Billings Gazette:  24 April 2001 News Article on Council of Large Land Based Tribes.

Western tribes form coalition

RIVERTON – A newly formed coalition of tribes from the West plan to lobby Washington D.C. next month on behalf of Western tribes with large amounts of land.

The Council of Large Land-Based Tribes represents far-flung reservations of more than 100,000 acres that have difficulty receiving adequate federal funding, tribal officials said.

The council plans to lobby the Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency and Congress in May about issues that concern the tribes.

“There is a striking need for the governments of tribes with large land bases to organize in order to address their needs and concerns,” said Edward T. Begay of the Navajo Nation, the nation’s largest reservation at 16 million acres.

Ivan Posey, chairman of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe in Wyoming, said some of their biggest funding needs are health care delivery, telecommunications and utilities.

Council members represent about 60 percent of Indian land, but their voices are not being heard in Washington, he said.

The council represents Wyoming’s Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapahoe tribes; the Navajo Nation, which spans New Mexico, Arizona and southern Utah; and Montana’s Assiniboine and Sioux of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, and Northern Cheyenne, Crow, Kootenai, Salish and Chippewa Cree tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation.