Tribes using water compact to regain land
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Editor,
I agree with Susan Lake; the fight over Indian water rights hurts us all.
Careful analysis leads to only one conclusion — the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Montana water resources board and the Confederated (Salish and Kootenai) Tribes are selling out we residents.
The tribe, in May 1996, published their goal in a publication in which Bonneville Power Administration encouraged them; “We will strive to regain ownership and control of all lands on our reservation…” This goal was reiterated in an official letter duly endorsed by the then-chairman of the Tribal Council: “We will control enough land by the year 2010 to demand that Congress purchase the remaining land and return complete control to the tribes. Those whites that can’t be bought or taxed out will have to be encouraged to leave by other means.”
The proposed “other means” are outlined in the proposed 1,100 pages of this controversial tribal water compact. This compact, if adopted, will effectively reduce the harvest of the present irrigators and increase the downstream water flow in order to produce the ever-increasing power needs of Bonneville Power. The tribes, of course, will reap huge income from the bleeding of the irrigators’ long-established right to water.
This compact, drafted partially by the tribe and its attorney, Jay Weiner, will severely affect not only the reservation irrigation, but also all landowners west of the Continental Divide. 1. No water; no harvest. 2. No harvest; no taxes. 3. No taxes; no school or hospitals. 4. No pay taxes; county sells. 5. County sells; tribes buy, or Bonneville Power buys. 6. Lands gone; goodbye.
As a lifelong resident, I urge all readers to defy and oppose this compact.
Lloyd Ingraham
Ronan
