It is bad enough that Sen. Steve Daines opposes the historic nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland to be Secretary of Interior. The irony of his statement that, “Her confirmation will hurt Montana & the Western way of life as we know it,” is beyond belief given that, unlike Daines, her ancestors have lived in the West for thousands of years and hundreds of generations. Their legacy was the West intact when white settlers first came.
Now Daines is attacking a provision of the American Rescue Plan that will bring a measure of justice to those who have been discriminated against by the United States government over the years by forgiving their loans made by the Department of Agriculture. That there was discrimination was legally established in lawsuits by North Dakotans George and Marilyn Keepseagle against the Department of Agriculture and by Montana’s own Elouise Cobell against the Department of Interior.
On Tuesday, Daines said, “So, a wealthy Hispanic farmer- or any other minority- in California could get tons of money, while a struggling white farmer in Montana gets nothing.” Daines clearly
doesn’t care about our long history of discrimination against minorities and, given the reference to producers in California, apparently doesn’t understand this will help a lot of American Indian
farmers and ranchers right here in his adopted state of Montana.
Bruce Nelson
Bozeman
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 3/18/21