ST. IGNATIUS — The city of St. Ignatius and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are working together on an annexation proposal that could bring voting rights to tribal residents who have long lived just outside city limits. The proposal aims to heal a decades-old divide in the Lake County community.
In St. Ignatius, two parts of town — Salish Edition and uptown — have existed on opposite sides of city limits. Now, the city council and CSKT are partnering to bring both areas together, creating a more unified and diverse community.
"I want to bring us together as we should be as a community," said Janis Heffern, St. Ignatius city councilwoman.
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When Heffern ran for St. Ignatius City Council in 2023, many residents voiced their concerns about not being able to vote. The problem was that they lived outside city limits despite being so close to town.
"That brought up why and I got to thinking, 'I don't like division,'" Heffern said.
Because this area has predominantly tribal residents, Heffern reached out to CSKT tribal leaders with an idea: annex the area into city limits so tribal members could vote.
"The idea is to include more of our people into the city election process," said James Steele Jr., CSKT St. Ignatius representative. "We've had tribal members that wanted to run for council."
The area is known as "Indian Town" by the locals, but Steele encourages others to refer to it by its legal name.
"It's one of those terms that can have a different meaning for different people, but the legal name is Salish Edition and it incorporates all the different majority tribal housing here in Mission," Steele said.
While some residents worry the expansion might impact property taxes, Heffern said the higher population will provide more funding from the state to maintain city operations.
"People are not going to be outputting money by getting annexed in," Heffern said. "It all is on a state level."
Steele said Salish Edition will remain under tribal jurisdiction and tribal housing residents won't be affected by the expansion.
"Nothing is going to change, their rent is not going to go up, they're not going to have to start paying taxes here, the city is not going to come and levy fees against them, they don't have the authority to do that," Steele said.
Steele and Heffern say their main goal in joining both areas is diversity in city operations.
"We're trying to work together. I think that is a great thing, the more voices that you have and the more diversity that you have is a positive thing," Steele said.
"We want you to vote. We want you to feel like a part of the community," Heffern said.
More meetings will be held to talk about the possible annexation in the near future at St. Ignatius City Hall.
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