2023 candidates for Colville Business Council (CBC), what do you commit to your claim as a “candidate for change”? What change? Year after year, “change” turns out to be about another face replacing the same dysfunctional-type council member.

It is extremely rare a council candidate shows up with an original idea. Let’s start here: On behalf of the Tribes and Tribal Members, the CBC may file legal claims for damages against corporations and other governments.

Orion Donovan-Smith, orionds@spokesman.com, Spokesman Review 8/4/21 reported,

“The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on Wednesday, alleging federal agencies failed to fulfill their legally required duties before, during and after the 2015 wildfires that burned more than 240,000 acres and turned parts of the reservation into a “moonscape.” CBC filed for damages against the U.S. Government because “federal agencies failed to fulfill their legally required duties… breaches of trust…Under federal law, the U.S. government is responsible for managing forest health and providing adequate firefighting resources on land it holds in trust on behalf of Native American tribes… The Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA – part of the Interior Department – is the primary agency responsible for managing forests on tribal lands.”

In contrast, the CBC and Tribal Courts, during the last two decades, have rejected their fiduciary-trust responsibilities to its own tribal members for wrongful and costly damages. CBC trust failures are a practice about many legal filings brought by many tribal members. Disclosure: this writer being one tribal member so damaged by CBC-Colville Tribes’ government trust failures.

Lou Stone