Is racism the last refuge of a scoundrel?

It was only a matter of time until David Barnett, The Mouth That Roared for the Cowlitz Tribe, aimed his racism gun at Ed Lynch.

You see, in the world of the Cowlitz Tribe, anyone opposed to the Megacasino-economic black hole they want to build next to La Center is, by definition, a racist. The Cowlitz generally and Dave Barnett in particular could care less about the negative impacts their little development will have on Clark County… The massive social costs, reductions in revenue to local government, the stresses on our transportation infrastructure, the huge hit the taxpayers will have to absorb with the massive influx of third-world children with their multiple foreign languages in our schools…

So, Ed Lynch, an octogenarian philanthropist who has given at least $1 million dollars to Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, whose primary student body is made up of Tlingit Indians, is no more a racist then David Barnett is reasonable.

Here’s a bulletin for the Cowlitz Tribe: Ed Lynch is no racist and your insistence on calling him one has just proven what we already know about you: You’re led by bigots.



Map fuels debate between anti-casino group, Cowlitz

Thursday, September 22, 2005
By JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writer

A group fighting the Cowlitz Tribe's proposed casino west of La Center says it has uncovered a 19th-century map that shows the tribe has no historic ties to Clark County.

The map has fueled tensions and led to charges that a leading casino opponent made a "racist" comment during a Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Interior map, dated 1876, shows the historic distribution of different tribes. The map places the Cowlitz Indians, spelled "Kowlitz" on the document, in northern Cowlitz and Skamania counties, with their range stretching south to what is today Kelso.

Ed Lynch, chairman of Citizens Against Reservation Shopping, said the map represents another piece of evidence indicating that a Cowlitz reservation should be established farther up the Interstate 5 corridor.

Lynch charged that Dave Barnett, spokesman for the Cowlitz Tribe, is using his money and influence to "buy" his way into Clark County.

"He doesn't have any other basis to be here," Lynch said. "I know Mr. Barnett will say we (Cowlitz Indians) were all over, but he has to say this map was wrong."

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