“Next week, Montana will be smokefree!”
Helen Songer, Business Owner Missoula, Montana
expect
“I am excited. I can’t wait until it takes effect and there’s no smoking in the bars. My customers expect it.
smokefree places
1 - 800 - QUIT - NOW
The Clean Indoor Air Act is good because it keeps people healthy.”
http://tobaccofree.mt.gov
Now that Montana’s going smokefree, you can too. If you want to quit, call the free Montana Tobacco Quit Line today!
Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services
Spend Get
$10
$10!
Secret Seconds Saver Days This Weekend (9/25 - 9/27)
How it works: 1. Stop by any Secret Seconds thrift store
3. Spend $10 at one store or across all three.
& pick up a flyer.
2. Visit the other 2 locations, 4. Get a $10 gift certificate get your flyer stamped.
good at any location!
1136 W. Broadway • 920 Kensington 1221 Helen Ave. by UM
Shop. Donate. Make a Difference. 541.3210 www.ywcaofmissoula.org Missoula Independent
Page 18 September 24–October 1, 2009
Seeking solace on the rez ention of Montana’s imminent smoking ban evokes little more than a shrug inside the Gray Wolf Peak Casino north of Evaro. One woman with a couple packs of Marlboros stacked on a wad of one-dollar bills is barely willing to turn away from her ringing, dinging machine. The first employee I talk to isn’t aware of the ban at all. Nor should he be, considering that the ban doesn’t even apply here on the Flathead Indian Reservation. But it’s not that simple, it turns out. How, exactly, the ban is applied on reservations in Montana is as cloudy as Gray Wolf Peak’s smoky lounge. Because the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) and their members own only about 62 percent of the reservation’s 1.3 million acres, the question of where the ban holds sway has even tribal leaders and state attorneys digging into the fine print. More than that, though, the question touches on sensitive and complex issues of tribal sovereignty, which seem to have made the state hesitant to test the limits of the law’s influence. “A lot of people are unsure how this works, and the flow of information is hard to trace,” says CSKT Communications Director Robert McDonald. This much is clear: The smoking ban will not apply to tribally owned bars, restaurants and casinos. On the Flathead Indian Reservation, that includes the Gray Wolf Peak Casino and Best Western KwaTaqNuk Resort in Polson. (The tribe has passed its own smoking ban inside some other public spaces.) The ban will apply to nontribal members on the reservation who own and operate such establishments. Less clear is how the law applies to establishments owned by tribal members, like the Silver Dollar in St. Ignatius. For it and others, the ban will not be “pursued,” according to state attorneys and officials with the Department of Public Health & Humman Services (DPHHS), an approach that avoids the legal can of worms any pursuit would surely crack open. Calls to the Silver Dollar were not returned. Of course, the tribes can implement their own smoking ban that would mirror the state law, something the tribal council is batting around. “I know with authority that there has been some discussion internally in our health department about this statewide ban, and the fact that the tribes have the option to adopt their own ban if they so chose,” says McDonald. “But that has not been brought forward to council at this point. It’s likely that may happen, depending on the flow of other issues and whatnot. It’s definitely been on their minds, especially with regard to the anti-smoking efforts of the health department. But ultimately it’s the council’s decision.” From a health perspective, the tribes would seem to have very good reason to implement a ban. According to the 2008 Montana Adult
M
Tobacco Use Survey, the prevalence of smoking among American Indians was roughly four times that of white Americans—55 percent versus 14 percent, respectively. Furthermore, DPHHS’s most recent survey of tobacco use and attitudes among American Indians in Montana found that more than two thirds believed smoking should not be allowed in restaurants and other indoor public places. But health implications are balanced by cultural ones, which complicate anti-tobacco efforts on reservations, not to mention the debate over an outright ban. “Tobacco prevention specialists on reservations…certainly understand the toxic nature of
second-hand smoke, but they’re up against something very, very powerful, and that is the historical, traditional and sacred use of tobacco,” says Linda Lee, supervisor of the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program. “They have to always be very, very sensitive with any of their teachings or any of their educational pieces when they talk about it, because what has happened is that tobacco, from a sacred perspective, has become enmeshed with commercial tobacco. And so they have a very difficult job to try to start separating that out.” For now, issues of sovereignty and health aside, it would appear Montana’s smoking ban could be a boon for the handful of bars and casinos on the Flathead Indian Reservation where patrons can still light up after Oct. 1. But, when asked if he expects a boost in business, McDonald says he wouldn’t bet on it. “It’s still a long ways to get here,” he says. “There are people who will drive 15 minutes from Missoula to take a shot at winning $500,000 on a 90 cent bet in Evaro, and there are people willing to take a weekend trip and drive 90 minutes to Polson from Missoula to sleep by the lake and gamble on the Class 2 machines that pay out progressive. But it’s still a ways.” Whatever the implications of the state smoking ban for the reservation, they’re certainly not on the minds of those hunkered down at the Gray Wolf Peak Casino, where even an older woman who says she has severe allergies endures the thick smoke for a shot at quick cash. “I should stay away from here,” she says as she slips a crisp twenty into the machine. “It would be nice if it was smoke-free.” —Matthew Frank