[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 8, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TESTIMONY OF DIANA W.H. CAPP

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. GEORGE R. NETHERCUTT, JR.

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 8, 2000

  Mr. NETHERCUTT. Mr. Speaker, on February 15, 2000, I was pleased to 
introduce my constituent, Diana W.H. Capp, at a Resources Committee 
hearing concerning the funding of environmental initiatives and their 
impacts on local communities. Her testimony follows:


       Madame Chairman, Committee Members, thank you for this 
     hearing, I'm Diana White Horse Capp, from Ferry County, 
     Washington--4.6 million acres--in the Kettle Mountains, 7200 
     people. I'm Chairman of the Upper Columbia Resource Council. 
     Madame Chairman, history shows the elite gain power by 
     pitting the masses against each other. Our Constitution, 
     based on the Iroquois Great Law of Peace, is intended to 
     prevent this.
       Elite foundations now funnel their wealth to environmental 
     groups who pit the masses against each other. Rural Americans 
     are condemned as savages just as Natives once were. Rural 
     Natives and Whites work in the same occupations. Our welfare 
     is connected. The South half of my county is Colville 
     Reservation. On the North Half, Colvilles and other Native 
     descendants live in peace with Whites. The community is 
     intermarried. We cannot afford the division these foundations 
     instigate.
       The environmental elite use Native people. They preach 
     about Tribal Rights and promise to restore justice. Yet they 
     do little for Native people but use them as poster children 
     to buy the clout of Treaty Rights in their lawsuits. Local 
     activists courted favor on the Reservation and Colville 
     Indian Environmental Protection Alliance emerged. This is a 
     foundation grant handled by Native recruiter Winona LaDuke of 
     Minnesota to fight people like me in Ferry County. (See page 
     2) LaDuke's webpage says the Colville group she funds is 
     opposed to gold mining on the Reservation. (pg 3) But this 
     article says that group lobbied the Tribal Council to oppose 
     Crown Jewel Mine. (pg 4) Madame Chairman, the Crown Jewel 
     Mine isn't on the Reservation--it's 30 miles away, minimum. 
     This kind of deception smears the Tribe's name. Political 
     upheaval rocks the Reservation and some Tribal members want 
     the FBI to step in.
       These foundations use environmental groups to destroy rural 
     cultures. Our county is crippled by their attacks on timber, 
     mining, and ranching. Jobs are scarce. Our children feel 
     hopeless--the elite have raped their future. These grants 
     target Ferry County with $105,000 just to silence the so-
     called ``incivility'' of people like me concerned with human 
     rights. (pg 5) These are grants to Environmental Media 
     Services! They're headed by Arlie Schardt--Al Gore's former 
     Press Secretary!
       Slick media activists hound urbanites, screaming that rural 
     cultures destroy the planet, when in fact we feed and shelter 
     them. The 1998 National Wilderness Conference announced its 
     plan for Wilderness designation of the Kettle Mountain 
     Range--Ferry County is the Kettle Range. Their millions wage 
     a high-dollar war for Wilderness in Ferry County along with 
     local Kettle Range Conservation Group. (pg 6) Our county is 
     beautiful. They covet this beauty enough to rape our culture: 
     We don't want them to squeeze us out. This cultural genocide 
     must be acknowledged. That's why the Kootenai Tribe joins 
     Idaho's fight against more Wilderness. (pg 7) This petition 
     by Bret Roberts of Ferry County Action League is signed by 
     many area residents opposed to more wilderness.
       Federal insiders reshape policy to destroy rural cultures. 
     This map shows some of the plans to push us out. Colville 
     National Forest's Public Affairs Officer took vacation time 
     to picket for more Wilderness. Pacific Biodiversity Institute 
     boasts that government agencies request their wilderness 
     maps. (pg 8) This Wilderness Society map is part of a local 
     Forest Service Plan. (pg 9) This environmental group's grant 
     says their lynx study will be used by the Forest Service. (pg 
     10) This job notice (pg 11) even says Nature Conservancy 
     biologists write policy on Indiantown Gap Military 
     Reservation--adding salt to the wound.
       You see, government troops forced my Mother's people out of 
     Indiantown Gap in 1932. I don't want that happening to my 
     children, too! Madame Chairman, this juggernaut must be 
     stopped.

     

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