Members of the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho battled megaload shipments through their reservation and treaty lands. Photo from Harry Slickpoo Jr. / Twitter
Writer calls on Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) to put an end to megaload shipments through the homelands of the Nez Perce Tribe:
On March 25, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter wrote Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, objecting to Oregon’s proposal for a statue of the Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph in the U.S. Capitol. He called his letter a “gentle reminder” that Idaho has a greater claim to Chief Joseph than does Oregon. Am I the only one jarred by the disconnect between his words and deeds? For over five years, Otter has worked to impose a terrible pet idea of his on the Nez Perce Tribe: to make U.S. 12 a high-and-wide corridor for football field-sized megaloads bound from Asia to the Alberta tar sands. In doing so he has ignored the deep, sustained opposition of the Nez Perce, who will bear most of the harm this corridor and its shipments will do local people and businesses, public and tribal lands and waters, and traditional and spiritual local practices. U.S. 12 follows the Nez Perce Trail, which the tribe used daily in Chief Joseph’s time and still uses today. The tribe’s creation site and other spiritual sites dot the trail and U.S. 12 — sites whose history, access and traditional use the governor’s scheme will damage. The governor’s megaload corridor would bisect the Nez Perce Reservation, inflicting constant megaload traffic on tribal members conducting their lives and business. It would bisect the Clearwater Country lands the tribe ceded to the United States, but still retains traditional resource and religious use rights upon today. The Nez Perce, who still possess Chief Joseph’s warrior spirit to defend their home, fought the governor on the road, where members of the Tribal Council were arrested for physically blocking a megaload after the governor refused their requests for delay and dialogue. They fought it in court, where they and their allies have so far prevailed. Thanks to tribal resistance, the megaload plan is on the shelf — for now.Get the Story:
Pat Ford: Gov. Otter could learn from Chief Joseph (The Idaho Statesman 5/9)
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