I know I shouldn't admit it, but there appears to be a silver lining left over from the occupation.
Mostly for me I suppose, as I've started following a wide variety of groups and people, that I really never paid much attention to, and it's simply incredible the number of things that they are working on, that I can support.
I found out from the
Northwest Treaty Tribes that they are trying to get wild salmon runs going again above the Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams. I'm 100% for that.
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They also pointed out that; "
The state of Washington should end its long, failed history of denying tribal, treaty-reserved fishing rights and halt its appeal of a federal court ruling requiring repair of hundreds of salmon-blocking culverts under state roads". That seems simple enough.
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And from
Washington Tribes, I discovered that:
Colville Tribe releases 52 Nevada pronghorns on reservation: Feb 1, 2016
I thought that was very nice. I had just read a section from a book the previous day, about a Crow woman from about 100 years ago, and her story of the antelope. I wasn't aware of any antelope, so I googled it, and discovered that they had to be pronghorns.
I was going to make a joke that we should shoot all the horses and cattle, beings that they are non-indigenous, and make ranchers raise pronghorns, but then I found out that pronghorns are the second fastest land animals in the world. So I decided that was not a good idea.
Also, going through the tribal web sites, it doesn't appear that they want to go back to living in teepees and chasing buffalo around for a living. Even
Pretty Shield admitted 100 years ago, that some things were better. But as I pointed out above, there are still things that need to be fixed.
I think I've added about 50 different twitter feeds over the last 40 days. One of them re-tweeted an announcement made yesterday, that Wyoming just voted down a bill involving transfer of federally controlled lands to the state.
Wyoming Wildlife Federation
2016.02.12.07:20pm
WY LEG NEWS! The fierce opposition to the public lands transfer bills paid off. The public land grab bills of 2016 were dead on arrival! The House of Representatives voted 52-7 against HB 126, the public lands access bill, and House leaders stopped hearing introductory bills just before HB 142, the transfer of public lands bill. WWF and your representatives heard from many of you about your strong opposition to these bills. This is what a democracy means! We the people care about our public lands and keeping them in public hands. Good job Wyoming!
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HB 142 - Transfer of federal lands. Proposes to seize our public lands in Wyoming and sets up a process for the sale of those lands.
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HB 126 - Public land access. An attack on public lands management, including the protection of streams and wildlife habitat.
I even got some chuckles from the
Oregon Cattlemen's Assn., when I said I made beef stew, but instead of beef, I used pork, and it turned out so awful, neither I, nor my cats, would eat it.