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Garry Blankenship's avatar

An appreciation for your ombudsman services to our community. I hereby give you a 20% salary increase ;). Happy to not be a Cascadia customer. This country's entire relationship with treaty tribes must be re-evaluated. Jamestown and Elwha members are friends, neighbors and fellow citizens. They are not "Indians", as they have to ancestral history with India. Some have genetic markers connecting them to residents that lived here prior to European colonization. Those impacted by treaties and the treaty authors no longer live. If sovereignty for bloodlines connected to indigenous peoples must exist then passports and passport services should be required for non-tribal access to sovereign land and/or businesses just like any other sovereign nation. This charade of separate countries within a country is both impractical and discriminant. Let the B.I.A. do something useful and establish a fair and equitable path for treaty tribe members to become U.S.A. citizens with no more or no less rights or entitlements. We would then no longer need a B.I.A. to fund or need to endlessly debate the inequities of inequality.

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Denise Lapio's avatar

I was really hoping for better results from the Commissioners meeting yesterday. Hearing Ozias' answers to the aforementioned questions was deflating my Happy New Year balloon. As difficult as it is to sit there and listen to all the approvals for all of the spending and all of the tax and fee increases, I will continue to attend meetings and comment, comment, comment. Jeff, you showed your in-depth knowledge and fighting spirit yesterday. Your questions and comments put the Commissioners in the spotlight and made the public sit up and notice. Thank you!! And good luck Monday. I'll be there!

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