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Dear Dr. Haberfeld from Larry Toelle, regarding Haberfeld's opposition to allowing an Indian and tribal law expert Philip Brendale to come to the Klamath Basin, 5/23/08
 
I regret that someone of your apparent education, professional standing, and commitment would choose to continue a tradition of stubborn separatism.
 
In the spirit of "fair and balanced" please find my interspersed responses to the criticisms you've raised below.
 
I would look forward to meeting with you and your organization in the future to further discuss our mutual interests.  But please understand, I would not be responsive to irresponsible outbursts of vindictive or hateful rhetoric.
 
Sincerely,
 
 A Siskiyou County resident Larry Toelle (responds in red)
Dear Frank Wallace, Ed Bartel, Roger Nicholson, and the Klamath Basin Alliance:
 
I just received your invitation to come and listen to Philip Brendale to speak about the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and lend weight to your opposition. 
 
By "opposition" I presume you're referring to opposition to the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.  Indeed, for the many reasons posed in the media and elsewhere, I remain opposed the proposed settlement. 
 
The Settlement Agrement that you so vehemently oppose was crafted by a cross-section of stakeholders in the Klamath Basin who spent huge amounts of their time and money to talk the problems through, to put the old grievances aside, and to come up with a way to live and work together in relative harmony. After two and a half years of open hearted and sincere regard for people who had different interests, over twenty-five different stakeholders found a way to put together a package deal that would work to some satisfactory degree for all concerned.  The Agreement is fair and balanced with everyone giving up something significant in exchange for something in return that would help offset the sacrifice they have made.  These parties were constructive and creative and were tired of the rancor, the lengthy and costly court battles, the nasty behaviour that hurt peoples sensitivities and undermined relationships.  They sought a different way of solving problems, and should be heartily congratulated.
 
Describing a handful of environmentalists, irrigators and tribalists as 'a cross-section of stakeholders' strkes me as disingenuous.  The implications of a proposal of this magnitude will effect the lives of many who have interests beyond those which this agreement represents to address.  While striving to reach an accord between environmental, agricultural and tribal interests is in itself worthy, the larger community can not be ignrored or forced to sacrifice without compelling reasons beyond those posed in this document.. 
 
You were invited to participate in this wholesome activity but instead you were never prepared to participate in the "give and take" of the negotiation process.  You did not listen and look for common ground like everyone else did.  You stuck to your non-negotiable demands and failed to learn another way of being. It is clear now that you were driven by your baseless hatred of the Indian people who have lived in the Klamath Basin for centuries, since "time immemorial" according to the courts. It is clear now that no proposal could have satisfied you short of taking the Klamath Tribes' water and giving them nothing in return.  The whole basis of your relentless opposition to this hard won settlement is that the Settlement Agreement set aside certain benefits for the Klamath Tribes just as was done for every other participant in the negotiations.  Because of your hatred for the Indian people and your narrow context, you are willing to reject a Settlement Agreement that has solved some very thorney problems, a Settlement Agreement that promises to bring predictability and economic viability to the agricultural community, that promises to restore water quantity and quality that will benefit tens of future generations of your fellow citizens, that will bring back the natural beauty and health of the rivers, lakes, springs and streams, and that will restore eco-systems in ways that will once again support fish and wildlife.    
 
"Baseless hatred," "nothing in return, and "relentless opposition" are in themselves baseless.  I am surprised, appalled and frankly, disheartened that a man of your education and committment to improving relations would resort to use such common rhetoric.
 
Thanks but no thanks.  Philip Brendale has for years had his own private axe to grind but he is not entitled to come to the Klamath Basin area to lend your distorted arguments and deliberate misinformation any credence.  He does not realize how you are using him, and you should be ashamed for doing so. The truth should be known.The Klamath Tribes were terminated in 1956 by the federal government. The Tribes were deprived of their land base and means of economic livelihood--they were forced to sell over 1.2 million acres of rich timberland. Much of it ended up in the hands of private landowners and the rest went to the federal government to manage.  This policy of "termination" was later judged to be misguided and the Congress restored the Klamath Tribes to full legal status in 1986. No land was returned, however, and the Tribes have had to complete their own restoration process. Purchasing private forest lands as part of a comprehensive economic development strategy is a right all citizens in a democratic country enjoy. To begrudge the Tribe from doing so, to falsely attribute ulterior motives to the Tribe for having an interest in private forest land, only reveals that your motives are not pure and that you have learned nothing from your fellow citizens who chose to embrace uniquely American values, to treat all people with dignity, and to finally bury race prejudice once and for all.     
 
Philip Brendale will have to respond to the above. 
 
Have the courage to look into your heart and discover and dissolve the hatred that is eating at you. You will be healthier and happier men for it.
 
Frankly, I would find it difficult to respond to your apparent vindictiveness.  I'd be willing to engage in a dialogue of Klamath Basin issues without resorting to hateful diatribe, inflammatory rhetoric, and uninformed assertion.  
 
Steven Haberfeld, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Indian Dispute Resolution Services, Inc
1621 Executive Court
Sacramento, CA 95864
(916) 482-5800
(916) 482-5808 Fax
 
"Working things out by talking things through"
 

KBC note: the following meeting was supposed to be by invitation due to lack of space, however it somehow was forwarded by an invited guest to dozens of people not on the invitation list.

From: Ed Sheets [mailto:ed@edsheets.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:47 AM
To: Subject: FW: INVITATION - Tribal member Philip Brendale speaks on KBRA

I am forwarding information about a meeting sponsored by the Klamath Basin Alliance.

Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 4:51:52 AM
Subject: INVITATION - Tribal member Philip Brendale speaks on KBRA, brought to you by Basin Alliance

INVITATION

The Klamath Basin Alliance, Inc. invites you to a meeting on the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement featuring tribal member Philip Brendale.

MAY 27, 2008, 7:OO P.M. at Shasta View Grange
(Corner of Shasta Way and Madison)

Expert in tribal law and Federal Indian Policy (FIP), Cowlitz Tribal member Philip Brendale, grew up on Indian reservations. As a young man, he watched the obstacles that tribal government placed before his grandfather as he exercised his legal right to transfer his allotted land to fee land.

As a result of these injustices, Philip has studied FIP, tribal government and court case histories for 45 years. He took the Tribes to the United States Supreme Court and won the Brendale case, a ruling that gives zoning jurisdiction to counties.  He also won a district court case allowing non-tribal members to access roads and private properties within a closed section of the Yakima Reservation where they had been denied access.

Philip's wife Sandra has been an activist for the rights of citizens for nearly 17 years. She attended school in the middle of Indian Country and is an Eagle Forum trained lobbyist and media expert with extensive experience. She hosted a local TV show for three years, IF NOT YOU…THEN WHO? She taught others how to lobby from home and often took viewers to lobby in person. She headed several citizens' committees and is Yakima's leading taxpayers' advocate.

Brendale has also mentored and advised citizens' groups on how to prevent tribal expansion and how it affects communities economically and socially. Philip and Sandra founded "Brendale Belzer, Federal Indian Policy Trouble Shooters."  He mentored Cherokee, Elaine Willman, author of  Going to Pieces; the Dismantling of the United States of America, regarding tribalism and tribal law. Administrator for the town of Hobart, Wisconsin, Willman served as chair for CERA/Citizens for Equal Rights, was a member of Toppenish City Council, and a teacher in the Masters Programs of Public and Business Administration. With a 15 year career in city planning and administration, she encourages all city and county representatives to attend Bredales's presentation. "You must protect their constitutional, civil and property rights from inappropriate goverment decisions, whether from federal, state, county, city or tribal governements. Government decision-making is a very seperate issue from respect for culture".

Philip will explain how tribal expansion, the purchase of 92,000 acres of the Mazama Tree Project included in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement with federal funds for the Klamath Tribes, would affect all citizens of Klamath County. The Tribes could place this property into federal trust thus paving the way to an interagency trade with the U.S. Forest Service for up to 690,000 acres of their old reservation which they previously sold. Sandra will tell us what we can do about it.

The future of our community is at stake so please join us for an interesting evening with the Brendales.  There will be an opportunity at the conclusion of the presentation for comments and questions.

The Klamath Basin Alliance, Inc. Frank Wallace, Chairman
541-798-5759
541-882-6562

 
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