Irrigators: your water rights exist
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Editor,
On Tuesday Dec. 17, five irrigators of the Flathead Irrigation Project went to Helena to the DNRC to look at our water rights receipts. We did hold some of them in hand and received copies of all. They were filed on time with the DNRC as mandated with HB22. The CS&KT has not legally filed their water rights as Montana law requires, no change since 1979.There is a story to be told how they got there. This letter is written to tell the irrigators, your water rights exist.
We might recall in 1979 we were told the state will require all water rights to be filed, the BIA who operated the FIP at that time, assured the irrigators that they would make sure these were filed. The years went by and they “intended” that the deadline expire. Some outstanding citizens managed to get the water rights copied and delivered to the DNRC the last day of the filing date. The originals exist as well. There was an attachment to these at a later date.
Tribal members with irrigated land were allocated water rights through the allotment act of 1904. Note this was to individual allotments, not the tribe as a whole, this water goes with the land. You can look at book “A” and the county resources survey and see what stream or reservoir your water right comes from.
Also one more important part of this is the repayment contract from irrigator to the US government in 1949 signed by 60 percent of the project irrigators. Over the years a lot of this information has been withheld and not shared with the public. Please check this out before you sign on to the CSKT compact that changes these laws and writes a new one that we can’t get out of.
Tim Orr
St. Ignatius
