One of the many plucky Anonymous contributors to comment threads wrote...
You left a few facts out of your analysis, which are material to the controversy.
One; the agreement between the Lummi's and the County is a 50 year agreement, which is being broken unilaterally by the Lummi's after the County's 25 years of lease payments and the gift of a large block of land.
You forget to mention this fact.
Wow, that's a plot twist of M. Night Shamalyan proportions there, Anonymous.
Let me see if I can roll with it.
According to this story from crosscut.com... the original lease also had another wee fact omitted from most narratives.
Wait. Hold on a minute. The contract between the tribe and county was supposed to be witnessed, back in 1985, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency that has the last word concerning long-range Indian agreements. BIG problem: County officers signed it, Lummi Nation officers signed it, but for reasons no one seems to understand, the BIA never did. Although the Lummi lived up to its terms for 25 years, their leaders now say it never was a valid contract. Not without a BIA signature on the paper.
crosscut.com
Now, the argument being presented by Anonymous is that the Lummi Nation is welching on a binding contract. A contract both the Lummis and the County signed 25 years ago.
And if this weren't a long range agreement between a native tribe and a component of the United States government, that by itself might mean something.
However, those of you who have not bothered to crack open a history book if it lacked an endorsement from Glenn Beck may have missed a critical fact of this matter.
The reason that all long range agreements between the U.S. government and any native tribes have to be signed by the BIA is because the United States, in the words of Stephen Stills, "never failed to fail" to honor any contracts it entered into with native tribes. It is only in very recent living memory that United States government entities, including municipal entities like Whatcom County, actually got into the habit of holding up our end of the agreements we signed with native tribes.
The lack of a BIA signature on this 25 year old lease is not some legal technicality. It is fundamental and germane to the legitimacy of any long range contract that the United States enters into with any native tribe. The BIA's signature is not a guarantee against the Lummi Nation breaking the contract, the BIA's signature is a guarantee that Whatcom County wouldn't break the contract. The BIA was supposed to co-sign the lease for Whatcom County, not the Lummi Nation.
We are the habitual goal post movers here, not the Lummi Nation. That's not "white guilt", that's white history as written by white people.
On the matter of the Lummi Nation "unilaterally" terminating a contract, I am unable to find any legal authority that allows for this possibility. You didn't have to go to law school do know that a contract is binding on all parties, and if the contract is to be changed, then all parties have to agree to it.
One of the most reliable contributors to threads on Latte Republic posts under the name Anonymous36...
Given the tribe's status as a Sovereign entity by federal treaty, that makes them the 800 pound wrestler against a skinny, bankrupt county. Now, you can generalize that as The Price White Men Must Pay For Mistreatment Of First Peoples, but again that seems to be a discussion that leads nowhere except back to the bargaining table.
An exerpt of my response to Anon36...
...And, the "white guilt" angle is really about accusing the Lummis of nonsense like declaring war and being an 800 pound gorilla.
Have you been to the Lummi Nation? If they are enjoying a period of economic prosperity, then they must be hiding it behind their 14 percent unemployment rate.
There are almost 200,000 residents in Whatcom County, and the County's annual budget is on the order of $180 million dollars per year.
There are roughly 5,000 Lummi natives living on tribal land. What am I supposed to believe their annual budget could possibly be?
The Lummi Nation's income from salmon fishing is estimated at about $3 million per year, which is even less impressive when you consider it is down from $13 million per year in 1985.
...
That $13 million from 1985 isn't adjusted for inflation.
I take great exception to any characterization that the Lummi Nation is in some sort of enviable position here.
When the relevant facts in their totality are accounted for it is not possible for the Lummi Nation to enjoy any controllable advantage beyond ownership of Gooseberry Point itself. Any other advantage that the Lummi Nation enjoys on this matter has been granted to the Lummis by the feckless handling of this matter on the part of Whatcom County. Whatcom County managed 25 years ago to screw this up by not insuring that the lease was witnessed by the BIA and by not securing a signature from the BIA in compliance with federal law. And now Whatcom County has failed, until almost literally the 11th hour, to negotiate a new lease with any elan.
I assert that the Whatcom County government, not the Lummi Nation and not the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has screwed this up. It is the Whatcom County government that has placed the residents of Lummi Island in this position, and it is the Whatcom County government that shall have to hustle to resolve this matter in a way that spares the residents of Lummi Island hardship.
The Lummi Nation's hardships are well documented for anyone who wishes to see them. The Lummi Nation has its hands full dealing with its own hardships. We in Whatcom County are obliged to manage our own hardships in a similar manner.
We need a lease agreement that is witnessed by the BIA, and we need it soon.
The County Executive and the Whatcom County Council need to move with a purpose, and insure that those County residents who live on Lummi Island get the same full benefit of the county's public service to which any other residents in Whatcom County are entited. NOW.
Its time to stop blaming the Lummis, stop blaming the BIA, stop blaming period.
It is time for Sam Crawford and Pete Kremen to earn their pay.
It is time to govern, gentlemen.
You are tardy as hell.
[Note: Although I do sharply disagree with some commenters in this article, I am deeply grateful for their contribution to this blog, and this article, and hope that these commenters will continue visiting Latte Republic and continue sounding off. Elisabeth Britt is still keeping a close eye on this blog, and I'm sure that she will be very pleased if Latte Republic continues to flourish while she is on her current hiatus.
To be a great blog, Latte Republic needs to be a place in which the regional online community has an investment. If Anonymous, or Anonymous36, wish to submit a more detailed narrative, I'll present it to Elisabeth Britt to be posted on Latte Republic as their own posts.
Anyone who gives a damn is entitled to respect.]
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