Opinion

Editorial: Approve water compact for Salish and Kootenai Tribes

Monday, February 9, 2015

Flathead Lake in Montana. Photo by Paul Frederickson / Wikipedia

Montana newspaper supports ratification of a water compact for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes:

The Montana Legislature has one last chance to approve a negotiated water compact with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. If the 2015 Legislature fails to ratify the compact, under Montana law, the CSKT must file their water claims in the state’s Water Court by June 30. There are expected to be thousands of claims, including water far beyond the borders of the tribes’ reservation along Flathead Lake.
The bottom line is that the CSKT’s water rights predate everyone else’s. The rights were granted by the federal government under the Hellgate Treaty of July 16, 1855, which established that the tribes would retain the right to fish in areas they had traditionally used when they gave up their land and settled on the reservation. The U.S. Supreme Court held in a 1908 decision that such rights don’t require the water to be put to beneficial use and cannot be abandoned. The U.S. Supreme Court also has held that the grant of traditional fishing rights includes in-stream flows sufficient to support those fish.
The CSKT’s rights extend to “time immemorial,” no other claims are senior to that.
More than 30 years ago, the Montana Legislature and governor decided that rather than litigate tribal water claims in federal courts, they would create a state forum. Compacts have been ratified with all tribes in Montana, except the CSKT. The Legislature had never rejected a compact until the CSKT compact languished in committee during the 2013 session.

Get the Story:
Editorial: CSKT water compact matters to Billings region (The Billings Gazette 2/8)