INDIANS RALLY TO PROTEST FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

SEATTLE -- Declaring their very existence as tribal people is at stake, about 
250 Indians and their supporters gathered outside Seattle's federal building 
Monday to protest congressional cuts in aid to tribes.

The demonstration was sparked by a recent Interior appropriations bill passed by
 the U.S. Senate that cuts programs for Native Americans by about $200 million.

The Indians say the cuts would cripple tribal governments, thus undermining the 
principles of self-determination and tribal sovereignty that have guided U.S. 
policy since the 1960s.

The cuts are not simply a reflection of a tight budget year, the tribal leaders 
say, but rather are intended to terminate that sovereign status of Indian tribes
 that makes them similar to states in the eyes of the law. And speaker after 
speaker pointed the finger of blame directly at one man: Sen. Slade Gorton, 
R-Wash.

Gorton, as chairman of the committee that reviewed the bill, was the author of 
the cuts and pushed them through the Senate.

``It has been one battle after another; one outrage after another from that 
man,'' said Quinault tribal member Joe De La Cruz. ``He is trying to push the 
rhetoric that we are all the same under the Constitution. We know better.''

De La Cruz said the United States ``has a contract with Indian people, a 
fiduciary responsibility'' based on treaties in which the U.S. swore to provide 
for their health, education, housing and social welfare.

The attack on Gorton and his budget bill was echoed by speakers from several 
tribes, the Washington Association of Churches and the Episcopal Diocese. Also 
present were representatives of environmental groups and the American Civil 
Liberties Union.

De La Cruz, former president of the National Congress of American Indians and a 
leader of President Clinton's election campaign among Native Americans, said he 
hopes to create a unified front in favor of restoring the cuts.

He said will join leaders of the more than 50 tribes that constitute the 
Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians to begin the process. A demonstration is 
planned for Tuesday morning in Portland, where the leaders are meeting. Another 
is scheduled for Bellingham, Wash.

Gorton was out of the country Monday. But in a statement released by his office,
 Gorton asserted that funding for Indian programs was cut less than funding for 
non-Indian programs in the Interior budget.

``While the total Interior budget was reduced by 11 percent, we worked to see 
that Indian programs received a smaller reduction of only 8 percent. 
Accommodating the requests of those who protested outside my office today would 
mean reducing funding in other areas, potentially forcing the closure of 
wildlife refuges or National Parks. If we do not take action to balance the 
budget now, the pain in doing so several years from now will be much greater.''

The tribes dispute Gorton's arithmetic, saying that under Gorton's Senate bill, 
funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs was cut by 26 percent -- the largest 
cut faced by any agency of the Department of Interior.