The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

Activism is the rent some of the CCT elders pay.

In the white societal world this is goot goot. It is called volunteerism. It is considered ‘concern’ for your fellow man, your neighbor, your community through participation in local community governance.

I especially liked and concur with the opening words of Darlene Zacherle’s campaign letter in the April 2014 Tribal Tribune. In part: “Know your candidate’s ethical & moral boundaries, what they do in their personal lives reflect upon their professional work; do they acknowledge constituency in any/all directions?”

Just my opinion, but I say just this tiny bit of info says a whole bunch towards good, positive prospective council down the road. It is so so sad that many in my voting district of Nespelem do not even take any of the above into consideration, stepping beyond into personal gain as pro-council beneficiaries in the world of familial conflict of interest and the old buddy buddy favor directions.

I, for one, despise the big fam voting blocs and what it instills in our Colville tribal governance/administrative systems. It is thus that I now advocate for rez-wide voting at the General Elections level; it is my utmost and most sincere hope that, yes, by council resolution rez-wide voting will indeed become part of our elections processes for the Elections 2015!

Things, political directions, take time; and, along the lines of CCT elections, Nancy Johnson, Nespelem District council, has averred in the Tribal Tribune she will prioritize “elections” in the new term. Once again, it is up to the CCT peoples to step up and effect change; please contact Nancy via phone, email, letter, FB, etc. re: your wants, needs, opinions. Yesss, my friends, it will indeed take time to formalize through resolution to better meet the needs, the satisfaction of peeps across the rez and off; and, to ultimately next year have bigger, better, more valid elections processes.

Truman V. Covington