http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/06/news/state/35-maker.txt

Lawmaker apologizes for comments
Winifred's Butcher referred to Indian colleague as 'chief'

By JENNIFER McKEE
Gazette State Bureau

HELENA - Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, was made to apologize Friday on the
House floor after referring to an American Indian lawmaker as "chief" and
asking the lawmaker if a committee chairman's gavel wielded by Butcher
constituted a "war club."

"It was meant as a compliment," Butcher said to his "chief" comment in an
apology before the 100-member House of Representatives.

Butcher made the comments Thursday afternoon at a meeting of the House
Agriculture Committee, which he chairs. He promised fellow lawmakers he
would conduct future meetings "in a way that upholds the dignity of the
House."

Butcher said House Republican leaders summoned him to their offices after
Democrats objected and that he was told to apologize on the House floor on
Friday.

Butcher said in an interview afterward that he made the comments before the
committee meeting had formally convened.

People were milling about the room at the Capitol and making small talk, he
said.

Butcher said he has an extra-large gavel and turned to Rep. Jonathan Windy
Boy, D-Rocky Boy, a member of the committee, and asked him if the gavel
could be a "war club."

Then, shortly before the meeting was to start, but while Windy Boy was not
present, Butcher said the meeting couldn't begin because he was waiting on
"Chief Windy Boy."

"There sure as hell wasn't anything negative about (the comment)" Butcher
said, adding that he had always considered Windy Boy one of the "sharpest"
American Indian lawmakers in the House.

Butcher said if he intended to say something disparaging about American
Indians, "I would have come up with something (worse) than that."

"He's a tribal leader," Butcher said, referring to Windy Boy, who is a
Chippewa-Cree Tribal Council member. "I always thought the chief was the
main man."

Windy Boy was not in the House on Friday, because he was in Rocky Boy
attending a tribal council meeting.

Butcher's comments brought sharp rebukes Friday from American Indian
lawmakers and Republican and Democratic leaders of the House.

House Majority Leader Mike Lange, R-Billings, called the comments
"inappropriate" when announcing Butcher's apology.

Rep. Margarett Campbell, D-Poplar, an American Indian lawmaker whose
district includes Assiniboine and Sioux tribal members on the Fort Peck
Reservation, said in a brief speech that she didn't believe "the good
people of Montana (wanted) the indigenous people of this state to be used
as the butt of bad jokes and inappropriate comments."

Campbell said in an interview afterward that she thought Butcher's comments
were careless, but not necessarily malicious. She said she didn't want to
"pick a fight" with Butcher but felt compelled to address racism when it
presented itself.

"My guess is the 9,000 people he represents would not like to have these
comments spoken on their behalf," Campbell said.

Rep. Shannon Augare, D-Browning and a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, said
in an interview that he didn't think Butcher's use of "chief" was
complimentary.

"I'm disappointed that in this body people still say things like that,"
said Augare, a freshman lawmaker serving his third day in the Legislature.

Augare said he was pleased that both Democratic and Republican leaders
viewed Butcher's remarks as inappropriate.

House Minority Leader John Parker, D-Great Falls, said as soon as he found
out about the comments Thursday, he talked to Republican House leaders, who
also found Butcher's words unacceptable.

Butcher said he thought the incident may have been overblown and said one
of his own children is an enrolled member of Windy Boy's reservation
tribes, a girl whom Butcher adopted as an infant.

"It makes this whole thing ironic," he said.

During the last Legislature, Butcher apologized after referring to severely
developmentally disabled students as "vegetables" at an education meeting.

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