NESPELEM - The Colville Confederated Tribes has filed suit to stop the transfer of Lake Osoyoos State Park to the City of Oroville.
     The transfer was approved Oct. 1 at a meeting of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission in Spokane.
     The tribes was “unfairly and illegally shut out of the process by the parks commission,” Chairman Michael Finley said.
     He said the commission bypassed its rulemaking process to set up criteria for transfer that the tribe could not meet.
     The tribe filed suit Oct. 9 in Thurston County Superior Court. It charges that a previous parks commission action to establish certain new criteria for park transfers was taken in violation of the Washington Administrative Procedure Act.
     The tribe asked the court to bar the Commission Director Rex Derr from transferring the park to Oroville.
     Finley said the Tribes made its interest in acquiring the park clear to state officials earlier this year after Gov. Christine Gregoire encouraged the commission to make such transfers as a budget-cutting measure.
     State law authorizes transfers of park land “to a local government or other entity” if the land is deemed “surplus to the needs of the state.”
     Lake Osoyoos State Park was one of several on the surplus list.
     Tribal official said the park is on a site considered sacred by the Lakes Band.