Water Use Agreement: reflecting, respecting diversity
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Editor,
The debate over the water use agreement on the reservation in recent months has grown increasingly ugly and pitted neighbors against one another in the process. As commissioners from the Jocko Irrigation District we favor settling this matter as quickly as possible and look forward to being able to focus the efforts of the district committee on improving the irrigation services in our area.
A settlement will pave the way for tribal, state and federal funding for much needed investments in irrigation infrastructure that we hope to supplement with grants from other sources. We continue to believe that the districts' commissioners can best represent the interests of their own irrigators directly, rather than through the FJBC. We listen to irrigators in our district who have diverse views. The current FJBC majority seeks to suppress this diversity through legal actions and efforts to purge all commissioners who disagree with them through recall elections. If they are successful, we will be left with a board that speaks with one voice – one that most probably follows the lead of the WMWUA. But will such a board effectively represent our diversity? Will that unity of thinking lead to a settlement and better irrigation services for the Jocko and the other districts whose needs are quite different from one another? We believe the districts are in a better position to continue discussions with CSKT and other parties to the water agreement in a civil and respectful fashion. We see our diversity not only as the reality but as a continuing source of ideas on how to preserve farming in our area. Join Kerry Doney and me in support of tolerance of diversity and greater local district control by voting against both measures in the current referendum.
Roger Christopher
Arlee
