· Gi vens, usured 1he publlc In 11166 lco 11 Mu n1clpol League boasted a thal Black Muslims sellins lltera, lure weren't 111el1-recelved In hlJ m.-mbershlpol more than 100. Census 111kers listed 168 blocks neighborhood. "There hrui been a wondorlul by 1910, more than were to be cou nted In eny census until 1950. feeling between lhtt Negroes ind the 111h re people In 1h11 arvll," Al ways. !hough. blacks were n Givens seld. "We' re anxious 10 11ny m inority. There was a substontlol Ku keep 1he peocll!, not join thll rlolKlux Kinn contlngenl ln Boise tng." during the 1020s, ns elsewhere ln B0IH'1 llr1t rally' ldo ho, fueled In port by 1he post· Boise'• llrsl ch1t1 rlghta n11ly World Wnr J Communist scare. wo s s1oged ot 1he S101ehouse a In 10'24, KKK members g111 h- week after the Rev . Marlin Lurl1'd on the hills bock of Norlh ther K ins Jr. wos assa:ialnoted In 141h ond Nor1h L5th st ree1a for Memrhls In AprU 1968. An lnler• w,•,•kl y lnn 1n1 ,ons. Robed gunrds mclo crowd of 700 Joined honds ht•ltl h:ick 511(J specto1ors. and sane We Shull Overcome. lln ci'l"m could be deadly lor Le/IS 1hnn 40 blackS 111e1Mlecl, out· bnlh blacka and while,, as It 11p- numbered by pollce, many ol p1Henlly was In !he case or Peorl whom were In pla lnclothes. Royal Hendrickson . He was 11 A smoke bomb wos aet olf In block mun who hom csieaded lhe Ado (Egypllun) Theater dur· olone on 1he Boise Ridge lor 1, Ing o beneln showing ol a mm yea rs. s1anmg obout 1he 1lme ol nbout King In 1970. White picket s l hP K Kl< m111n1 luns. nuircht.-d outside protesting l he Hendrickson dehed o k-d uml screening, cla iming he wos n tool ev1c11on on:l er In 19-10 10 mak.:: ol the Commun ist conspiracy. way for the Boise Peak Rec rca · In 1971, the Rev. James Hub· bord 1old o buslneu group, "Be· )•ond II shadow ol e doubt, Do se LI 1h11 mos1 rocl~1-m1nded com· munlty lhlll side or the Moson· Tuaaday: For some Dixon Line. bl ack s, tiv ,ng n B01r.e Is "This tuwn I.~ rlf)<! for u roclnl like a long v1alt . bec ause ou1breuk," llubbll rd 11Uld, cl l lng numerous hghu t>,,twt.-en blu cks of l 1mlled black culture and whiles, a repor1 disputed by and organizations. Depoli ce. Th,•re wn~ no OU tbn:ok . splte lhat. many blacks In 1hc 1!!70:<, lhl! 11ruw1h In lhe have srayecl In Boise, teebl uck pn11ulnt1011 wu s m ore 1hon Ing subtle d lscr minahon duullll- lh(' 50 percent mc reos,, In end Ignorance. lhe wh11,• 1>Ut1UIIIIIUn. Scnl l ~l',·J 11l)flU l Iha City llnd Ill
Ahead
'Reverse freedom ride' starts; blacks demonstrate in South T~e AUOCIIIKI Ptu1
A busload of poll11cnl uc 11vls1s embarked on o "reverse freedom ride" from Alabama to Ch cago on Sunday, while weekend demonstmtlons elsewhere complolned or dlscrlmlnot lon In schools and lack of block pollt lcnl clou1. About 25 blocks leh Selma. Alo., early Sunday, expect ing to arrive In Chic.ago today lo register voters In Chicago's upcoming mayoral primary. They wont 10 help " voter mobl· lwitlon" and 10 help prevent ru.clol polarlzollon In the Chicago moyoral elecllon, sold the Rev . Benjamin Chavis, execut ive di· rec1or of the Commission for Racial Justice In New York. one ol the leaders. Racial overtones thot permeated the 11183 election of Chi· cugo Mayor Harold Washington, who Is block, have cropped up agBln u Washlng1on aeeks reel ecllon eg11 111a1 former Mayor Jone Byrne, ChnYla said In a statement . The Oemoc:rattc prl• mory Is scheduled for Feb. 24. Al1hough the orgnnlz.atlon'a el-
lort ls non -pan sen, Chovis soid, us members ore suppor11ng Wash ington. Chavis compared 1he Journey, which he dubbed a "reverse rreedom ride," to that mode by north· emers lo 1t,e Soulh dunn,i: the., cMI rlgh1s stl'\Jcgle or the 1960s. "In e sense, mony of us ore coming 10 say thank you 10 all 1hose who come rrom the North 10 Join wllh us n 1h struggle for freedom during the clYII rights movemenl ol the 1961.b," he said. On Salllrday, about 200 mem· ben or the Nallonol Assoc:lounn lor the Advancement or Color,-d People marched In Aburdeen, Miss. In Montgomery, Ala., the Rev. Jesse Jackson Joined obou1 2,000 people ot the Alnbamo Copl· 10111eps. "We've mnrchod too loni;,'" Jackson uld. "We've bled 100 much: we' e died too enrly; don ' r you 1um around." A march on 1he Capitol wu or· gonl1ed by black state lawmaker who aoy black repreaenlatlon on key committees haa been reduced under new leglslatlve leadership.
Collegians call race relations friendly T~• A11ocl11e~ P1aa1
NEW YORK - College SIU• dents believe relat ions be1wecn whi tes and mlnorllles on lhe nn· 1lon's campuses era friendly bul not close. accord ing 10 o p0ll released Sunday. The poll, conduc1ed lor News· week on Campus by The Gallup Organlzallon, found rt percen1 chllrnc1erl1ed rulul Ions as close and hermonlou,, agalnsl 50 per· cent who said relot lons were rriendly bu1 not close. Thirteen percent snld relailons were cooperative bul not friendly ,
und 4 percent said relations were 111001 ond ho11lle. Whites 11nd mlnorll les dllfered sharply when asked what eflorts their schools should moke 10 recruit mlnorlly loculty members. Seventeen percent of wh!1es said their schools ,hould make• greo1 deal ol ellort , whl!II! :11 percent or mlnorl1y s1uden1S sold such an errort shou ld be mode. Cnllup Interviewed 5111 college studenu on 100 campuses notion· wide for the poll between Ocl. 21 ond Nov. 6. The margin of error ls 6 percentagtt polnu.
Blacks -endure cultural solitude to live in Boise s-rts.
two churches, the NAACP, Blaclu In Government and I.he Black Students Union et BSU. When Fred G<>:de moved to And Lbere'1 an undel"CUrrenl or r.clsm,Goodesakl. Boise from• blaclc com.muniry In &1 1111 ts one o1 11 number or Sacr.merno. Cal!! · 11 decade ago,} black 11lhle1es, proresslonall, he felt cnnsponed bRct la tune< rnlJltary .retirees and Olhers who 2' i=-mUSic wu not pwyed oil came to Boise, UJced the wkl~ the r.dlo. There 'ffre hnposslb(J open spaas ' and s1.ayed desplu, Cbe culwraJ Lsolatlon. few bladl. women to date on the But when Goode pduated a..nd • Boise State Unl¥enny campus. took a teacillng Job at Treasure ; II where be wa.s ltli:Sml. and fOGC- Valley Community College- In Oo-J ball playt>r. • cerio, Ore., he commuted trom-, A c:afe owner ta Ogden. Ulah, Bolle for _nve y~. ,.i where Goode lTSftled to play a ""Jbere'1 no way l could go any.;; game. qwckly dead up whel lie smallenhan Bobe," he said. ·,. ,RI w Goode II.Cd aMCber ·l>lack • co-•ftO Yet for. some black5, living .. .._. ·:. Bobe Is, '1Jke you're Just VisltBol91! could be Died with IIEh 1ng.•• Aid EmUy Williams, a s,erv.' prejudlca. too, be feanid. Ice repraentallve with the Social 1 -Maybe lh1s Isn't an aru 1 Security: ,'.AdmlnL!tnlllon. WUJ should be m.• he ck,ugl:11. _.:,._ li&ma ~ ;pc:e presldmJ of BlacksGoode Is S1lll lll!nl. as u;:.v·s 1n Govemmeut.. a small group , ac:admuc ~ tor: elhldes. that Nels to Improve c:lrcurablac:k &ad wbll•,.' male aDd •te- stanc:a for blaclc •omn. male. . • ~· 1'.._ A ~ reskleDt since 1980, BJact ~ aott ~ lllrer ~ h u nmecl emotloaa problllmS. since c b d r ~ about hlnl here. ' aors ·aa 1111D a llll.llC,._ , - l__ Ma.Dy-,blac:b In Boise feel we felt ... 111 frm Git Ii." Gatlde • IOlriewbat alienated, she said, beAid. cause IOI a lack of blac:k cultum Wlth a!Da 8111 blacJts Uvtna In and bl~ty culture. and becaum the Bobe ana. tbef'e di ls ,l>O( Uleyfeellel.tout. · the c:nocal IIIUI for more thin a Blac.k:11 'll'OUid like to panlcl.. mln.lmaJ black mlture 1111 lhe'blg pate more .1n nmn1ng loca.l pdry-. . Thett are f - organb:adom: ._ 1bfs ts CM wr alc/utt
r,,.-~
By CHARUS ETUNGER
lril
llllf
IUCU.,.,....
___,._.. Al Jones with his wife, Fran (seated at left), daughter, Doria. 19, and son, Damon, 13.
L;/ 11-/~-:;-
~-..... .
Blacks - ,
emrnmt, but are subUy demed lhe ~ . WUllams said. " You talLe mon: pride In a ~ )'VU own than m one you're rent-
02"
Modt:le,.e~ blacks who move Ill the overwbelmJn&17 •hHe ~ t y of .Boise IUII r-111 for c:onn«UGns 10 !heir roots. Fran Jones, a BSU social won: si11den1 and a former uslstanr manalff ol a reuul store, uys lier be$! fnend • v.hne. Bui • Ilea she v1S11s her hometown, Clueago, Ille appreciates e1tuiic dchcac.ies, music and "1US1 ~gable co so~body uia1 ICOll.s like you - and you're IIIIC tlus 'oddity.'" Jcines bu t,-i In Bolte slnc:e
easily
1174 Willi lier husband, Al. 8 pasuJ cJerk aad ntlnd Anny tttcea,ir
last
They ll1'e
ui •
_,_l!d hen!. comronable wesc
Boise !tame wttll lherr two 1eer,.
-unror1unately. the Joneses say, many Boise whites see blacks stereotypically only as en1en11JM:rs or alhletes.. (Al's brother happens 10 be Olympic: hurdles Champion Hayes Jones.) "If yi:,u don't fall Into either of those cn1egones, many whites, I find, are surpns,ed !hat we black people .are Just like anybody else," she said . "We aspire 10 the same kinds or goah that ITIOlit Amirlean clll· zens aspire 10. Thal Is fife. llbeny and the pursuit of haJ)prness, as much h.ipp111e$5 U we can gatn 1n an hones1 and equll.able way." Fran Jones ,o,a,s appalled 10 see Aunt Jemima dolls for sale 1n • booth a1 1he Ans In the Park fair l;ist summer. "I lake II (the dolls) 10 be an 1ru<1st"nc:e on re1aJn1ng the status quo," she said, pornllng out that "I don't war a bandanna on my head." Like ocher Bobe blacks. the Joneses can readily recount Instances of racism. open and covthat <'"C'llf' beca1IR blacks
•·n.
Fran Jones recalled being told when applying tor a Job, "how lovely my skln was, how well I spoke and bow nice I looked . But lhal thJ.s pasllion wasn't for me." The Joneses once sat 111 a restaurant ror "4S minutes waiting for dinner (while) everybody else 31'0W1d us was gettin_g served," Al Jones said.
Whites Stare, Fran Jones aid, "bUI I think that's because people ,n Boise, Idaho, sul.l think there's only dlree blacks In the whole c;rtv."
Mc:91 wt.ires
In Boise n!Celve lhe Joneses t.1rly well, however, they ay. Somettrnm welJ-lnten11oned ,o,hn,•q r" 100 far. unaware of olfensive nu:tSt ovenones to 1helracuons. "I h:ave met white peqple l who) Immediately lapse m10 lhlS J•ve talk," Fran Jones u1d. ··Now, I'm talking che king's English .••• '"Uvlng In Boise, you need a
aenae of i.un,or to deal wtlh '.nat
kind of thtng. ..
Another Boise black, Lee Mercy, figures he likely Is the target of racism bt,t probably is blind 10 It. "I don't look ror h . ll Isn't something 1ha1 I wanl 10 Include In my consciousness," 1he Boise e.n trepreneur said. Mercy, 4-4, ronner executive aSS1Stant co the president at Boise State, Is co-owner ol a business lhat sets up music: and lighl s:hows In Idaho and nearby s1a tes. The business' name, Salt & Pepper Enterprises, renec:ts the kind or world he says he lives In, a union or black and white c:uJ. lures thal works, His panner Is Gary Berrneosolo, admlnlstra1or ol the ldalto Division ot Veterans' Services. Mercy grew up poor. mainly In an aU-black neighborhood In Jacksonvllle, Fla, An appellle tor hard work was lnsUlled 111 an early age by his hard-working parents, he said. Mercy went Into lhe Air Force-, wh ich sent him to Mountain Home Air Force Base In 1966 ror the end ol his slx·year tour. He married a white woman, from whom he Is divorced. Mercy Onds no fault with point• Ing out Injustices 8.-'lCI flghllng them han:I. Bui he sa id , "If I think you own !he problem, I'll never do anythlng to lllke care of It. and begin to deal wl!h what skills, what kinds of thln&S I have ln me to make my life a beuer llf ... Racism In Boise Is for 1he whole community 10 deal with, not just blacks, he Insisted. He believes he flghts bigotry by sel!lng on example In dally contacts . Mercy once confronted the Rev. Richard Butler or the Aryan Na11ons supremacist group dur• Ing a class at So1SCS1a1e. The students could see that what "this guy Is saying. It Isn't matching up - (that) this ts a dumb nigger that doesn't know anything, that can't do 1mythmg." Mercy said.
Like «her blac:ks, Mercy IBKI he was not afBld o.f tb:e A.Iyan
Nations, which hu lt.s beadqua.r, 1ers in nonhem Idaho. "It's really taard for people 10 relate what u i~ really being black and Whllt , •J are wuhou1 a clear-cut _black· population that perhapS begins to gyrate nnd make Its own thing known." "'lercy satd. In Boise, c:ommunlc:atlon hetween blacks and whites,:; easier 1tuin In larger clllt'.1 "because lhen! Isn't 1h1s big mlll\5ter or IJ)eeter (of prejudice and dlssenllOR) over lhe c:lty lhat rs inlo .-very nook and cranny ·• Mercy said •
The re"S n price lo be p:, Id, 1hough, for lhe small size or the blac k c:ommunny. , Mercy recently 1old htS son, Ml· chael, "'ho Is a1 R~ Colleg;,f r,rel)l)nng for mf'd1cal school~ lhat Ir he Prr,·<l in Michael's upbnngmg II v. .,s In 1101 proVlding more blacl. culr11r.-
Boise blacks ~ a
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'-n· .. ~
4"". w\
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,.......... ...-"
1.1, ., ........ ~
4't-11
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-
___
,
Fred Goode, academic adviser for BSU athletes
Black history celebrated A concen and a plaque unveiling are among 1he Boise acllvhle~ scheduled during Black H istor) Week, wh ich runs lhrough nex t Mondlly. The even1s, sponsored by 1he Black Student Union at Boise State University, ore designed 10 elebrale and give a beuer understand ing or black cullu.-e. On Sa1urday, 11 music workshop covenng several penods or lhe black experience will be presented at St. Michael's Episcopal Cathedral In the Bishop Tul!le House , 518 N. 8th St .. from 9 a.m. un1,1 noon. The workshop, which Is free and open 10 1he public, wUI be conducted by Gregory Cole or the Son Francisco area. Al 7 p.m . Saturday. Shnron Oli· ver, also or the San Francisco
,rea, wlll perform during a concert called, "A Warm Winter N1gh1 or Music," In Boise State University's Student Union Build· Ing ballroom . Oliver, dllughter ol BSU professor Mamie Qliver, will perform contemporary gospel and other types ol music. Oli ver, a Borah High School graduate who studied vocal music at BSU, wlll be accompanied by pianist Karen Cole. Concert I cke1s nre $3.50 each for adults and $2.50 each for senior Ci tizens and students . There will be an lnterlailh church service Sunday at SI. Paul M ssionary Bapt1s1 Church, 12~ Broadway Ave., from II a.m . until I p.m. At I ;30 p.m.. 26 plaques depicting blacks In his101')' wlll be unveiled .
The First Christian Church held its first meetings in 1887 at this home in Boise.
Church to kick off centennial By KAREN BOSSICK The Idaho Stalesman
When the !first Christian Church was founded, standard Christmas dinner rare in Boise was chicken pi with gravy, parsnips, tomato pres rvcs and chow. chow. Boise City's population was 12,900, and Idaho was still a territory. This weekend, the church home to about 500 worshipers each Sunday - will begin a yearlong celebration or 100 years of ministry in Boise. Organized in 1887 ot a home at 9th and Thatcher stre ts, the church had 30 memb rs by 1892. In 1897, church records say, it was one of nine churches in Boise. In addition lo homes, the church - now at 1801 Univ rsity Drive - met ma schoolhouse, the Pierce Park Grange and a tabernacle, s111l standing, at 9th and Franklm streets. The church has had 32 pastors, many or whom served the church only a few months at a salary or $10 per day or preaching. J .L. Weaver, later appointed adjutant general ror the state by Gov. F rank Steunenberg, s rved m 1896. B.F. Clay, a K ntucky evangelist who took over in JOOL,
was the Christian' Church's first missionary in Salt Lake City. He also called the first Idaho State Convention in 1898. Church records reveal some other interes11ng trivia. ln 1914, for instance, deaconnesses bought grapes and sugar to make communion wine; in 1919, they voted to purchase a mimeograph machine for $10. In 1918, the records tell or services rt-sum¡ ing after the U.S. government lifted a quarantine Imposed oocause or a nu epidemic. Mnny or the churchgoers had lost loved ones during the epidemic. In 1923 a minister who serv d ns state chaplain for the Ku Klux Klan purged the church of elders who were not KKK meml>ers. The KKK was very strong in the churches at this time, and !heir work was done in the name of fundamentalism, the records note. Benny Boling, the church's current senior pastor, came to Boise m 1980 from the First Christian Church in Eugene, Ore. Among his contributions to the church is a series of "eyewitness" Easter accounts of the events surround¡ ing Christ's death and resurrection on the cross. The Rev. Eugene Curtis Hill 111
Is minister of music and evangelism . Jeff Maguire is minister to the youth. t During the coming year, the church plans to celebrate its centennial with a luau, a r vivnl meeting, an old-fashioned worship service and a variety of other observances. A birthday banquet featuring historian Arthur Hart was held Friday night at Boise State University. An open house at the church today will start at I :30 p.m . The JOO.voice centennial sanctu:i ry choir will perron11. Bell choirs will perform 111 the evening, starting al 7:30. During the I0 :40 a.m . worship service Sunday, the church will take a new name: Univ rsity Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Birthday cake will b served afterwards. James Russell Nall Sr. will autograph free books of his ravorit e poems, printed by the congregation as part or the centennial celebration, during the reception. Visitors also can view six oil paintings donated to the church as a part of the centennial celebration by Veronas Aarant, a Doise painter.
¡c oeur d'Alene tribe rediscovers itself :J3y D.F. Oliveria ~writ..
PLUMMER - Dean Pakootas obviously enjoys bis job. ~ stocky 23-year-old Worley 1QU pauses several Umes while preparing r~E
RANHANDLE
~ndwtcb::
TRIBES PART
~~e~ w :e:t
,
ONE
to
sbout
greetings and
eKCbange jokes with shoppers. Many be knows by name. They J'e!(IODd lo kind. ~onnally, be stocks shelves an.d works the checkout stands, bht on this day, he's been ass l ~ to the dell. He groans (tij>d-naturedly that be isn't in 9'ape for lts bustling activity. :f>akootas, a Coeur d'Alene/ColviUe Indian, bas learned all phase, of the spic-and-span supermarket, except the bakery, slnce be w hired as one of the original staff when the store opened under Coeur d'Alene Tribe ownership 2'ili years ago. Before that, be was unemployed.
Statt photo by CHRIS ANDERSON
Nationally known artist Lawrence Arlpa. Now, be relishes the prospect of working for a long Ume on bis reservation. "I probably could have found work in Spokane, but I like it here," Pakootas observed.
Pakootas and the Benewah Center. with the mark.et as its centerpiece, are notable success stories in the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe's drive to protect its most important resources: its people and berltage.
In 1909, the act provided 638 Indians - 54:l Coeur d' Alenes and 97 Spokanes - 160 acres apiece and opened the reservation to white settlement in 1909. Many of those Indians were farmers whose previous holdings were much larger, and who were surrounded by wblte farmers eager to acquire their land. Soon the next generation of Indians bad squandered lbelr trust lands and were penniless. Today, leaders Uke tribal Chairman Ernie Stensgar, are busy reassembling the pieces. Tbey are rebuilding a reservation that had dwindled to as little as 62,4'00 acres, acclimating their cblldren to the culture and fiexing their economic moscle. Benewah Center and the adjacent NAPA auto part., store/service station, the first fruits of that economic thrust, already have put a dent lo a staggering unemployment rate. Joblessness among tribThe tribe. under progresalve, al members bas fallen to 55 peryoung leadenhip, Is re-emerging cent this year from a persistent 70 after the General Allotment Act to 72 percent during the previous early this century almost succeed- five years. eel in causing it to sell-destruct and (See CdA OD page 8) be asslmllated into white society.
-----------------------------------------
an
Economic development efforts a&o have made the tribe a significant economic force in depressed weatem Benewah County and tramformed the face of tbls tiny community. Before the Benewah Center opened in 1985, Plummer was little more than another small Palouse town struggling to stay alive on a starvation diet of historic stapl~: the deJ>resaed timber and agriculblre lnclustries. Plummer's core featured a nondelcript mix of folksy cafes, vacant lots. small &bops and government boul.lng, stitched toget6er by U.S. H and anchored on the south end by the Pacific Crown Timber Products mW. Tbe Benewah Center and NAPA store, with their Indian-theme fa-cades dominating a city block, have changed that. Plummer bas beceme the marketing center for a SO-mile radius and a source of pride for Indians and whites alike. "'Ibis center ls a damn good asset to "the community - regardless of wbo owns lt," Harold WbTUey states bluntly. He operated Whitley's Food Center at the site for 15 years and then remained to manage the UPADded supermarket after the tribe bought it from him. "It's something the town wouldn't have bad without the tribe." Mayor Clair Heriford, hobnobblna with a friend at the market's de1f, agrees. "We have aa nice a store as anywhere around here." There's more on the drawing boards. Tbe tribe and city of Plummer are working Jointly to obtain grants totallng ,&od,ooo lo belJ> fund construction of a medical/dental center on tribal land just north of the
store.
"U I died tomorrow and knew tluit the health facility bad been approved, I would die a happy man," said Stenssar. The nearest health facllities now are miles away over tortuous winter roads in SL Maries, Coeur d'Alene and Spokane. Health problems, ranging from poor diets to dep~on, are major tribal concerns. Gary Leva, an Indian Health Service social worker who bas worked with the Coeur d'Alenes nine years, said depression and low self-esteem are the tribe's two main mental bealtb problems. Those problems are aggravated among young people by broken homes, substance abuse, idleness and isolation in the
rural area.
.
On the other band, Leva said, severe mental lllaess, such as schizo. pbrenia and manic depression, ls practically nonemtent among the Coeur d' Alenes. Suicides have fallen from three bis first year with tbe tribe to onlv one since.
The Spokesman-Review Spokane Chronicle
He's seeing increasing willingness among reservation Indians to reach out for help, and an improved self-image as a whole. According to Leva, tribal Chairman Stensgar is one of the¡best examples of a Coeur d'Alene who "bas pulled bimseU up from the bootstraps and done a lot of cbangln .. ''Five years ago, you'd never have thought be was the same perlOD," said Leva. "He bas done an about-face." The Benewah Center is a major factor in the tribe's new-found pride, said the social worker. Also under consideration are a Cut-n-Sew garment manufacturing enterprise and a regional landfill, elsewhere OD the reservation. Once developed, these businesses, like the Bene\Vab Center, would be managed by the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Economic Development Corp. The corporation was set up four years ago as an independent ann of the tribe, free from council politics. Steosgar also chairs the corporation, but the remainder of the board is split between Indians and whites: Bob Dellwo, tribal counsel from Spokane; Ed Cbopot. owner of Pacific Crown Timber Products; Paul Matheson, owner of Indian Country Smoke Shop and Indian Country Fireworks Enterprises; and Dave Dean, president of the Bank of Troy brancli in Plummer. The mix underscores the tribe's willlngness to tap the best talent avallaole for assistance, regardless of race. After struggling, the Benewah Market now Is in the black, grossing ,2 milllon in the last two months. NAPA Auto Center grossed ,350,000 during the same period¡ the 5,700-acre tribal farm, S1 mil~ lion. Don Beach of Tekoa, Wash., wbo ls white, fills another vital tribal role. He is superintendent of the Coeur d'Alene Tribal School at
DeSmet.
Beach oversees a ,soo,ooo budget and a K-througb-8 enrollment of 80 students from a cramped trailer office. All but three are fndtan cblldren. An additional 38 cbildren are enrolled in the Head Start program at the school grounds. The DeSmet facility, at the foot of the Sacred Heart Mi.aslon, is one of 10 tribal schools in the Portland district of the Bureau of Indian Af. fairs and one of only four in the nation with a program for gifted and talented students, according to Beach. Chris Meyer, a Whitworth College professor in special education, is a consultant for that program. She formerly taught tribal school first-graders.
~l'P.!'!ll~....l'IWl. .11'!1. . .!!!llr~~,,,.:..
T1ie school board encourages its teachers and aides to continue their education; three aides have done so and now are teaching at the school. It also empbaaizes the Coeur
d'Aleoe culture. "I always planned to come back," said Nomee during an interview at tribal headquarters. He works as the tribe's food distribution manager at Worley. "This is the source of my identity." Nomee is teachlng bls five children tribal traditions of dancing, singing and story-telling and bas emphasized to them that a high school diploma, or even a baclielor's degree, doesn't mean much in today's world. They must be prepared to seek master's degrees and doctorates. According to the Rev. Thomas Connolly, the Jesuit priest who doubles as a tribe blstorian, the Coeur d' Alenes are building on the dreams of former tribal Chairman Joe Garry. "He was a strong leader," Connolly said of Garry, selected in 1958-59 as the most outstanding Indian in North America. "Most of the modem tribe's dreams and plans began with Joe." Alarmed by the deterioration of the Coeur d'Alene culture, Garry's council used a ,3 rnilllon lovemment award received in 195 to begin rebuilding Its land base. The money was an additional payment for the 3.5 million acres taken from the tribe under the treaties of 1889 and 1891. About $250,000 was set aside for industry and resource study. Even then, Connolly said, the tribe pumped money into the local economy. It provided ,126,000 in 1964 to help St. Maries Plywood and Pacific Crown Timber Products land major federal matching grants to expand. He estimates the federal government bas spent ,18 million in tribal housing development in Benewah County over the last two decades and reimburses the cities of Plummer and Worley a combined f305,000 annually for tu-exempt tribal land withhi their boundaries. The tribe bas constructed ,100,000 worth of new roads for Plum.mer and was instrumental in Worley's landing $126,000 in grants to expand its sewer and water system. Additionally, be said, the tribe is a significant customer both for the Plummer branch of the Bank of Troy and Coeur d'Alene's Idaho First National Bank. Despite those contributions, Connolly said, "the impact of the Coeur d'Alene tribe hasn't been felt or recognized yet."
Lori Delorme walks the halls of Plummer High School amid the swirl of friends, chatter and lights that make up a school environment.
--'-~ ~-~~---
The Spokesman-Review Spokane Chronicle
A9
Tribe has 'no hatred' for whites By D.F. Oliveria Stall writer
Last March, Coeur d'Alene tribal Chairman Ernie Stensgar gave white supremacist leader Richard Butler a tongue-lashing. Stensgar couldn't understand why Butler and bis Aryan Nations church could be filled with such hatred toward other races when his own people weren't. After all, observed Stensgar, whites had forced the Coeur d' Alenes off the land Butler now uses as his headquarters, north of the city of Hayden. Chief Vincent, Stensgar's greatgreat-great-~andfather, maintained his village on the shor~s of Har.den Lake. ' We do not foster or harbor hatred toward those who forced us to give up the majority of our ancestral lands," said Stensgar. "We struggle to maintain our land, our culture and our rights - not because we think they are superior to all others, but because they are ours, and we want to continue to be ourselves." The empu:e of the Coeur d'AJenes once covered 4 million acres, roughly contained in the Idaho Panhandle from today's northern boundary of Kootenai County to the southern boundary of Latah County. It also included part of Eastern Washington.
Father Thomas Connolly is surrounded by a written history of the Coeur d'Alene tribe.
, Here Is a look at the Panhandle Indian tribes, with where their res~v.at1ons a,re located along with how they comp~, , Coeur d'Alene
I Kootenrn
I Nez Perce
68
3,000
Estimated early population 3,
5%b19c:>J (1 5)
98 (1900)
1,300 7,000 1805
Dm,upPOrt from BIA
$667,100
$74,000
$863,600
345,000
12.5 acres
55percent
42percenl
1,200
acres
Benewah Market, tcoot.181 River Nllpa franchise, m_glftlhop
= Cathollc
KocunlU Clllhollc
peooj
750,000
acraa
~Ne&-W.-us Cafe, senior canter, BIA office, ftshng, tmberland
~
Mettlodi.t, Pentacoetal
Although they called themselves the Schitsu' Umsb, or "the found ones," the tribe of related family bands has almosl always been known to wh tes as the Coeur d'Alenes. Tbe name was given them by frustrated fur traders who couldn't manipulate the once-standoffish tribal members as they had done other Indiana. The traders considered them unruly and even stingy. The name means "heart of a pointed awl," or small-hearted. Yet, during the 1800s, the Coeur d'Alenes proved themselves as friends of the wh tes, protecting white farmers in the neighboring commun1Ues of Farmington, Tekoa and Oakesdale during the Nez Perce uprising of 1877. In November 1842, the sea tered tribe met the Rev. Pierre Desmet near present-day Coeur d'Alene and eagerly embraced CathoUctsm. Tribal members had been prepared for the coming of the "b1ackgowned" men by Circling Raven, iii visionary who lived from 1660 to 1760. He had prophesied that a new kind of medicme man would protect his people against strong invaders and the diseases they would bring with them. Indeed, after establishing a mission at Cataldo in 1846, the Jesuits educat.ed the Coeur d'Alenes and taught them how to farm. Thirty years late , when construction of the Mullan Road and discovery of gold turned the old mission Into ao untenable frontier crossroads, the priests persuaded the tribe to move lo the rich farmlands of the
Palouse.
Even after the treaties of 1889 and 1891 stripped them of all but 400,000 acres of their boriginal holdings. the Coeur d'Afenes pros~red as farmers. Theirs was collS.ldered the richest tribe in lhe Northwesl In the late 1800s, ome of the white farmers once protected by the Coeur d'Alenes signed petiUon asklng the U.S. government to open the Coeur d'Alene reservation to white settlement. Tbe petillons led to the General Allotment Act, which took effect in 1909. lt dealt a near-fatal blow to tribal society and reduced tribal trust holdings to 62,400 acres. The tribe began re-establishing Its land base with the $3 million awarded to It by the U.S. government ln 1959 as further compensation land in the 1889 treaty. Today's reservation encompasses 70,000
acres.
Looking south on Highway 95, you can see the entire length of the Plummer business distrl
Harold Whitley at the deli section of the store he sold to the Coeur d'Alene tribe.
t be look u on Bur of n Affairs as a necessary evil
Panhan
a, Cynthia Taggart
Staffwrtt•
Cblef ltaymond Abraham, of tbe Kootenai Tribe ID Bonnen F~, combls relatlonlblD with the Bureau of Affaln to tfaat of a cblld with sllptly inlaDe ~ta.
= ='.
lliJ'here's DO andentand1na between u, but they're ~ , ' ' be said of the "Tbe BIA.bas been a maJor stummr block to 111. Bat on the otller I!¥, re tbe only tbiDI available to trillis as a reeource." In Nortll ldabo, 'tbe BIA isn't well-liked. Tbe Nez Perce, Coeur d'Alene and Kootenai tribes tblDk of tbe ftdera1 ..... ey as a ~ Didlance. ''The BIA alwa~ throws roadblocb in the timely procesa tbat aometiJnes ii so lml)Oltant to projects done,'' said Allen Plnli:• coimcll chairman of tbe Nez Perce
tbe way of our plam, stope
l,.et,:n'
tribe in Lapwai. "Bat the bureau bas to ul8t t o ~ out trust respOllllbllties." Tbe BIA repreaenta the U.S. government to the country's 506 Native American nations. It is a l>rancb of the Department of Interior and is respomdble for meetlq agreements made In treaties between and the United States. For now, North Idaho's three tribes deal directl1 witb the BIA's North Idaho AaencY in Lapwai. Tbe BIA plans to nio9e file agency bat hasn't cbosen a site. Tbe aaenc,, 1iDder Superlnten4ent Gord41n Cannon; 57 people, IOD18 1D th care, forestry, planand development or flnaDcel. Of tbaie, ta work bi tbe Lapwai beadQuartei'W and DiDe work in Plummer af tbe Coeur d'Alene tribal offices. Tbe BrA also ~rovides tribes wi~ adlllbdlttative fUlidlnl because no tuea are •e•ed on tribal land. Tbls year, tbe North Idaho AieDc'1
mdians
=•lists
=·oya
received $3.3 mllllon. Of tbat amount, the apncy ap)>!Oved allocations of po 800 to the Nez Perce tribe, '667,000 to Coeur d' Alenes and flt,000 to tbe 88-member Kootenai tribe. Tbe ba4lets fund tribal admlnistration and IQCti propuJS as health education and IOclal aerilcea. Tbe allocatlons are baaed on pol>Ulation and land bue, wbich hurts small tribes
the
with 1ltt1e 1aad lite tbe Kootenals, said Idaho Agency su-
Gordon CallDoa, North
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feet scheme, so I try to bale it on aervices." But the servi~ BIA PNlfam officer
Leroy Cbue often.ldenClflei'ii necessary to tribes, such • plannen reeource managers, don't pt·f1mded, call8ing tbe tribes 8'id tbe Nortll ldallo Agency employees mucb frustration. ''We're ltlack rn the- muldle,'' complained Chase. "Tbe tribei gee frustrated with as, but tbe rale9 ~ from people in Wasblngton, nc. '1'bey.N not 1aere. Tbey don't see tbe needs. !Jut "they mate the final decisions." To tbe tribes tile BIA lar~t ted
ta~ or, as tbe ez Berce'sbaJQ pNfen to call It.,dote.tape. CaiQlolr: JaiOwj Ida office isn't popular "'nlere'a alwaya a little bit of ccmfllct wlthtbe . . . . because of aU tbe ebannell 'have to 8lt
ma" Uff a valid point laolMb9 dl9ldli ~ " be said of '1laie
OD
M i ' ~ tllat ibeY bave the same
aeecla ..,. . . ~ ''There's
DO
per-
~ " be 118ld-
•e
Tbe bureal¥2'8tic meas became especially evident in North I ~ tbill year wben Cannon saddenly UIIOIIIICed lbat
b1s headquarters was moving from Lap,vai to Sl)Okane. Officials from all three tribes cried foul. Ernie Stenagar, council chairman of the Coeur d' Alenes. immediately called for a huddle with Abraham. The two northern tribes had been trying for three years to centralize the headquarters, but not to moâ&#x20AC;˘e it out of state. Plnkbam, too, objected. The agency employs 25 Nez Perce tribe members. 13 on the reservation and 12 in the agency. Employees willing to move would retain their jobs, cannon said. But few of the 12 Nez Perce agency employees would leave their families and native ground, Pinkham said. The Nez Perce don't want more unemployment, which bounces from 36 percent lo 69 percent depending on the season, the tri6al chairman said. While the news of the proposed move
was unsettling, the tribes were moat upset at their exclusion from the decisionmaking process. "We are sovereign nations," said the Coeur d'Alene's Stensgar. "But they don't contact us until everything is decided. Th~y don't communicale." Tbe office space the North Idaho Agency uses belongs to the Lapwai School District. The building ls old and bas asbestos problems. The school district told Cannon it planned to raze the building when the agency found new office space. Cannon passed the school district's message to the BIA's regional office in Portland. Ron Brown, assistant area director for the BIA in Portland, passed on the problem to Washington, D.C. where the General Services Aclministraton was assigned to find the North Idaho Agency new office space. The GSA found appropriate government-owned office space in Spokane, it
informed Brown. Brown sent word to Cannon and Cannon notified the tribes. "Theo all bell broke loose," Cannon said with a groan. He won't disclose his personal feelings on the choice of Spokane for bis office. Be only notes bis frustraUon at having to be the spokesman to the tribes for a decision made without bis er their input. After protests from the tribes and the state's congressional delegation, the BIA ruled out Spokane for its new offices and postponed its move. Now the move ls in limbo, cannon said. The Nez Perce want the agency to stay where it is. Pinkham doesn't want the quality of the BIA'a services to bis tribe reduced by distance. Stensgar wants the offices moved to Plummer, Moscow or Coeur d'Alene, somewhere more access1ble so the agency can improve the quality of its services to b1s tribe.
The closest the Kooteoal's Abraham wants the agency is Coeur d'Alene - 80 miles from Bonners Ferry. ''We don't want them here where they'll get in our way," be said. "We need the bureau as a resource, but we've learned over the years to ,et along without it as much as possible.' Cannon knows the final decision won't make anyone bafPY, be said. But that's a part of bis Job be s used to. No matter bow much tribes want to work independently of the U.S. government, they need the BIA, said agency program director Chase. "All Indian tribes are trying to get away from dependence on the federal government," he said. "U they can get into economic development and make a profit, thel could (be independent). But while they¡re working on that, they have to exist. And that's where the BIA comes in."
Nez Perce try to make comeback 'Ibis is the thiTd in a three-da11 series of 11rticles about Ntmh Idaho's lndiClfl tribes. Toda11's 11rticles namine the Nez Perce tribe and ics reservation, where descendant& of Chief Joseph loalc to natural resources for economic secti.ritfl.
By Theresa Goffredo
Staflwrltn
LAPW Al - Nez Perce Indian Laura Redding was 2 years old when ber mother died. Sbe ana her six siblings were sent to orphanages, eventually to be reared by different parents. Redding left the Nez Perce reservation to attend blgb school in Spokane. While living in Washlnrton. she was ta\.en care of by her older sister, Caroline. The women vowed never to return to the reservation. PANHANDLE But when their two sisters dl~ in 1979, Laura and Caroline returned to PAATTHREE Lapwai for the funerals. They declded never to leave borne again. "We know we're a small mlnority, and it keeps you closer together," said Laura, 40, who leases the Pi-Nee-Waus Cafe with Caroline, 48.
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''I don't picture myself ever leaving. We bought 18008, they were 7,000 strong and bad 14 million acres stretcblng across central Idaho to a house and kind of aetUed here. "I can't explaln the feeling you §et - you're southeastern Washington and lnto northeastern OreJ(on. content. It's like a spiritual feeling. Laura's feelings include fear for her tribe's Many tribe members died from war, white future: man's dlseases and suicide brought about by "I believe ln my heart that the government government attempts to isolate and destroy the would like to terminate us. I hope rm not here tribal structure. when that happens. I hope I'm 6 feet under." Today, their members number about 3~000 Redding is not alone ln fearing for her pec>ple's future. But she and other members have and the government recognizes the trioe's returned because of family and have stayed to checkerboard-like boundaries to include about steer their tribe into a future they hope wll1 750,000 acres, though not all the land is under bring the economic and cultural stablllty the tribal control. Nez Perces once knew. The Nez Perces have tried to build economic "It was not a question for me whether I would stability, but some of their plans have gone return," said Elliott Moffett, secretary of the awry. For in.stance, the tribe's printing compaNez Perce Tribal Executive Committee. "fve ny went belly-up ln the early 19808. Prejudice been around the country, but It's always been lent a band in keeping the trlbe'a unemployment my goal to come back and do whatever I could rate blr.b because companies off the reservation for the tribe. If not, we're going to lose our cul- refused to hire the out-of-work Indians. ture." "No matter what we do, there stlll ls discrimThe Nez Perces, renowned as breeders of Appaloosa bones, once were among the richest lnatlon," said Brlan Samuela, director of Indian (See Na Perce on page 6) and largest tribes in the nation. In the early
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The future of the Nez Perce tribe may rest on these Lapwai High School students.
Leader Executive chairman serves his people . Alleq Pbaklaam, hibal execut i v e ~ cbalrmaa - The rnQSt enjoyable thnes of Pink-
ham's llfe were as a boy growing
up·on the Nez Perce reservation. Be moved away in 1949 to live with bis father. Be didn't return
until be resigned from Omark Industries, taking a $7,000 pay cut to become chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee in 1981 - a positio Pinkham
hc)lds toaay at 49.
"This bas some of the best huntmg·and fishing areas in the country," he said. But there ls a rnore unportant reason Pinkham returned. "My father said some day you sho.uld do something for your people. This was ·the way for me to 'serve my people."
A6
] HE SPOKESMAN-RfvtEw Tues,, Jan. 5, 1988, Spokane, Wash.
A SPECIAL REPORT: PANHANDLE INDIANS -
THE NEZ PERCE
From the top of the Lewiston grade, the Nez Perce could once see all the thousands of acres they controlled. Now they see all they've lost. StaH photo by CHRIS ANDERSON
stalf pl:loto by CHRIS ANDERSO
Basil White, 61, holds one of the newest additions to the 120.member Kootenai Tribe, 9-month-old Kassandra Weaselhead.
'No truce' for Kootenai Tribe liquor laws for most Americans, It left It up
By Cynthia Taggart SUH writer
BONNERS FERRY - Raymond Abraham worked for the Boundary County SberUrs Department when bis Kootenai Tribe declared war against the United States in 1974. He was one of few Kootenais with a job. So, while a handful of bis tribe members waged a desperate but peaceful dlapute with tbe AmeriPARTTWO can government, Abraham remained neutral. Thirteen yean later, Chief Abraham, Sl, is a main player in the war games bis 120member tribe continues with the United states. From a baffled teen, Abraham bas developed into a strategist who baa led bis tribe into such new business endeavors as the 47room Kootenai River Inn. Each day, Abraham and other tribal leaden, all in their SOI, brainstorm over a long table in their council chambers. They are surrounded by murals portraying their ancestors as being true to their lndlan culture while living peacefully with white setUers. They want to continue the tradition. But decades as victims have taught these young leaders that the only way to preserve their heritage ls to play ttie white man's game and win. The reservation ls a 12.5-acre swell in the Kootenai Valley's barren Oatlanda west of Boaaers Ferry, a far cry from the 1.J m!Won
PANHANDLE
TRIBES
Tiny tribe is t pie of today's stories
to states whether to repeal the law for Indians. Idaho chose not to allow Indians to have alcohol, a law that wasn't repealed until the
1950s. "It was one more thing for our pa.rents to be bitter about," said Dixie Cooper, 35. "My Tllll is tbe leCOlld ID a ~ father was out to show that be could drink if ...... of utl$9 . , _ Nortll be wanted to. They bad no rilbt to let some â&#x20AC;˘'â&#x20AC;˘ IIIIIIID trllllllll, ,rblcb eacll bift a people have alcohol and not otliers... - - calta?l. ~ blit allU'e Many of the Kootenais' grandparents' generation shared the sentiment of Cooper's father. But in their determination to defy the topk!, man ltolw cl1scrlminatory law, their descendants say, OD')IIIIIAI. thella~~~ alcohol take over their lives. Tutilday'a ..-tides -wll1 .,ulpt White, 61, is one of three Kootenais t.lle Hes Yeree Tribe. left over the age of 50. Like Cooper's father, be drank bard for most of bis aauu life. He spent much of the 1960s in jail. ''It was very bard here then," White said, acres of Kootenai aboriginal land. All but one of the 68 Kootenals stlllln the area live in the with little emotion. "The government came 16 identical yellow houses on the reservation . . ln because of the alcohol." Whether the alcohol brought government Ironically, the one Kootenai living in town is the one who gave many departed tribe intervention, or whether government intermembers a reason in the 1970s to return to vention in the tribe drove the Kootenais to the bottle, depends on who's telling the story. tbe1r valley homeland. Amy Trice believed there was no other What isn't contested, even by Bureau of Inellway to save her people than to take them to an Affairs officials, is the government's role war. During her 3 ~ yean on Kootenai in the problem. In the 19608, the BIA rounded all but land, by 1974 Trice bad seen her tribe nearly nine of the Kootenai children and pu them in destroyed by diseue, alcobollam, uposure. "We were beaten so badly and no one white foster homes and out-of-state Indian wanted to help. There wu nothina else to boarding schoola. Velma Bahe was 6 wben the BIA took ber do," Trice, now a p-andmotber, recalled. Tbe decline of the Kootenai ~ after (See Kootenall OD page 8) Prohibition. When Congress repealed the no-
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TUESDAY, FEB. 16, 1988
REGIONAL NEWS
THE SPOXESMAN-REvlF,v
IDAHOHANDLE
Pat Reilly, president of NIC students, says he'll support what students want.
NIC leader dreams of political future By Cynthia Taggart
Staff wril r
COEUR d'ALENE - U North Idaho College stu· dents want condom dispensers installed on campus. Pat Reilly will do everything he can to fulfill that wish, even though he's opposed to it. "Bein~ Catholic, I can't say I support condoms on campus, ' said the president of NIC's Associated Students. "But if that's what students want, I'll support it. We could be the first campus in the state to provide condoms." A sophomore business student, Reilly, 21, already is laying the foundation for a future in politics. He's using NIC as his polltlcal training ground, learning the ropes from political science professor Tony Stewart. As head of NIC's student govern.-nent this year, Reilly bad one goal: to awaken activism within students of the 1980s. To meet that goal, Reilly has done what he can to propel NIC's student government into the spotlight. The issues have helped. NIC students have worked for years with inadequate library facilities, but it wasn't until this year that the student government took on the library issue.
Condoms have been a controversial issue on other campuses. This year, Reilly's 20-member student government decided It was time for NIC students to talk condoms.
In January, Retlly visited the Legislature with NIC Presldent Bob Bennett to discuss creative funding P.lans for NIC's library expansion. Bennett gave Reilly five minutes of the half-hour NIC bad for the legislative presentation. In those minutes, Reilly tolii legislators be believes NIC's ~udenl would pay greater fees to help the library pro ect. e was wrong, but his error prompted students to speak out. From the negative response Reilly heard upon his return from Boise to NIC, be decided to
bodi:
take a survey. With the help of his freshman and sophomore senators, be compiled questions on campus facilities, the grading system, student loans and scholarships, condoms and sports programs.
The representatives of student government distributed the surveys through required academic courses to about 400 students and to another 100 students in vocational programs. (Total enrollment at NIC is 2,500.) The results were surprising and, sometimes, frustrating, Reilly said Monday. Of the 500 students surveyed, 19 rated the library excellent, 86 above average and 123 average. About ball the respondents said the library was below average; a few had no response. For Reilly, who committed h1.s student body to supporting a library expansion project, the results were disappointing in that more students were not
Already, be and his student rephave issued a procla· maUon against a leglalative resolll· · Uoa to fund the library apa.nston with borrowed money, ~ proclamaUoo went to Bennett ~ the
reaentaUves
the student desire
grades." A majority, 309 students, favored condom dispensers on campus. Of those, 251 want them in men's restrooms, 227 want them in women's rest-
rooms, 167 want the school nurse to distribute condoms and 101 want dispensers available in the dormitories. The condom response was no surprise, Reilly said. Neither was the fact that 240 students ranked their knowledge o! student government as below average. Still, he found the low awareness of his government frustrating. Now, armed with the survey results and the condom and library issues, Reilly plans to make noise with his government. (See Leader on page 2)
for condoms to baa e:rcellent representaijoa. need that, too." . ' TbouRb. Reilly ii beaded to Bo~ _ state lfnlveraity nut _year to ltlldYu.:t IM!CODdary education, he admits b&, · mind yearns for a future 1n DOllUcs., He's not the first 1n b1a famll_y Wltb ' _ the bug. Bil uncle, Terry Remy. '• dJed 1n a plluie crub ID 1988 wbllo cam~go1ng for election a, Ueu- · • tenanl governor. . In the meantime, Rellly relishes,.,., b1a role at NIC. · ·· "The library lsaue , baa t,ee._, as great," he aald. "lt's' made ua work - . It's made ua think. It's made us via,i • Ible. 'll/e couldn't haye asked for..: much more." . -
NIC Dean of Students David Lind· say, who la researcblng the Jssue. · And, on Thursday, be wm IZO to Wuhlngton, D.C., as the state's delegate ·to the American Student AJr Board of Trustees, and made IOClatlon or Junior, Technical and local beadlloel. . Community Colleges. While there '"Tbat'a just what we needed," he will dlscuss the state of educa~ Reilly aatd with a amlle. "Wh~ the · tlon 1n Idaho with Sen. Steve ltudent government fr:om CSI (Col· Symms and Reps. Larry Craig and teae of Southern Idaho) was here Richard Stallings. Jut weet. they were amazed to see "I'm going to show · them statlswbat we're dolng (described) on the tlca on how we rank a state edufront page of the newapapers! • catlonally.'' Reilly said. "I'm going Re will aend tstudenfa' opinions on to stress funding. tile IChool faclUUes to NIC admlnls"Vermont . gets twice as much tratora, Rellly l&ld. He will take federal f~ding as we do because It
me
critical of the library. '1 think a lot of them bad nothing to compare it to," he said. "We should have worded the question differently, like compare our library to other college libraries." Students also surprised Reilly by choosing to stick with a letter grading system that includes pluses and minuses. Alternatives listed in the survey were: straiRbt letter grades; a number grading system; pass/fa11 grades; and grade points. "There've been so many complalnts about the plus/minus system," he said. "That was a real shocker. I thought they'd want the straJght A, B, C
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1988
REGIONAL NEWS
THE SPODSMAN-REvmw
IDAHO HANDLE
Dukakis is a winner in North Idaho County caucuses go with the front-runner By D.F. Oliveria and Dean Miller Staff wnter,
COEUR D'ALENE - KootenaJ County supporters of Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakls wooed uncommitted delegates from the start Tuesday night, posting banners that said, "Dukakis visitâ&#x20AC;˘ ed 1dabo, uncommitted did not! Don't waste your vote on a theory!" Their strategy ran counter to that of leading county Democrats, Including Cbalnnao Dave Potts, who bad urged voters to remain uncommitted. They bad hoped to send an uncommitted Idaho delegation to their party's national convention to increase the impact of Idaho's 23 delegates. The Dukakis forces' strategy won, capturing 36 percent of voters and 10 delegates. Their candidate emerged as the plurality winner at the Kootenai County Fairvc>unds on a rainy Tuesday evenmg. The uncommitted group finished next with 26 percent and eight delegates, followed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore, who each garnered 19 percent and five delegates. A total of 3ol2 persons participated in the county's meeting, about 100 more than the caucus four years ago, said President Bob Brown of the Kootenai Democratic Club. In Sandpoint, the liberal wing of Bonner County's Democratic Party turned out in force to band Jackson a surprising three deleates of 14.
Stall photo by ANNE C WILLl,'!MS
Tony Stewart addresses fellow Gore supporters at a Democratic caucus Tuesday evening in Coeur d'Alene.
But UukaJus cashed Iii on bis front-runner status and recent appearance in Spokane and won tile top vote, with 5 delegates. Four of Bonner County's 14 de). egates will go to the state convention uncommitted and two will support Gore. Ranging from a 17-year-old political neophyte to veterans of convention floors, Bonner County's Democrats were about 50 percent women and included a strong turnout of senior citizens. Gore's two Bonner County delegates and two alternates are married couples: Ken and Irene Adler, and Dean and Carla Stevens. A collection will be taken to help the county's youngest delegate, Jason Ahlquist, 17, a Jackson supporter, travel to Pocatello. Jackson supporters said support for the long-time civil rights activist surprised them.
"He's a candidate of the '60s," said Tom Logue, wearing a purple "Rainbow Coalition" T-abirt from Jackson's fint campaign. Another Jackson delegate will be Ford Elsaesaer, a Sandpoint lawyer wbo worked for Eugene McCarthy's 1968 campaign. At the Kootenai County Fairgrounds, Illinois Sen. Paul Simon and U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt of Mlssouri bad some initial support, but not enough to earn them delegates. No one supported former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart. Dukakis, Gore and those supporting an uncommitted delegation were the only ones actively wortlng for delegates in Kootenai County prior to th caucus. Lois Hunter of Hayden Lake was one who switched sides after the preliminary count. She origi-
nally supported Siinon, but opted for Gore when her group fell short of the numben required to qualify for delegates. Attorney Alan Wasserman said Simon was bis clear first choice but threw his support to Jackson' when the llilnois senator with . drew from Super Tuesday conten-
tion.
North Idaho caucus results Here are the unofflcial resuh$ of Tuesday night's Democratic caucuses ln the sil( North Idaho counli8$. Results are in number of. ~ate delegates for each candidate; There are 381 ' delegates at the ldaho state ,, ,. convention. j:::.,, ~ < Benewah Bonne, Boundary Kootenai Latah Shoshone TOTAL
' lDukakls . ..,
Jackson, be said, "is the only one talking about poor people's Gaohardt ., , causes. None of the other people it Gore â&#x20AC;˘ 't' really strike me, but I won't ba ve trouble voting for them in NovemHart ber. At this {>Oint. a vote for them .Jackson is a vote afamst the Republicans Jacbon s totals didn't surprise Slmol'I attorney Chuck Sberoke. Uncotnmltted '1t shows most of the ~ple in Idaho are open-minded,' be sa id. Stall g,aphlo; Vlooit Gripp( "He's been the most consistent o pnent of Reaganomics."
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THE COEUR D'ALENE PRESS Friday, April 8. 198e
Richard Butler plans return to Aryan Nation compound By DICK WOLFF Preaa staff writer
Tbe Rev. Richard Butler will return April 17 to bis pulpit at the Church of Jesus Christ Christian Aryan Nation near Hayden Lake,~ free of all charges brought apinst b1m by federal prosecuton. An all-white jury deliberated for four days before acquitting the Aryan Nations founder and eight others Thursday afternoon of trying t.o overthrow the government. Five co-defendants also were acquitted of trying t.o kill a federal judge and an FBI agent and establish an all-white nation in the
Pacific Northwest. Despite the verdict, Kootenai County civil rights activists say Butler's impact is waning. Norman Gissel, president of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said Butler "bas no chance whatsoever" of establishing an all-white nation in the Northwest. "At no time have I ever tboupt that," he said, "even in 1983 when they were at their strongest." Tony Stewart, president of the Northwest Coalition Against Mall¡ cious Harassment, a five-state organization created last year to promote human relations in the states targeted by the Aryan Nations, said be supports the judicial process that acquitted the group.
Richard Butler
of the task. force and coalition, said the Aryan Nations will fail due to lack of membership. "They have eight to 12 members
now," Ile said. "They're declining; people just aren't buying into it." Meanwhile, Butler is recuperating from the trial. Aryan Nations spokeswoman Betty Tate said Butler and bis wife "are taking some time off. "They knew they'd be there for some time," Tate said. The Butlers are expected to return to the compound north of Hayden Lai.e in time for Butler to conduct the 11 have llkedto a.m. services April 17. have seen the end of And Tate said Butler remains committed to bold the Aryan Nathe Aryan Nations In Uon's World Congress at the comNorth Idaho. But I pound July 1~17. "It could be a celebration," she agree...that there said. probably Isn't a Neither the coalition nor the task force have plans to stage a coundozen of them left." ter-demonstration to the schedPollceChlef FfankPremo uled congress. "I'm disappointed (about the "However, there is no question verdict)," Coeur d'Alene Police in the minds of the Northwest Chief Frank Premo said. "I'd have Coalition that bate groups have liked to have seen the end of the been convicted of many such Aryan Nations in North Idaho. "But I agree with what crimes," be said. Both groups point to a series of Broadbent bas said, that there tough anti-hatred laws enacted by probably isn't a dozen of them the Idaho Legislature since the left." Premo said there is no doubt in Aryan Nations surfaced here as his mind that the defendants bad reasons Butler will not succeed. Larry Broadbent, underaberlff PleaN IN WANE, back page of Kootenai County and a member
''I'd
Coalition fights beer distribution Profits given to combat treaties By DICK WOLFF
Press staff writer
To the chagrin of Coeur d'Alene tribal leaders, Idaho is on the brewers wishlist for distribution of Treaty Beer, whose founder says he distributes profits to organiza¡ tions to combat treaties which grant favored status to Native Americans for fishing and hunting rights. Dean Crist, of Minocquab, Wisc. , who claims to be "part Iroquois," said the issue of racism , which brought an instant call for a boycott of the product by the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, clouds the " equality issue." "The issues are who is killing game out of sea..on," he said. ''Who can kill eagles, pregnant cow elks or exploit the fish population." '' AU these issues are lost as soon as someone stands up and says 'racist,' ' he said. Although no North Idaho beer distributor bas announced plans to sell the beer, Crist said he hopes to soon get the brew into the Gem State. Coeur d'Alene tribal chairman Ernest Stensgar and Donna Curtis, a reporter for the Coeur d'Alene Council Fires newspaper met Wednesday to discuss the situation with Tony Stewart, coalition president. Stewart said he'll ask the coali-
tion board next month at its meeting in Wyoming to join the boycott against Treaty Beer. "I will also ask the board to oppose any plan that would abrogate this country's treaty obligations with the American Indian tribes," he said. "I believe this entire antitreaty campaign smacks of racism. " "They claim it isn't racist," Stensgar said. " But who else do you know that bas treaties with the United States? " Crist is founder of Stop Treaty Abuse, and promises that his profits go to such organizations as CERA (Citizens Equal Rights Alliance), ACE (All Citizens Equal } and PARR (Protect American Rights & Resources ). Treaty Beer, which is produced by Schoenling Brewing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio for Crist, was approved for a federal license Feb. 26, according to documents filed with the Liquor Control Board of Washington.
6
On April 7, the Washington state's Liquor Control Commission approved its distribution "after reviewing the application thoroughly," said Carter Mitchell, control board spokesman. " We had to approve the application." Mitchell said. "It was a first amendment issue. It was LPD all the way ... let the people decide." In the following days, Mitchell said the people did decide. "We started getting hate calls," he said. "The three distributors who had agreed to handle the product backed out. Gov. Gardner called for a boycott of the product. " The Lindberg Beverage Co., in Tacoma, Wash. , was one of the three distributors who decided against handling the beer. Gary Mustain, general manager of the firm, could not be reached for comment. But a spokesperson at the firm who asked not to be identified confirmed that the firm would no Iona-er handle Treaty Beer.
¡rwe decided not to get involved in it," she said. Crist said Washington, Montana, Idaho, Minnesota, the Dakotas "and even Maine," are "good states" for distribution of his beer. "Our problem (in Washington) was we probably gave too much notice " he said. "We're still thrashing it out," he said . "Normally a little controversv is ,zood for our product." Probfemi involving a labor dispute between a major brewer and the distributors "made them a little sensitive, " he said. "It's just a minor delay." Idaho officials said there is no public participation in whether a beer may be licensed for sale here. Melanie Fales administrative assistant at the Alcohol and Beverage Control Bureau in Boise, said the only criteria used in determining a license is whether the liquid is a beer or a wine.
THE COEUR D'ALENE PRESS Friday, Moy 13. 1988
THE COEUR D'ALENE PRESS Mondov. Moy 16, 1~
Wassmuth to leave priesthood By NILS ROSOAHL Special to the Press
Believing his entire priesthood that Roman Catholic priests should be allowed to marry, the Rev. Bill Wassmuth of St. Pius X Church in Coeur d'Alene over the weekend told parishioners he had to make a choice. "My choice is to not spend the rest of my life as a single person," Wassmuth told throngs of silent worshippers at three services Saturday and Sunday. "In the current discipline of the Catholic Church, I cannot continue minjstry as an active priest unless I remain unmarried.'' During a string of announcements at the end of regular services before bis five-minute talk, antsy people shifted in the pews and babies cried. However, when Father Billas he is affectionately known throughout the community walked from the pulpit to the center of the wide altar. the congregations became stone quiet.
Father Bill Wassmuth
The scene was reminiscent of a weekend last January when Wassmuth aMounced simply that he would leave Coeur d'Alene. At that time, be said he would leave St. Pius in June, about a year ahead of bis 10th year, when priests often are transferred to other positions. In January he did not say what his
plans were or whether he planned to remain in the priesthood. Many people thought he would become more actively involved in the pursuit of social issues, such as the Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, of which he was president when the organization began in 1987. The coalition formed in response to statements and violence attributed to the racist Church of Jesus Christ Christian, Aryan Nations organiZation headquartered nortlt of Hayden Lake. "It's a profound loss to the church to lose him as a priest," said Bob Bohac, parish coucil president. "The biggest loss is to the church and the community." .. I hope this will help move the church so that something will be done about the celibacy rule. I feel very sad that because of the church laws he was put in the position of having no choice." Bohac said.
Please IN PRIEST, baolc page
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ::imce his first announcement,
many rumors spread throughout the community. He playfully mentioned one that linked him to government work. "Some of the rumors were very creative," he said. "The best was that I've been an undercover agent all this time and now that things are smooth, I can move on." Early in his statement, Wassmuth lamented the Roman Catholic Church's stand regarding priests celibacy, an issue he has fought since he was ordained 21 years ago. "It's the law for the Western Rite Church, and I have to live with that, " Wassmuth said. "I really regret that the church has those trungs tied so closely together. So I must do some changing. " I asked all of you nine years ago to be my family , but even with all the love you showed me I still have had a void in my life'. I endured it for 21 years because I wanted to be a priest. But if I continue to pretend , it wouldmake trouble for others and myself." Afte the services, Wassrnuth said it would be from 12 to 18 months before he married, but he refused to name his future bride. He said he wants to remain active in the Roman Catholic Church. "I remain positive about the church," he maintained. "It's always been life-giving to me. You have been very good to me; God has blessed me in that!'
Originally from Cottonwood, Wassm11th hPg~n hi..: trainine :if age 14 to become a priest. He was ordained in 1967 and served in educational positions and at a few smaller parishes before coming to Coeur d'Alene in 1979. During his years here St. Pius has grown to nearly 1,000 families. Be continually has been active in social issues, helping found Hospice of North Idaho the Cult Awareness Center th~ Kootenai County Task Force for Human Rights and the Northwest CoaHtion Against Malicious Harassment. He became nationally known 18 months ago when he escaped injury as his house was bombed during a series of Coeur d'Alene bombings allegedly tied to the Aryan Nations. Last winter, he was named Id~o Citizen of the Year by the Boise Statesman, a Boise newspaper. He plans to be active in peace movements and to continue to battle social injustice. Re hopes money will be generated and allow the five-state coaJition to set up an office for him in Seattle, where he plans to live. After receiving a standing ovation, Wassmuth shook hands and hugged worshippers, who had formed into a long line. ''Lord we ask you not to keep us from trials, but to give us the strength to face them " Wassmuth said in his benediction to the group. ' St. Pius will miss him very much," Bohac said. ''He s been a magnificent example of word ~md d~ to trus community, Just as I m sure he wilJ be where ever he is. I wish that could be with us."
Task force lends hand in Montana By D.F. Oliveria Slaff wrttar
Residents of Montana's rural s.nders County are banding together to combat what they believe la a growing whlte separatlat movement in tbeli' midst. They J>!an to model their organlzatlon after the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. Kootenai County task force members will travel from Coeur d'Alene to Noxon, 50 miles east of Sandpoint, to address the grass-roots movement at 7 p.m. Thursday in the local high school. "We're not trying to nm these pe4?ple out of the (Clark Fork) valley," Noxon Hlgb instructor Tim Mcwilliams said Friday in a phone interview. "Our whole program will be toward the positive. We are trying to do this with dignity and not create a war between our two groups. "A lot of these people are well liked in the valley." A letter cireulated by McWilllams and other human rights advocates, reaffirming the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. ConstltuUon and Montana's constituUon, appeai:ed in a half-page ad in th.ls week's Thompson Falls-based Sanden County Ledger. It was signed by 437 people within a week, McWUllams said It was patterned after petitions circulated by the Kootenai County task force to cities and counties throughout the Northwest just prior to the first Human Rights Celebration in Coeur d'Alene two summen ago. Mcwilliams' informal group bas been in contact with Kootenai County task force members a1nce about the first of the year. The group of about 12 bas been together for about six weeks and bas been meeting with other organizations as well to counter the white supremacist philosophy. McWilliams la serving as the movement's spokes-
man. (See Blas OD pap 8)
//.
B8 The Spokesman-Review Spokane Chronicle
Bias
Spokane, Wash., Sun., May 22. 1988
Continuedfrompage1 .....- - - - - - -
The peaceful coexistence between separatists and fully, 1n a smaller community like that, they will be the rest of the community was shaken two weeks ago able to deal with tbla problem in a more efficient when Spokane's KXLY-TV ran a weeklonf series of way." Contacted at ber Thompson Falls flower shop, news stories. The stories profiled leaden o the Sanden County separatist movement - Aryan Nations separatist IJnda McCurry said she would welcome a members, constituttonallsts and a Ku Klux Klansman Sanden County task force. "All the things they're against, we're against," she - as well as those from local law enforcement "The whole thing just exploded," McWUliams said. said. McCurry's husband, Larry,, ls a Montana leader in "I don't think very many people were aware of their the Cborcli of Jesus Christ Cbristian (Aryan Nations). full agenda. "They say the media overdid it. That they were They have ties to Richard Butler's church 1n Hayden treated unfairly. Whether or not the media sensation- Lake. alized the story, my main concern ls that their philosoShe accused McWilliams and those who signed petiphy goes agafnst the basic values many of us were tions of dlscrimlnaUng against the "separatists," a term she preferred over "supremacists." brought up with." He bad no estimate of the number of separatists in "They're d.iscriminating a~ain.st us because of our religious beliefs,'' she sa1d. 'Because we happen to the county. McWU8ams hopes to organize under the banner of make lt public." the Sanders County Task Force for Buman DllDlity. He Added McCurry, "Everyone seems to th.ink because would like to see representatives from eacli of the we are pro-white, we're supposed to be anti-everything county's four communities - Heron, Noxon, Trout else, and we're not We respect the rights and priviCreek and Thompson Falls - on the group's executive leges of other races." She was unaware of the meeting planned for Thursboard. Accordlng to McWl.l.1.ialm, the purpose of the new day. The McCurrys and other sepal'atists have been maktask force will be threefold: • To give a platform for people to speak out on ing their philosophy known for two years in the letters to the editor section of the Sanders County Ledger. baaic American values. • To promote legislation that would make mali- Now, they may have lost that forum. cious harassment of individuals because of race or reA strongly worded editorial in Tuesday's Ledger ligious beliefs a felony, and also subject them to civil stated that the ~per won't run any more letters from ll.ibillty. the separatlats 'unless they come up with new materi• To promote legislation that would treat paramlli- al," according to editor Tom Eggensperger. tary traming as an act of terrorism. In an Interview from bis Thompson Falls office, EgAll three goals are patterned after actions by the §ensperger said the paper bas come under fire for Kootenai County task force. pving these guys too much space" to promote their "We're fortunate to be only two hours away from news. the national authority on this kind of movement," be "We generally have a fairly open policy," he added. He cited two other reasons for the policy change: said. Norm Gissel of the Kootenai County task force said The separatlats don't believe in the Christian ideal of he's eXl)erienced a sense of deja vu 1n dealing witb equality for all, and it's time to move on to other topics. McWUllams' group. "They're where we were at in 1981," he said "HopeEggenaperger said, "You can dwell on th1S too long."
=~~= KOOTENAI COUNTY -- ~ ' i m
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SUNDAY SUN.: MAY 22, 1988 NORTH IDAHO SUNDAY
Wassmutn dinner slated COEUR d' ALENE - The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations will sponsor a "Thank You Bill · Wassmuth Evening" Wednesday at the Hayden Golf Club. The farewell for " Father Bill" begins at 6 p.m., with hors d'oeurves and a no-host bar. At 7:30 p.m. the formal program begins, with a number of people scheduled to speak. In addition to the speakers, recent national1\elevision broadcasts featuring Wa$muth will be shown and the meeti~ will conclude with dance music the BLT Band. The popular uman rights leader
and Catholic priest announced la~t weekend that he is leaving the priesthood when he moves to Seattle next month because he would like to marry someday. The Catholic church does not allow its priests to marry. Tickets are $10 per person, with some of the money to be spent on a gift for Wassmuth. Tickets are ·available from the Coeur d'Alene chamber office, Sen. Mary Lou Reed's office, St. Pius X Catholic Church, Templin's Resort, North of Hollywood Video, First Federal Savings & Loan's Coeur d'Alene office, Jean Robson of Rathdrum or the Avondale and Hayden Golf Clubs.
Inside the Press Sendoff for Father BIii -page4 Home and garden special -page17
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Well-wishers give kudos to Wassmuth
THE COEUR D'ALENE PRESS Thursday. May 26, 1988
ourselves," former Chamber of Commerce director Sandy Emerson said. " As we see ourselves in As a farewell gift to the Rev. Bill him , I think he's going to be in Wassmuth , Tony Stewart Wednes- every one of us." day vowed to create the position of Marshall Mend , a Coeur d' Alene executive director for the real estate agent involved in the Northwest Coalition Against Mali- Kootenai County Task Force on cious Harassment and to hire the Human Relations , said Wassmuth departing priest. taught him how to be a more Stewart is president of the coali- positive person . tion. " I didn't think it was possible for About 150 well-wishers gathered me to be more positive, '' he joked. at the Avondale Golf and Tennis "But (Bill) taught me that in any Club Wednesday night to say good- adversity, there is good that comes bye to " Father Bill," a community out of it. " leader and civil rights activist who Although most of the evening has chosen to leave the Catholic was reflective, not everything in priesthood for marriage. The din- the program was serious. Eric ner, sponsored by the Kootenai ¡ Mayes celebrated Wassmuth's County Task Force on Human Re- dedication to equal rights for womlations, was last in a long line of en with a rendition of " Portrait of " letting go" parties for the com- a Male Chauvinist Pig." munity, Stewart said. Organizers also brought In a tribute to Wassmuth, Stew- Wassmuth his leather jacket and art said he would ask the board of wash tub bass so he could accomdirectors for the coalition to raise pany the BLT band, which played money and create a Seattle office for the event. then hire Wassmuth as executive Wassmuth responded to the director so Wassmuth may dedi- praise with humility. , cate himself to the fight for human " God is good , and he's been rights . Wassmuth told Stewart very, very good to me," he said. earlier that would be his first ca- " I'm very blessed because I've reer choice after he leaves the been a part of your community." Good things happen when peovle priesthood. Kudos for Wassmuth abounded from all walks of life come togethWednesday, with everyone from er for a common goal, Wassmuth politicians to his church secretary said. Even the problems caused by singing his praises. Most agreed the Aryan Nation 's presence near Wassmuth gave Coeur d'Alene a Coeur d'Alene have made the comgift that will remain long after he munity stronger. is gone. " We were able to look evil in the "He' s like what we would like to face and turn it into a positive be - we see some things in Father thing," he said. " We work at , Bill we'd like to think are in things, and we make them better." By KATHIE BERTIN Press staff writer
' j
\
-Press Photo By KATHIE BERTIN
Father Bill Wassmuth boogies on his washtub bass while Bob Simmons of the BLT band sings along.
.,
THE COEUR D'ALENE PRESS Frld9X, Mfft 27.
1988 8'r
Task force takes theme: to Montana NOXON, Mont. - Jon Warman . wanted everyone to know how hei feels about white supremacy. 1 His hand-lettered sign proclaim-. ing "white pride" leaned against the back of a bleacher in the Noxon High School gym on Thursday. · Facing it across a crowd of 350 people were the human rights advocates who had come to form a task force in Sanders County. Five speakers, including the Rev. Bill Wassmuth of Coeur d'Alene, expressed their concerns about people like Warman. Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with a Ku Klux Klan logo, Warman expressed his concerns about people like Wassmuth. "I thought this would be onesided," he said. "I thought it would · be good for us to come and show another side of the coin." A student at the University of Montana at Missoula, Warman said he is the leader of the "White Student Union. " A button on his shirt stated that "Some of my best friends are white people. " Although he advocates white supremacy, Warman found himself in the minority Thursday. His sign was one of the few visible signs of · what many members of the audience had come to combat. "This meeting is not to form a vigilante group to run anyone out of town," said Tim Mc Williams, a teacher at Noxon High School who helped organize the meeting. "This meeting is not an attempt to stop freedom of expression in this valley."
McWilliams said the task force would help prevent racial harassment and uphold human rights. Past and present leaders of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and the Northwest Coalition against Malicious Harassment urged the audience to be aware of white supremacist beliefs. Among the speakers were Wassmuth, Norm Gissel, Tony Stewart, Marshall Mend and Walt Washington. "Hatred is kind of like mushrooms," said Mend, a Coeur d'Alene real estate agent. "It grows in the dark. When you bring it out in the light, it dies. " Saying 'yes' to human rights is the best way to say 'no' to prejudice, " he added. Wassmuth, the former president of the Kootenai County task force, outlined the forms of racism in the United States. He said they include the Ku Klux Klan, the Neo-Nazi movement and the Christian identity organizations such as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian Aryan Nations at Hayden Lake. Wassmuth said one of the groups encourages separatists to take over Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon and Wyoming. "It's a silly plan - it makes us smile and it makes us laugh," he said.
"DIE SPOKESM.AN-REvlEW
iDAHOHANDL MONDAY. MAY 30. 1988
REGIONAL NEWS KOOTENAI GRAPEVINE
Sanders County home of the free and the racists You know you're no longer in Kansas, Toto, when: • The deputized bouncers at your party are wearing bulletproof vests. • You need a police escort to get in and out of town alive. • A racist with foreboding blue eyes wonders if you've ever been harassed while living in Kootenai County. ''Why?" you ask. "Aren't you a Mexican or Puerto Rican?" be questions rhetorically. "Nope," you answer. "Portuguese. Does it matter?" Deja vu. You had this same convenation with another racist three years before. Keith Gilbert. His malling address now is the Idaho State Penitentiary, Boise. D.F. You're in Sanders County, OLIRRIA Montana, home of the free and about two dozen Caucasian Staff writer chauvinists who believe God shed his grace only on their kind. Human rights advocate Tony Stewart said it best when be told the 350 who gathered last Thursday at the high school gym in Noxon, Mont.: "We all pray that your experiences are not simJlar to ours; we don't want what happened to us to happen to you." FIie under "takea one to know one": Nodding toward Tim McWilliams, spokesman for the new Sanders County Task Force for Human Dignity, Father Bill Wassmuth observed, "He's got guts." ... The sticker on the Sanders County sberifrs vehicle read, "Wicked, evil, mean & nasty." The last time be was in the home of the Noxon Red Devils, 30-some years ago, Coeur d'Alene attorney Norm Gissel and his Sandpoint Bulldog teammates were stymied by a zone press and lost the basketball game ... The Progressive Party at Noxon High is runninf, a slate of student body candidates whose mo to is "Stand firm and let the riffraff pass."
Sanders Cou
Falla. Montana
Task force • eyes issues NOXON··Thc seeds for a human rights llsk force 10 address growing rumors of a while suprcmacisl movemcn1 an western Sanders County were planled las1 week and upporiers remarked lhey received overwhelming suppon. Supponers circula1ed a lener IO area residents and by Monday morning Ibey collec1ed over 430 signalUre wilh more coming. They remarked lha1 suppon came nol only from lhe Noxon-Heron area bu1 in Trou1 Creek and Thompson Falls a well. The le11cr, which i published ,n lhis week' edition of 1hc LEDGER makes a imple s1a1emen1 abou1 human righlS and reaffirms belief in the Declaration of Independence, 1hc Consti1Ution and lhe Monlana Consti1ution. In a repon published in lhc Sandpoint Daily Bee last week. Rev. Gary Starkey of Clark Fork, Idaho 5laid hi: wu Just one of a growing number of residents who have become concerned about rumors of a growing white uprernacist movcmem in the area. He sald he fell a significanl number of upremacists ha settled in lhc Noxon area where he serves a church. Starkey also serves churches in Clark Fork, Heron and Hope, Idaho. A~ concern grew abou1 the upremacis1 movement several western anders County residents traveled 10 Coeur d'Alene, Idaho where they met with mmibcrs llf the Kootenai County Ta k For e, a group lhat formed afkr a imilar movement caused concern in lhc
Coeur d'AJeae-Hayden Lake area or norlhern Idaho. Later a group of about 12 residenll met in Bull River to discuss the luae lbere. The Daily Bee reported that die task force would suppon legislation making ii a felony lO harass anyone on the buis of their race. religion or sex. Similar legislation was puscd in Idaho at die urging of the Koorenai County Task Force. Reponcdly following lhc passage of that legislation, several assaults oc:cumd and subsequently arrests were made. A pokcsman for lhc flcdglina local wk force said more information about the organization would be coming next week following meetings scheduled this week to more ground rules and develop more goals and aims of the
lai
group. Starkey told the Daily Ike lhe initial atatemenl of concerned chw:ns ls being thought of u an expressaon of (:OIICeffl· ed citizens to ascertain what exactly ii goina on in the an:a. Concern in the area rcaclled n.:w emphasis followina a tive pan pccia1 broadc111 on KXLY TV,
~nough is enough There's a connection between the recent awakening of the "sleeping giant" logging industry and the constitutionalism espoused by a small segment of the Sanders County population. It's not one of ideals or beliefs. It's more simple than that. While the logging industry has been shaken and has risen up to combat the wave of eRvironmentalism that threatens their industry, we as residents have yet to take a stand against the implicit threat to our quality of life. While the movement began quietly, with occasional letters and advertisements promoting a self styled interpretation of the Constitution and the laws of our nation and state, it grew to where it drew the attention of media around the country. More importantly, it has brought anxiety to residents who feel an implicit threat to their safety and welfare. That state of affairs cannot be tolerated if we are to enjoy the quality of life we desire in our area. Residents should not have to live in fear that their lives and property are threatened. Yet, that is more and more the message we are hearing - that residents are apprehensive something could come of the situation. Lately the word is that tourists and prospective residents are staying away from Sanders County out of fear - fear of what might happen. It will take a united front to combat the apprehension - and a strong stand in saying "enough is enough, we want to preserve our way of life". We can't allow a handful of idealists who challenge the basic Christian and Constitutional beliefs of freedom for all to destroy our peace of mind. While a movement has begun in western Sanders County to unite in protest against the image the area is gaining, the Ledger will also be taking a stand. While we have had in the past a generally open policy to advertising and liberal forum for the expression of ideas in our "letters to the editor" section, those rules will change. Our policy now will be one of careful review of the materials submitted to us, and unless they present new ideas or views that have not been previously stated, then we will have a hard time finding room. It's not a policy of censorship, rather an exercise of freedom of the press - to print what is felt to be in the best interest of all. We, too, feel "enough is enough" and we are not afraid to say so.
Editor, We, the undersigned of Western Sar'ders County, wish to express our support for these great principles: 1. That the statement from the Declaration of Independence "All men are created equal" applies and gives dignity to all. Regardless of race, color, religion or sex. 2. That all twenty-six Amendments are a legitimate portion of the United States Constitution. 3. In Article II, Section IV of the Montana Constitution, which states, "The dignity of all human beings is inviolable. No person shall be denied the equal protection of tlie law. Neither the state nor any person, firm, corporation, or institution shall discriminate against any person in the exercise of his civil or political rights on account of race, color, sex, culture, social origin or condition or political or religious Ideas." There are many others who would have signed had not time constraints limited our circulation of the letter. We want to include everyone in our effort and would sincerely appreciate support in the future.
HERON Ball, Kathleen R. Ball, Sue Ball, Nancy J. Burkett, Georgette L. Compton, Elinor L. Dettwiler, Dave & Tina Evelyn, Joyce Fitchett, John & Meggen Fitchett, Calvin & Shella Fitchett, Paul & Sharlene Fitchett, Daniel R. & Eva J. Gillingham, Don Grabenstein, Wally & Betty Groff, Cecil & Marie M. Hoelke, Mary Edith Hoelke, Roy Hutchins, Judith Hutchison, Louie Jensen, Cllnt & Rebecca M. Jensen, Charles L. & Helen M. Jensen, Leonard & V. Jean
Kaestner, David Kardokus, Larry
Kardokus, Rodney N. Koeneman, Jack & Trudy Koeneman, Jeph Livingston, Jim & Janet Lyles, Opal Lyma!l, David R. & Deborah S. Marich, Nick, Jr.
Messer, Margaret Miller, Leo L. & Jan M. Miller, Douglas L. & Sharon E.L. Myers, Ron J. & Maria T. Osborne, Vernon M. Ranger, Michael E.
Rocco.Mary Runkle, Elmer E. & Bernice Sellmer, BIii & Stella Sherrin, Robert L. Siedentop, Dorothea Springer, Bob & Sara Lou Stettler, William & Terry Stokes, Ralph & Henrietta Vadeboncoeur, James P. Vohs, Gale Weber, Glenn HOT SPRINGS Price, Charles KALISPELL Huston, Joseph E.
LIBBY White, Mark J . MISSOULA Goeke, Kimbal J.
Matt, John J. Maynard, Carl E. & Velma J. McWllllams, Jim & Marilyn
Miller, Mary Morehouse, Kenneth Nash, Jim Nelson, Teresa Nicolls, Aileen Olsen, Orin & Norma Rouleau Ornberg, Eric A. & Ellen Pederson, Mary Peterson, Elizabeth Peterson, Marquita Pohlman, John & Edith A. Prichard, Quinn R. & Thuma Reishus, Bonnie
Ross, Bruce & Barbara Russell, Cindy Scott, Linda Sharp, Don Shoemaker, Cory Slora, Kathryn F. South, Bill & Jeanne Southworth, Wayne & Ardis J. Sperllne, Gary Sperline, Glen W. Swant, Timothy & Jennifer Swln¡ ney, Larry M. & Wynona Taillon, Leslie F. Taylor, Ronnie R. Taylor, John & Elaine Tyler, Louise Vetter, Robert & Sheila Weare, Richard Weber, Deborah Wehz, Rex Woessner, Erwin Woody, Leela Young, Sherie Zwan, Edwin & Nettle Lee
PLAINS Dornbos, William A. Lappe, Mary T. McAtee, Lynn F. Monlson, Alex Sanden, Lorin
Muster, Sandra Nieraeth, Rob Normandeau, Donna Olson, Gaytund Oswald, Steve Owens, Frank Parks, Daniel & Carla Petteys, Barb Poff, Donna Riddell , Lome Rogers, Marguerite Salter, Danny Sanders, Katie M. Schlaebitz, Una Scott, Beth W. Shear, Doug Sheets, Mark L. Squire, Jerrilee Sterns, Janice Stuckey, Jay Susie, WIiiiam R. Thayer, Susan L. Thompson, Dennis R. Torgrimson, Darrel Traver, Frances Trevithick, R.J. & KelthAnn Veach, Leona M. Wallin, Peggy Wollaston, Richard Wollaston, Millie Wood, Neva
TROUT CREEK Bain, George M. & Carrie
THOMPSON FALLS
NOXON Antrosio , David & Gail Baule, John & Andrea Booth, Charles & Carole J . Booth, Terrance & Loretta Bosker, Kenneth & Jeanine Bosker, Leah Brue, Nelson & Sonja C. Butler, Paul & Mary Lou Caauwe, Leonard E.. & Mildred K. Chaboya, Charles & Mary Cluzen, Robert C. (Bobby) Cluzen, Robert R. Coupal, Frank & Joyce Culp, Larry D. Cumiford, Steve & Peggy S. Davies, Jill Davis, Sandy DeMaw, Dwayne Dettwiler, Alan & Heidi Dettwller, Alice F. Devitt, Micheal Lee Dischinger, Carol Doddema, Bernard & Alta Dominguez, Steven & Cheryl Drake, Brenda Elder, Deana Evenson. Arden & Helen Floyd, James & Joyce Fox, Lorena Ann Frampton, J .H. & Hilda L. Gallaway, Rodd Gebhardt, Marv & Tami Gobble, Richard & Ruth Guilfoyle, Mary Anne Higbee, Herbert & Charlotte .flightowe~. Randy Hightower, Terry P. Hill, Winton K. & Donna J. HIii, Shan K. & Jyl K. 1-:tilt, Laverne Hill, BIiiy L. & Joyce A. Houghton, Peter J . James, Cris , Jenkins, Betty Jensen, Norman Jensen , Max & Suzy Johnson, Charles Johnson, Larry Jones, David & Hazel Kayser, David & Susie M. Kralemann, Judy Krantz, Jay Kranzler, Mike & Kimmy Krueger, George LaBelle, MeryJo Larkin, F.L. & Sharon Larkin, Colin & Mary LaVelle, Harry Lien, Jeannette Llnzmaier, P.J. Lynch , Patrick & Joan B. Lyons, Dale & Nancy Magoffin, Roy & Lola
Anderson, Irene Arthur, George W . Arthur, Lorraine Baxter, Skip Benton, Irene Bidwell, Carol F. Bourn, Christy Bowden, Walter J ., Jr. Bowden, Juel A. Carter, Barbara Carter, Terry Cawdrey, Steven W. Chickadel , Carmine & Diane Clark, Rick J . Clark, Victoria A. Clawson, Sally Clawson, John Crawford, Dianne Cremer, Gary N. Crowder, Robert P. Crowder, Patricia L. Dahlke, Gery Dahlke, Cheryl Dieterich, Rick Dudley, Janetta Dyer, Virginia I. Eggensperger, K.A. Eggensperger, Tom Elliott, Kevin R. Elliott, Linda L. Franke, Dianne K. Fuhrman, Pat Furthmyre, Helen Garrison, Suzanne H. Gelger, Peter J . Gibbs, Philip A. Gibbs, Dianne F. Gilbert, Arlene Guldseth, Jeannette Hagerman, Edith Hammerberg, Ken Hammerberg, Nancy Hedahl , Diane L. Henson, Jane Herndon, Darlene A. Hinds: Jennifer Hogan, M.C. Holleran, Tom Ingraham , Gerald Ingraham, Patricia M. Ivers, Keith Johnston, Ronald D. Kazmierczak, Pat Kegel, Jackie Kegel , Curt Kent, Teresa Kent, Gary Keough, Ursula Kilgore, Stu & Joyce LaFrlniere, Peggy LaFrlniere, Norman G. LaFriniere, Joyce Lyght, Dorothy L. Martin, Kathleen Mascorella, Lola L. McDowell, Carmen
Mensik, Debra Merriman, Jennifer Mills, Ellen M. Morehouse, Gary E. Muster, John
Blndl, Betty Bonesteel, Dee Brady, Paul A. Brown, Donna Brown , Pamela S. Brumbaugh, Beverly J . Burk: Julie A. Carlson, Margaret L. Clark, Paul Cox, Lucy Dllenschneid, Joseph Justin Drayer, Betty Drayer, Gary Eaton, Lynne Eaton, Orville F. Ferrell, Douglas & Melinda Fleming, Mildred S. Flori, John Foutz, George A. Foutz, Virginie E. Foutz, Becky Foutz, Cari Gee, Laura Graham, Diane Hannum, Louis G. Hannum, Naomi A. Hannum, Mark P. Harlan, Andy Helvey, Robert & Teresa Henry, Roderick & Shirley Herndon, Richard J. Hoff, Robbin Hooten, Vickie A. Hooten, Jennifer Hooten, Rich Huckins, Clara Hummel, Susan Hummel, Lance C. Jacobs, Coralee Jopling , Jenni L. Jopling, Anita Jopling, B.A. Keirn, Garry Ray Keirn , Susan Kirkland , Jeffrey & Jacqueline Kraus , Hildur I. Licht, Heather Loughery, Thea Marich, D'Elva Matthew, Louis M. McClary, T.G. McDowell , Catherine Melnrlck, Velma R. Melnrick, Sandra Melnrlck, Kenneth E. Melnrick, Kenneth G. Miller, Jack Mitchell, Patricia A. Mosher, Barbara L. Nelson, Bruce Nichols, Margaret Nolrot, Barry Page, Rosemary Page, Gary Page, Elaine Page, Cody Park, Donald H. & Freida Regier, Katherine A. Rissler, Leona Robbins, Anna Marie Robbins, Bernice Rockwell, William W. Rubino, Thomas Soto, Ren Stagg, Lynn W . Surey, Roland Thomas, Steve Thompson, Richard & Mary Ann Vincent, Steven L. Vinson, Richard B. Womersley, Mick Wood, Aon Spelring, Cleona
CLARK FORK, IDAHO Starkey, Gary
â&#x20AC;˘
6 1HE COEUR D'ALENE ffiESS Wednesday, June 1. 1988
Idaho Statesman honors Stewart By JAY GRIFFITHS Flress staff writer
Human rights activist and North Idaho College professor Tony Stewart was featured Sunday in the Idaho Statesman's Portrait of a Distinguished Citizen on the newspaper's editorial page. The Statesman, the state's largest-circulation newspaper, cited Stewart's work in human rights, with the Hospice of North Idaho and on the state's reapportionment law. "I'm honored by that; it was very thoughtful of them," Stewart said this morning. "I always feel about awards like that that there are other peorle who deserve them more than , but I deeply appreciate the honor." A weekly Statesman feature, the "portrait of a distinguished citizen" includes a short narrative and a sketch of Stewart. Stewart, executive board member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and representative to the Northwest Coalition on Malicious Harassment, officially learned of the honor Tuesday. Stewart's work on such boards, established as a result of the white supremacist movement, has affected the North Carolina native in other ways. For instance, Stewart, like others in the human rights movement, as a security measure no longer lists his address in the telephone book. Rod Gramer, Statesman editorial page edjtor, said he and the paper's managing editor chose Stewart for the feature . " What we look for are people
Tony Stewart who make significant contributions to their local communities,'' Gramer said. Community-related volunteer and charity work are main considerations, he added. Distinguished citizens are nominated by the public and screened twice by the paper before the selection is made, he added. Gramer said he was unsure who nominated Stewart. Stewart, chairman of NIC's Division of Social Sciences, also was lauded for helping organize and head up the Hospice of North Idaho. Six years ago, Hospice scraped by on a $30,000 annual budget, but now serves 25-30 patients each week with 12 staff members on a yearly budget of more than $600,000. Stewart is president and chairman of the board for Hospice. ' 'I was so taken by the fact that a terminally ill patient, that had cancer for example, would have the opportunity to spend their last days at home rather than at the hospital ' Stewart said.
Spokane, Wash., Wed., June 8, 1988. THE SPol(EsMAN.REVEW
Montana task force has become a 'clone' pf North Idaho group By D.F. Oliveria .Staff writer
A human rights task force in northwestern Montana bas modeled itself after a Kootenai County prototr.pe, ¡, We're going to clone tbeir stuff,'' Tim McWilllams said of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. At an organizational meeting Monday, McWilllams, a Noxon High School instructor, was chosen president of the new Sanders County Task Force for Human Dignity. l{e bad been the sfjkesman for an. Informal group 01 Noxon residents who bad banded together against the growing white separatist movement in western Sanders County. McWUliams and Tbom~n Falls attorney Bob Fletcher mtroduced five Kootenai County task force leaders to a crowd of 350 that gathered at Noxon High on May 26. The speakers urged their Montana audience to take a stand against the separatist movement. SQme 50 white supremacists, including two Ku Klux Klan leaders, attended the meeting. Like its Kootenai County counterpart, the Sanders County task force is coml)()Sed of residents from div~rsified &ackgrounds, including educators, religious leaders, businessmen, loggers and foresters. A non-voting advisory council consists of local law enforcement officials, state legislators, a school administrator and the county attorney. McWllliams said of the advisory board, "We need to make them aware of what we're doing and to use their expertise as much as possible." The Kootenai County task force bas worked c1osely with Undersberiff Larry Broadbent and Prosecutor Glen Walker as well as local school officials.
The Montanans also have developed a committee structure paralleling the one in North Idaho. They have committees for community involvement/membership, education, legislative and victims' support. McWilliams' wife, Marily beads the education committee. Noxon bartender Mary Chaboya, one of the few minority residents in the Clark Fork Valley, co-chairs the community involvement/membership committee with Sharon Larkin, also of Noxon. The legislative committee is cochaired by Jeanine Bosker of Bull River and Steve Oswald of Thompson Falls. The victims support committee doesn't have a chairman yet. Noxon residents dominate the 22member task force board. Twelve are from Noxon, four from Thompson Falls, the county seat, and three each from Trout Creek and Heron. McWilliams explained that the Noxon residents who formed the original steering committee that led to formation of the task force wanted to stay involved In the movement at least for a year. The executive committee beaded by Mcwilliams also models that of the Kootenai County task force. It also includes attorney Fletcher, vice president; Sheila Fitchett of Heron, secretary; and Carla Parks of Thompson Falls, treasurer. The Montana organization, which bas yet to Incorporate, plans a poster contest to develop a symbol, another idea taken from its North Idaho counterpart. The Kootenai County logo features faces representing different races and religions with the theme, "North Idaho is for everyone." It was produced by Skip Kuck of Hayden Lake. McWillla.ms said be hasn't heard from supremacists in the valley since they attended the informational meeting two weeks ago.
THE IOAHO STATESMAN, Boise
SUnday, May 29, 1988
Portrait of a distinguished citizen
Ton Stew-art
STEVE SYMMS IDAHO
WASHINGTON, D .C. 20510
June 2, 1988
Mr. D. Tony Stewart Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
83814
Dear Tony: It is indeed an honor to be chosen as the Statesman's Distinguished Citizen and I would like to be among the many to express my congratulations to you. Your contributions to your community and your deep concern for the welfare of others has certainly been exemplified throughout your life. It is always a plea sure to see recognition given to such a well-deserving individual. Again, my sincere congratulations and thanks for your truly d'stinguished service. a free society,
United States Senator SS/mh
BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY • 1910 UNIVERSITY DRIVE • BOISE, IDAHO 83725 DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
May 31,
1988
Pro f essor Tony Stewart North Idaho College 1000 W. Garden Avenue Coeur d ' Alene, Idaho 83814 Dear Tony : Just in case you have not seen the Idaho Statesman recently, the enclosed is sent to you . You might be interested in reading it. You deserve this honor. You .s!.£. what many o f us in the political science pE of ession only talk about doing. Congratulations! On second thought . Maybe after you read the enclosed you might send it to your friends at Hayden Lake. Have a
good summer .
~
Richard Kinney,
Ph . D.
Keep up your good work .
LARRY E. CRAIG
WASHINGTON OFFICE: 1034 LONGWORTH House OFFICE Bu W ASHINGTON. DC 2 05 15
1 ST DISTRICT, IOAHO
(202) 2 26-6611
COMMITIEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS
DISTRICT OFFICES: 304 N ORT>i 8 TH, ROOM 134
SUI COMMITIU$:
P.O . Box 140 6 BOISE. ID 8 370 1
MINING ANO NATURAL RESOURCES (RANKING MINORITY MEM BEIII ENERGY ANO THE ENVIRONMENT PUBLIC LANDS
COMMITIEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
(208) 34 2 -7986
~ongrtss of tbt Wnittb ~tatts 11,ou~t of l\cprt~cntatibt~
SUBCOMMITTH:
COMMERCE. CONSUMER. ANO MONETARY AFFAIRS (RANKING MINORITY MEMBER)
Rlasbington,
m~ 20515
301 D STREET, SUITE 103 L EWISTON. ID 83 50 1 (208) 743-0 792 10 3 NORTH 4TH COEUR o ·A LENE. ID 838 1 4 (208) 667-61 30
June 21, 1988
Mr. Ton y Stewart Idaho College 1000 W. Garden Coeur d ' Alene, Idaho 83814
% North
Dear Ton y : Congratulations on being recognized as "Distinguished Citizen" in the Idaho Statesman . I commend you for your contributio n to the c ommunit y and t o our great state. I know how busy life is without the added responsibility you' v e volunteered for. Thanks for being the special kind of person who gives so generously of his time, talent and effort to help others. Please a c cept my best wishes , Tony, in your future endeavors .
J:ely,
~ c___·
Larr y E. 1 rai9 Member of{ ~ongress LEC/ mm
1
HOSPJCE OF NORTH IDAHO 2003 Lincoln Way Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83814 (208) 667-4537 .
. .
. When Choices Mean the Most
FALL - WINTER 1987-88
Dear Friends of Hospice, As we rrove toward our seventh birthday, in November, Hospice of North Idaho has experienced unbelievable growth and developnent that enables us to better serve our patients and their loved ones. Our gifted executive di.rector , Kay McGruder, originally presided over a small organization that consisted of co-directors operating out of a car, to today's organization with a sixteen rrember staff. This special dedicated staff includes the executive director, volunteer coordinator, patient care coordinator, two family service specialists, tVJO staff nurses, bereavement coordinator, rredical director, home health aide, on-call nurse, office manager, insurance clerk, transcriptionist, durable medical equipnent manager, and thrift shop manager. We also have many wonderful volunteers including caregivers, . office assistants, thrift shop workers and carmittee workers in areas such as fund raising. I speak for the Board of Directors â&#x20AC;˘...:hem rexpress our deep appreciation for these special Hospice people. You make it possible for us to serve as many as bv"enty-five families at any one time. This number is rrost significant when we realize that only a short six years ago we were able to serve only seven or eight families at any one time. The Board of Directors and Kay have been camti.tted to expanding our resources through ,Medicare, Medicaid, insurance and fund raising to produce rrore comprehensive care for our .patients. Gincere>ly, D. Tony Stewart President
¡
THE IDAHO STATESMAN, Boise
Portrait of a distinguished citizen
Tony Stewart In Coeur d'Alene, the definition of activist is D. Tony Stewart. From human righrs to
voting rights to the rights of the dying, when Mr. Stewart sees a need, he fills it. A North Carolina native, Mr. Stewan earned his bachelor's degree in social sciences from Western Carolina University and his master's in political science from the University or TeMessee before coming to Washington State University to work on his doctorate in political science, He joined the faculty of North Idaho College in 1970 and is chairman of the college's Division of Social Sciences. Mr. Stewart Is well known in northern Idaho for his work in human rights. He is a member of the executive board of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and represents the task force on the Northwest Coalition on Malicious Harassment. He and 16 others created the non-profit Hospice of North Idaho, Inc., six years ago. Mr. Stewart serves as president and chairman of the board. On the political front, Mr. Stewart authored
Idaho's present legislative reapportionment law and helped a group of plaintiffs defend ii in court. He was state coordinator in 1984 for a committee opposed to a statewide ballot measure I.hat would have allowed lawmakers to cross county lines when forming legislative districts. And be has served on several political campaigns. Mr Stewart has conducted five futurtsm studies, including ()ne tor the 1986 state Democratic convention, three for the city of Coeur d'Alene and one for Post Falls. rn addition, he founded and chairs a lecture series known as the NlC Popcorn Forum. He founded, produces and moderates the weekly "Public Forum" PBS television series. He also has published several magazine articles and given lectures on a variety of public interest topics. Mr. Stewart was tennis coach at NIC for five years, winning several championships. He was named the Idaho State Jaycees "Outstanding YO\Ulg Idahoan" in llm-73, and was listed in the 1974 edition of outstanding Young Men of America.
THE .5PoKESMAN-'REVIEW
HOHANDLE MONDAY, JAN. 30, 1989
KOOTENAI GRAPEVINE
Plenty to ponder while recovering in the Panhandle Things to wonder about when you've been sick in bed for three days: Will Coeur d'Alene end double shifting by the •Jme my fourth-grader reach~ high school? Will anyone but the media show up in April to see Richard Butler march hia skinheads down Sherman Avenue? When will
Butler go away? Will Ray Stone become the flnt Coeur d'Alene maYor to win two consecutive terms1 Who's going to be hia opposition? Can Lola Land-Albrecht remain true to her word that she never again - D.F. will be a Coeur d'Alene City . OUYBIIIA Council candidate? How much will the United for Staff writer a Better Coeur d'Alene forces spend tbla year to keep its fiveseat council BtraaKlebold intact? Is there another year of softball left in my 39. year-old left knee? (Rightfully did a Time magazine essayist say recenU:y, "Middle-aged men drag themselves tbroqb life like wounded bears.") Once upon• time: WW BW Wasamutb live happily ever after now tbat he's found hia true Jove? WW hia true love? When will all those New Year's resolutions loee steam, 80 there will be room to work out on the club's welpt macblnes? How did you feel about Ted Buncly's execution? Did a woman pull the mtcb? When we become the playground of the
When we become the playground of the Nw, will there be any room at City Beach for the IOCIII• to play? Northwest, will there be any room at City Beach for the locals to play?
How much longer can four bowling alleys survive in Kootenai County? Who w1D be the next constituent to wander into Mayor Stone's crosshairs? Can downtown Coeur d'Alene survive once the Silver Lake Mall opens for bualness? To be or not to be: What will summer be like without the Carrousel Players? What would the county commission be like without Cba1rman Frank Henderson's direction? Who will win the power struggle to become the next cbalrman when Henderson steps down in two years Evalyn Adams or Bob Haakenson? WW Adams be re-elected? Was there anyone in Kootenai County surprised by Duane Hagadone's declslon to proceed with the development of the old Potlatch mill slte? Are we , better off today than we were before the hosWe takeover of Western Frontiers? Aren't you glad a touchdown rather than a field goal won the Super Bowl? Can the 49ers repeat without Bill Walsh? In this era of oarity, can any professional football team repeat~ · · Will the groundhog see bis shadow? When will It stop snowing? Orin and bear It Is it easy working in Coeur d' Alene's City Hall, where - according to mayoral decree - the customer's always right? What's Glen Walker going to do? Merl? When will I make time to have my chol~terol checked? What the beck is cholesterol? Would anyone protestlf the county commisslon established a ceiling on the number of attorneys who could practice law here? Is Spokane becoming too violent? Are we next? Can anyone remember what Idaho Fair Share is calling itself now? Will the Hayden Lake Country Club offer free memberships to Prosecutor Bill Douglas and , Sheriff Pierce Clegg? Will Douglas keep track of hiB (elooy prosecution record? U be doea, will it exceed 90 percent? What will become of chaplain/ counselor Dick Wild? Who wlll die on/in Lake Coeur d'Alene this summer? Will the Silverwood theme park attract more than 100,000 visitors again this year? Does Don Haynes, at age 58, have the energy to bring the Coeur d'Alene Bilb basketball program back from the dead? How did our forefathers and foremothers have the vision to preserve Tubbs Bill from developers? A merry ol' pol: Is former Mayor Jtm Fromm enjoying We alter his political death? WW there ever be another local politician with the guts to say no to Coeur d' Alene's power structure? U Steve Symms is worth $135,000 annually, shouldn't the waitre1111 who freshens your coffee be worth more than $3.35 an hour? How long will the good vibes between Ron Rankin and the Coeur d'Alene School District last? Wben's my hair going to tum gray so I can be in sync with Barbara Bush's Amerfca? When will the clty do something with the old Commun!ty Center site? How long can I continue to evade the clutches of STEP? Or ART? Has anyone contributed more to Kootenai \ County than Tony Stewart? How long will It take the Coeur d'Alene council after November's election to get back to that litUe matter of • mandatory sewer hookups?
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Post Falls will use a volunteer negotiator By AITA HOLLINGSWORTH Staff writer
_The Post Falls School District wil! .use an impartial volunteer facilitator when it meets with its teachers' union during contract negotiations this year, Superintendent Kathy Canfield-Davis said Friday. "Both the board and the PFEA (Post Falls Education Association ) mutuaUy agreed on a facilitator to make sure communication stays open " CanfieldDavis said. ' Tony Stewart, president of the Northwest Coalition against Malicious Harassment and North Idaho College political science instructor, has agreed to serve as facilitator. "The faculty and administration at Post Falls are doing a lot of exciting things," Stewart said. "U I can help in any way, I'd be willing to do so."
Five-member teams from each si~e will conduct bargaining talks WI~ Stewart acting as mediator durmg the meetings, said Sue Ledbetter, PFEA president and Ponderosa Elementary teacher. The first meeting will be held next week, Canfield-Davis said. Ledbetter described the facilitator process as a "modified version of regular negota.tions" designed "to make sure the di& cussion doesn't get stalled." "We are trying something new " Ledbetter said. "We're looking f~r an answer without hiring on the outside." ¡ Three years ago, the Post Falla school board used a professional negotiator - something teachers have worked hard to prevent since then, Ledbetter said. "We felt our district does not have the money," she said."And they don't have to stay here and See POST FALLS, back pau-
POST FALLS CONTINUED from Page 1
deal with the situation - they go away. " Stewart, who has experience in decision-making and negotations, recently studied conflict resolution and the negotation process during a seminar sponsored by the Northwest Coalition. The decision to ask Stewart to serve as facilitator was acceptable to both board members and teachers, Canfield-Davis said. Post Falls' negotiating process is in sharp contrast to Coeur d' Alene's method of bargaining this year. The Coeur d'Alene School board unilaterally decided to hire an Iowa consulting firm. Coeur d' Alene will pay its negotiator $65 an hour up to a maximum $10,000, plus expenses. Under state law, Idaho teachers' unions are not ~itted to hire
25 Cl
profeh. ionals. But this week a bill that wolli1 give permit them to do so passed the House Education Committee. In effect, the proposal permits both sides to hire outside negotiators. The bill's proponents argue that using professional negotiators will produce quicker agreements. Opponents disagree, saying it increases the cost of negotiations and leans toward unionism. Canfield-Davis said she bad not read the proposed legislation and declined comment. Although Ledbetter objects to the use of professional firms, she said teachers' unions should be permitted to hire them whenever school districts do. "We are teachers. We are not trained in negotiation - we are trained to educate children," Ledbetter said. "If a hired negotiator is on one side, they need to be on both."
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Voters pick Meyer, Gissel for NIC By RITA HOLLINGSWORTH Staff writer
In the closest of three races for the North Idaho College Board of
Trustees, Coeur d'Alene businesswoman Judy Meyer came out on top of the four-way contest for Position C, carrying 47.6 percent of the 1,379 votes cast. Handily winning bis bid for a six-year term, Coeur d'Alene attorney Norm Gissel pulled Tl.3 percent of the 1,323 ballots cast for Position A. And Trustee Betty McLain, UD· opposed in her bid for re-election to Position 8, picked up all 1,245 votes cast. In her successful bid to complete the unexpired two-year term left vacant by the resignation of Joy Richards, Meyer garnered 656 votes. Running second with 463 votes, or 33.6 per-
Judy Meyer
Norm Gissel
cent, was Norman Sowards, president and chief executive office of Energy Products of Idaho. JoAnn Worthington received 182 votes, or 13.2 percent, and for Charles Sargent, it was 78 votes,
or 5. 79 percent. In bis successful race, Gissel carried nine of the 11 precincts to pull 1,023 votes against Reed Simpson's 300. Simpson carried only Harrison, picking up 12
votes against Gissel's 8. The two candidates ran neck and neck in Athol, with each receiving 6 votes. In a race that saw heavy campaigning from both Meyer and Sowards, Meyer carried eight precincts, with Soward winning in Post Falls and at Ramsey Elementary School in Coeur d'Alene. Athol tied in this race also, with Meyer, Soward and Worthington each receiving three votes to Sargent's 2. But voters who cast ballots on the NIC campus bad little trouble picking a favorite. There it was 382 votes for Gissel, and 88 for Simpson. In the four-way race, Meyer received 276 votes; Sowards, 137; Worthington, 41, and Sargent, 24. Countywide, 1,415 residents turned out at the polls Tuesday night.
e
coe
d aene
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Hundreds ,.. ~-rally for tolerance By TRUDY WELSH Press staff writer
More than 600 people used music, dance and speeches Thursday to reaffirm support for racial equality and to non-violently vent their frustrations. . The Gathering for Solidarity was planned after a bomb went off Sept. 15 at the home of the Rev. Bill Wassmuth, the Catholic priest who heads the Kootenai County Human Relations Task Force. Police have not arrested anyone for planting the pipe bomb, but Wassmuth and many area citizens speculate he was targeted because of his equal rights stance. , • . ·. "To ignore bigotry is to be a bigot yourself," Gov. John Evans said at the rally. · · ' "As long as I am governor, I will not let a cowardly few to use hatred and fear to accomplish their goals," he said, drawing loud applause. But at least a few did not participate in the ·clapping or the standing ovations given to Evans and Wassmuth, as well as Darlene Peters,. who . performed a Native American dance.' The event
FRIDAY, SEPT. 26, 1986
Related story, page 6
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see the same look of pain in the was also' attended by tbe Rev. Richard Butler eyes of people here who work for pastor of the Aryan Nations church and at least . human rights as she has felt two of his followers . The Aryan do~trine is cen- · CONTINUED FRO M PAGE 1 herself and seen in the eyes of oth· tered around the idea of white supremacy. er minorities. Butler said after the gathering, Law enforcement security was heavy but no Only the clicking of a camera "I thought it was beautiful, except incidents were reported. · ' and an occasional cough broke the for the hypocrisy." Wassmuth jokingly accused the crowd and mas- ·, He asked why was there no simi- crowded room's prayer-like si· ter of ceremonies Ray Givens --: who said the lar publ_ic outcry when the Aryan Jenee when she performed the Senpriest "embocUes the true meaning of the Christian Nations church was bombed eca · Tribe's Dance to Gather spirit'' - of purposely choking him up so he would members were shot in other areas' Strength from t11e Four Winds: shorten his remarks. . . Gui tarist Nils Rosdahl, who witl! his dogs mutilated and his car van~ The St. Pius priest was uninjured in the bomb his wife Mary adopted a mentally dalized. blast, but said the incident made him realize "what Butler claims no connection retarded_ Filipino boy, urged the it means to be vulnerable." . community to educate their chi!· with the bombing. . Wassmuth said the turnout, which included peo- . dren on the acceptance of minor· He said 27 Aryan Nations memple from Portland, Spokane and all parts of Kooten- · . bers were in the audience, and said ities. ai County, shows people are turning the violence the large ·community response into a posltive·statement. · would not change his efforts to "God is working good out of evil and life out of ' spread his beliefs. destruction," he said. . ,. . . Nor, said Wassmuth, will the vi"Saying 'yes' to the dignity of each person is still .olence change the direction of the the best way to say 'no' to racists." . human relations task force. Plans Kootenai County Prosecutor Glen Walker and . already are under way for Martin E~ans promised that everything will be done to brmg the ~mber or other criminals to justice. But ·. Luther King Day, a multi-cultural celebration for next summer and the Rev. Richard Hermstad reminded the crowd ·a five-state human rights ~om- I that justice must also be tempered with mercy. , mission. "To often it seems (our. society) ·is more dedi: Peters said it saddens her to now cated to revenge than justice," be said. "From Karate Kid to Rambo, we are encouraged to see ' violence as the normal solution to problems." : ..-.
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See RA11Y, Page'2
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Press photos by GORDON KING
Father BIii Wassmuth had plenty on his mind at Thursday's human rights gathering. The Rev. Richard Butler (Inset), of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian Aryan Nations, also attended
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The Coeur d'Alene Press Tues., Feb.' 28, 1985
ITaSk Force rips racist image Statements drafted to heal black eye caused by .Ar.y an N¡a tions ¡ By COLLEEN KEEFFE Press Staff Writer \
Members of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations are hoping to smother the flame of racism burning North Idaho's image nationwide. The task force, formed in 1982, plans to meet Friday to adopt three statements promoting "positive human relations" and blasting the Aryan Nations' racial and religious bigotry and its damaging effect on the area. said the Rev. Bill Wassmuth, task force chairman. Though varying in length and content, the statements summarize similar feelings of task force members, who have been meeting recently to discuss ways of combatting the "black eye" that the Aryan Nations church has given North Idaho in recent months. The task force consists of about 16 people representing the community, civic organizations and businesses. "As you're aware, there's a lot of visibility these days on racial activities that are attributed to this area." Wassmuth said this morning. "The image that's going around is that all that is happening is centered around North Idaho and that nobody's doing anything in response." The task force hopes to change that. Wassmuth said he believes if the community bands together, it can whittle the Aryans'
The Rev. Bill Wassmuth mushroomed image down to size. "I think by letting the voice of the community be heard we can render them more powerless. If they're not powerful they're not going to like being here," he said. The Aryan Nations have made it appear to the rest of the nation that this area consists largely
of all-white racists, Wassmuth said. The Impression is false, he said, and the task force hopes to spread tile word that minorities are quite welcome here and are treated kindly by the community. The task force was instrumental in passing Idaho anti-malicious harassment laws and is working now on supporting legislation to limit paramilitary training activities in the state. Me~bers lend support to those who are harassed for their religion or race, Wassmuth said. It was such an incident in 1982 that prompted the group to form, he said. The statements describe North Idaho as a desirable place to live and work, while expressâ&#x20AC;˘ ing frustration,at the attention given to neo-Nazi group members who have been connected with shoot-outs, hold-ups, murders and robberies. "Most, if not all, of the several dozens racists and hate-preachers located here are transients and imports to this area," one statement says. The task force hopes to discourage "any further migration of neo-Nazi persons to our community." . Wassmuth said the shortened statement will be sent as a letter to the editor of Time Magazine, which published an article two weeks ago on the Aryan Nations and its white supremacist leader Richard Butler. Wassmuth said the community can rid the area of its bad reputation if people work together.
I
GfoUp ousts MAR 2 1985
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sect1eadei' from meeting By DOUG CLARK
ln+,Until there i.s a problem, I ha~
ao problem wit.ll harin& tile press
R......,i. edllor
COEUR d' ALENE -
After de-
ddlnJ to let journalist., attend their
meeting$. supporters ol the revitaJ: bed ltooteoai ~ F ~ oa\11~ ~ 14-1 day ~ · self-avowed · racist KeiUI Gilbert from their lGDCheon. ..rn leave if l'ln uted to." said Gilbert. wlllo bills him9eif as the leacl« of a w h i ~ Nd called Tbe Restored Chard9 of Je11&1 CbriR of Past Falla. "'Bat jf JOU ezdude me, JOU lilaft provided a
~1~
« any cltbea attend these meet~ inp,.. be said. "Although, I doo't want this to become a debate between Mr. Walker and Mr. Gilbert. rd get tired or tbal.. Cbristopber Byron. a loc.t.l boase painter. made an tmpa.ssiooed plea In support of Gilbert's expwsioa. "1\is maa ls sitting ller'e cWm&nc Ills rwits to attack what we are ~ ·· be ...... ~ ~ plnl'oaoplry is ~ of l"fflalisrn Tbef. aan1t belift'e UI UJbod:r otJM!r tMa .
u..noMMtocheir~:· "[oar trying to ~ me ..,es. . Followtnc . the debate, Bill
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~ - - ~ JW-~ - - Wu.11D11lh, chaln grwp. Before the vote was taken. l!mr- med for a show of 11.mck and·tbeQ ner ltooteoai Comity P t ~ gave tbe ftl'dk:t. Gilbert. wbo had Glen' Walker: who made tbe motion earlier ~ ou~teleases to haft GU~ ousted. said the task annoacmg his · for the fort:e was not a public enUty and UH lduo gubema race • . COGld cooduct ibelf as it saw ftl stood and faced Walb!r. "You can ha-.e anybody yoa "I wuit you to know that we dloose at your meeti!IO.'· he said. don't accept you as tbe ~ of "and you cui ask anyooe to leave. Kootenai County," be said.• And we To not be able do IO WOllld be la.di- fiod it an booor to be decl.arecl crous. •• heretics by yon.... But not everyone agreed with After l;Ubert's exit. the ~ Walker. force w«bd its war. throogb au Sandy Emeraoa. who manages agenda tbat included rewt iting one tbe Coeur d'Alene Chamber of of its position papers, discla.inung a Commerce, viewed excluding Gil- local ~~ Bmtbert as a very extreme undertak(Coat~~)
.GrMlp~tt'~IQ~ erslf~ ~~~ a e
proposing
comm11.11tty-wuSe ~lebration of Martin Luther King's birthday oe.s1
January
passed to sto
ti
.d ti
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t and mm1 a on from happening to any-
Ofle.
Became of te<:eot national
"~od we waot to ~t the record COW!ral"! of Ill I acti .ti press straight. The vast majority of peon<:ists with ~ties to v~eesHab-: ple who Uve in North Idaho, just as den Lake-based .A ryan Nat..io~ the people anywhere, are not bicompoud, the task force i:s at- ~~~~ a.re ca.ring. loving aod ~ g to adopt three bard-bitng people. We feel very tin« P?llcy statemeats condemniDg ft:!~:a~tot.':~.~opportW1ity to . ~e e.nstence and impact of racism rt of . lhuul area and be 8 m NorUa Ida.ho. pa . lb.is great c:omrmmity." . ~ l e the .differing opillioo., m ~ b~. !,_~on from for-· held by the U peep1e wbo attfflded , -"- ~ City . CoonciJlhe meetiq. u.e pvup did . woman .....,JO L.and-Albrec.bt, the to rewrite and adopt the r- manage ~ ~orce voted imaaimously to *'rte$t, G( th statements 1nt. and d£SCJai'!' Randy Denny's T ~irt . : If read aa follows: . promotion. . ''The KootenaJ County task F0tte (T~public image is that they .oa RllmaJI Relat.iom as its . · ) are s u ~ by us, at>d ~ to J>r(la>Ote positive ~ of the prof/ts are coming ~tioaa and to limit the infl us, a~uth said. "The story racial and relig.iOQS lligotry tleDC'e appeared lA The Coeur d'Alene . ·~e strolicl.Y eocoar.age ~t th ~ and f don't know why they _laws of Ute sta~ of Idaho protect~ ~do l1aU us ~o check out what we ~ the rights of everyone a~ ?,U5-'~ a~t 1l ~Uy enforeed aod if need be we The deleat our purpose. will support tut more legislation is : : . : ~ ~ ~ ;..·IDY g~ by potiog
us
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1i..!::n
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T-sbim
•ICKIN' AND GRINNIN'
th~kforce chipS away at
fAR 7 ·1995
I
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cornerstone of civil rights my
Only halfway thniugti clam ~ and a1:reacty I was sict ta my stomach. ' Not that there was aoythi.og smpect about the Nortb Shore's chowder. lfs quite goad, actaally.
No, wbat was making me queasy w~ the way things •ere developing ·:dwing last Friday's lunchtime gathering of a usu.ally high-mi.oded group:~ Kootenai County Task
E9rce OI Human Relati!!§)----: /Jter temng m:tu me .
natterin£ and debate. thou~ I fouo~ mysel! faciog the worst of all poss1ble sceDarios. K:..nfi.r'""t 1 was {g;asp!) siding wTtli I5..eieiu...,tth,,.D~..,£,!::~..:.J Gilbert (:,,0 . DOUG . Self-avowed racist, moager 0 { CLAR« bat.red, 9e00m and other- assorted nastiness. Ex-coo and all-arocind Regionai editor troublemaker. The man that l have refe~ to in past cohunns as both ··cockroach" and "coprolite." · Th.at Keith D. Gilbert. · Woe was me.
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I felt like tbe t11mcoat Qaristian who, after bCJYtDR: a aeasoD'S pus to LIiie Co1Jsemn, had decided at the }Mt m.iDute to cheer- for tlle Uom. . . H ~•.ifrmmitmist•m thet.ask foreewas estabtmed iD 1H2 to promote ~nd pn,tec:t Ille saerermaa ol an iDdmdaa.I's civil ~ts regarcDess of l'ac.'e, creed or po1.itics. Tut lofty ideal is the cqaaiatiClll's cornenuiae, as well as the very
essence of tbe ~ t legislation it fought so hard to !ll!e made into law. Most task force supporter~ would beartily agree I t:mnt, taat cm1 npu *>uld ~ 1an prey to ·
penooal wtum or beat of tbe moment ~ Yet. that's~ what happened to Gilbert last Friday. w1M!n be was booted out~ the meeting in a !'3t.bef' ~ t e d , if not ironic, display I find impossible to O'n!rlook. . \\'b.a1 0tt1u •eel-~ justifled by a majority vote. But ~bell a Pft:IDISe is as trumped up as this oae was, the differences between "ma;ority" or "rnob" rule .
become lllitta.,copic. . · ·. Gilbert's expa1sion was orcbestrated by our wouldtie attorney general, Kootenai County Prosecvtor GJen Waiter, and some other well-iotenlioned souls
who argued that u.e w!ute su.premaelst's p1 eseoce made a Sb.am of the tast: roree·s noble intent. Pttbaps.. But waat they were really saying was: ..We don't like what , - think or what you. stand far. ,o get tc:> Lbe back of the bus.·· · Sounds f amil.i.ar, eh? With a show of lwm sought by Cbairma.o Bill Wassm12th. Gilbert was lmtary. H-9. As be had ear.l ier promised, the so-called Aryn warrior' made good his ail "I'll leave if I'm asked to," be said. "But if you exclude .i:zie. yoo ba.e prov:iaed a bigoted fonun. Your trying to exclude me goes against ~ g
you supposedly st.aod. for. n To the task force 's red-faced shame Gilbert was
absolutely righL
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Walker once quipped to me about a dimwi~
fellow Republic.aa who surprised everyone by finally corning up with a rogeni. idea. "Even the blind pig lind:s the acorn once in a while," Walker said. lt seems.an appropriate time .t.o use the
p'rosecutor's own coontrified gewgaw against him. Oo this ocas:ioa, Keith Gilbert found the acorn.
'I'be Wik force tl.WUH!OO WillS oil.led as being open to "a!JJ ~mce:u1ed citizen." Then is.. as far as I know. DO formalized rules o{ membership that coold have been used to esclude DOO-memben. Eva, we scumbag journalists were allowed to
stay.
Wit.b that llOf't of a set up, I find it rather hxlic:rol&S - and probab1y uncomtitutioa.al, as well - for anyooe to try to sc:reeo out Keith Gilbert, Mahatma Gandhi or anyooe else. ~ Coeur cfAlene Chamber of Commerce Manager Sandy Emerso11 put it: "Uotil there is a problem, I haft no problem with having the press or aay citizen attend the9e meet.mp." Afterwards, Emerson said be almost walked out with Gilbert. Not that lbe two have anything in common. It's just that Emerson has an understanding of what a democratic way cf life ss all about. Democracy, you see, cuts 'both ways. It takes risks. Sets an examp~. It is long-suffering. Gracious. Attributes the Koo~ County Task Force on Human Relations could apparently use a little brushing up on. ¡