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THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 2002

A Montana state lawmaker is being criticized for saying that tribal members who are returning to reservations are "incapable" of working like "normal outside people."

"They’re unwilling or incapable of working like normal outside people do," Sen. Ed Butcher, a Republican, was quoted in The Billings Gazette as saying. "The elders or the parents, and I hear this all the time, are encouraging them to move back home."

Butcher comments came during a meeting of the Legislature's interim State-Tribal Relations Committee, which is planning to hold statewide meetings to address various issues, including welfare reform. One of three non-Indians on the six-member committee, Butcher remarked that urban Indians shouldn't be a concern because they "are off the reservation and are making their own way," the paper quoted him as saying.

The three Indian members said they were outraged about Butcher's statements. Previously, Butcher was criticized for calling reservations "ghettos" when he questioned why the Legislature would support the federal recognition bid of the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe.

Get the Story:
Indian-state meeting plan debated (The Billings Gazette 1/10)