I still adamantly say the Colville tribal peoples across our rez and off are without a doubt victims in every sense of the word in the recent firing up of our CCT Admin. bldg.

Legal proceedings against recent-past council/last year are imminently looming on the horizon; and it is thinking along these lines which I aver ‘that’ council of 14 has everything to lose and nothing to gain. We all have god-given free will, and intuition; and here, it is my innermost gut feelings and much much mindful thought and consideration which urges me to push forward on this. I find it horrendous that council was not ‘there’ for the peoples to any extent when it just happened, but yet, our chairman can come out prematurely to the off-rez news media: “Admin bldg. fire an accident ...” (at the word of our public safety person?) Is he forensically knowedgable to fires? Is he even an electrician? The chairman’s statement to the off-rez press, news media was not only unfounded but was in actuality nothing more than premature conjecture. Questions go unanswered, conflicting reports at the scene, eyewitnesses at the scene still not contacted … why has not any of our council stepped up with info of whom to contact in the federal investigation? Who, and perhaps a telephone number?

In closing, I pose one open question to our tribal chairman: How/WHY was such a “preliminary” presumptuous statement put out to the news media? I continue to hope and pray that finishing out the on-going federal investigation brings justice and satisfaction to the Colville Confederated Tribes.

Truman V. Covington