Archaeologist featured at coalition meeting

The Flathead Coalition will hold its 33rd annual meeting Tuesday at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell.

The event, starting at 6 p.m., will feature a presentation from Professor Brian "Barney" Reeves, an archaeologist with the University of Calgary.

Reeves, who has done 40 years of archaeological research in and around Glacier and Waterton national parks, will talk about "Native American History in the North Fork: 10,000 Years, Still Counting, Still Wild."

The coalition is an alliance of American and Canadian community, tribal, business and conservation interests founded in 1975 with the mission of protecting the watersheds shared by British Columbia and Montana.

The group was formed in response to a coal mine proposed in the Canadian Flathead in the 1980s.

The coalition has spent the last year dealing with a new open-pit mine proposed by Toronto-based Cline Mining Corp., as well as monitoring other potential mining ventures in the Canadian Flathead River drainage.

The coalition helped generate more than 60,000 public comments on the Cline proposal, the biggest response to any mining proposal in British Columbia history.

The coalition's goals for 2007 include working toward a long-term, lasting solution to the perennial threat of industrial mining in the Flathead.

The group has three goals: 1) a permanent ban on mining in the Canadian Flathead; 2) a new management plan for the British Columbia Flathead that emphasizes wildlife habitat and connectivity, and 3) a binding agreement between Montana and British Columbia to work cooperatively on management issues within the transboundary Flathead Basin.

Tuesday's annual meeting will involve a raffle and a potluck meal, with those attending asked to bring a hot dish, salad or dessert with plate and utensils. A cash bar will be provided by the museum.