Idaho's Forgotten War

RantWoman's summer travel budget is running long on colorful workshop experiences and opportunities to view amazing documentaries. RantWoman will specify the name of her experience in a separate post; the item here deserves to stand on its own.
Idaho's Forgotten War: a new documentary directed by Sonya Rosario
http://www.idahosforgottenwar.com/

RantWoman would have been in 7th or 8th grade (RantWoman is just fuzzy about the timing) the year the Kootenai nation of Northern ID declared war on the US. Even though ID is right next door to MT, RantWoman does not remember hearing a peep about this outrageous act of native aggression. Okay an 8th grade RantWoman had not yet even thought about enough Gandhi to fully appreciate the nonviolent wonder of this occasion. Nor had RantWoman acquired enough experience with protest where the number of police officers is nearly as large as the number involved in the protest. RantWoman remembers not hearing a peep, but RantWoman would almost certainly have been intrigued.

The Kootenai tribe of Northern ID had never signed any kind of agreement with the US government about tribal status and a reservation. In the early 1970's, tribal leaders kept addressing different relevant bureaucracies in Washington DC. One bureaucracy would say "we cannot help you without thus and so from another bureaucracy; the second bureaucracy would say "We cannot help you without thus and so from the first bureaucracy." Life was NOT going well on the reservation and the Kootenais elected a young woman named Amy Trice as tribal chairwoman.

RantWoman recommends that readers more interested in details such as circumstances leading up to the decision to declare war do more historical research than RantWoman has done for this post. The point is that a tribe of about 60 people armed with nothing more fearsome than a pen and a flyswatter the tribal chairwoman once waved at a representative of the state police declared war on the US. As if the US government did not have enough to do what with the Cold War and the Arab oil embargo.

Declaring war attracted the attention of the ID state police who sent in 35 police vehicles. It also attracted the attention of the American Indian Movement who wanted to send in warriors; a small contingent of scouts found a way to get there but the Kootenais declined further help. A congressman and two Senators realized that a visit to the Kootenais would be all in a day's work. Still the Kootenais held their line: there would be no violence; the only weapon they cared about was the pen. Finally a delegation of Kootenais was dispatched to Washington DC and very substantial progress was achieved.

Rather than go on at further length, RantWoman recommends her readers buy and watch the video themselves, talk it up and help ensure that it is widely seen. RantWoman is also obliged to report sad news. Former Kootenai Tribal Chairwoman Amy Trice was supposed to appear at the event where RantWoman saw the video. Unfortunately, Amy passed away the week before this event and RantWoman can only include links to some memorial items!

Amy Trice on ID public TV
http://idahoptv.org/productions/idahoportrait/about/trice.html


http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/amy-trice-dead-at-75/Content?oid=1489952


Indianz.com obit
http://64.38.12.138/News/2011/002498.asp


Spokesman Review
http://www.newsbf.com/news/1107/24amy_trice.html