Vote for the referendum
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Editor,
Now that the Court has rejected the anti-democratic attempt by four commissioners to prevent irrigators from voting in the FJBC Referendum, the “Fear and Smear” campaign they have been running will grow more desperate.
The current proposed Compact gives ownership of the Irrigation Project Water Rights to the CS&KT; something never intended by Congress when it created the Project. The Compact only gives irrigators conditional permission to use less water than historically necessary and it gives the Tribes the right to control all water use on the Reservation through an unconstitutional Board they will control. That Board will apply special law unique to the Reservation, written by Tribal lawyers and applicable to fee land.
In short, it gives away your water right, reduces the amount of water you will receive and makes these uses subject to a board the tribes will dominate while applying law they wrote.
Why would anyone, let alone irrigation district commissioners, agree to this “New Deal?” I don’t know, but the fact that their primary tool is fear, followed by smear of their opponents, shows me they are desperate. Whether they are acting from their own fear, or hope of favor from the Tribes, it is a “Bad Deal” for everyone else.
The majority of the FJBC Commissioners want to negotiate an agreement that addresses these problems. They want to maintain irrigator property rights of irrigation water. They want it regulated by the State. This is an acceptable deal with certainty. Vote for the FJBC referendum.
Michael Gale
Ronan
