Yakama treaty rights champion Aleck dies

Yakama treaty rights champion Aleck dies
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Jermiah
Date: Aug 3, 2008 9:40 PM


PUBLISHED ON Thursday, July 31, 2008 AT 11:20PM

Yakama treaty rights champion Aleck dies
Former Tribal Council member respected, revered
by Phil Ferolito
Yakima Herald-Republic





Former longtime Yakama leader Leo Aleck, a recognized medicine man among his people who fought for tribal treaty rights, died at home Thursday. He was 80.





He was regarded as a man who strongly upheld tribal traditions as well as the best interest of his people.





"He had a real strong stance of the treaty as far as the tribal government protecting treaty rights," said tribal member Rudy Maldonado. "It's like a fading and dying ambition in our tribal leadership.



"

Aleck, whose Indian name is Shamootum, helped lead a crusade against a state compact that required tribal smoke shops to assess a tax similar to the state's on cigarettes. He even moved to shut down the tribe's chamber of commerce to stop the taxation.





Since, the tribe has pulled out of tax-compact talks with the state over any new or modified agreements.





Aleck also launched lawsuits against The Dalles Dam seeking compensation over lost fish runs that occurred when the dam was first erected.





A settlement is still pending in his lawsuit against the Bonneville Power Administration over power lines traversing the property of 14 tribal families in the Columbia River Gorge.





"It's really sorry to hear about Leo -- It's sad," Maldonado said. "You know, he was a treaty man. He always wanted to protect treaty rights.



"

Aleck was a longtime secretary of the Yakama General Council, an arm of the tribe's government that directly represents the people, before serving seven years on the Yakama Tribal Council, a 14-member board that oversees the tribe's daily operations.





"He did try to do what was right," said General Council Vice Chairwoman Mavis Kindness. "He was a very strong traditional person. He had his own strong belief in values and always treated everyone with respect and regard.





"He never spoke behind anyone's back," she added. "He was always up front and said whatever he had to say.



"

A member of the Klickitat band and fluent in his traditional language, he was well respected as a medicine man with the gift of healing.





"He had a good sense of humor and was held in high regard by all the (tribal) community in the Goldendale area," Kindness said. "He used to come over all the time and sing with our family.



"

An Army veteran, Aleck worked two years in postwar Yokohama, Japan, and escorted the bodies of two serviceman back to the United States to be buried.





Aleck is survived by his wife, Shawashnye "Lefty" Aleck of Toppenish; two sisters, Pearl Charley of Malott, Wash., and Joanne Tahmalwash of Wapato, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was proceeded in death by one son, Leo Aleck Jr.





Dressing services will be today at 10 a.m. at Colonial Funeral Home in Toppenish, followed by overnight services at Toppenish Longhouse.





A procession will leave the longhouse at 6:30 a.m. Saturday and head to Toppenish Creek Cemetery in White Swan, where Aleck will be buried.








BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic As a US Army corporal in 1946, Leo Aleck, 77, worked for two years in graves registration in post-war Yokohama, Japan, and escorted the bodies of two servicemen back to the States to be buried. More than five decades later, the longtime tribal councilmember and recognized medicine man is embroiled in a fight with the Bonneville Power Administration over the utility's alleged trespass on the two 80-acre Vancouver allotments passed down to Aleck and his sisters, high above the Columbia river near Wishram. Aleck—his indian name, Shamootum, belonged to his father's father, a Klickitat—doesn't consider himself a warrior. "The nearest thing to that is what I'm doing here—protecting our treaty rights, if it takes going to court here or going to the congressional people or just actually going down and confronting somebody up in Ellensburg or the Goldendale area," he said.