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MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2001

The water levels of Flathead Lake remain a contentious issue for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation in Montana.

The tribes own a joint license to operate the Kerr Dam with PPL Montana. Along with federal representatives, however, the two parties have been unable to agree on a drought management agreement.

Part of the debate is over in-stream flows to the Flathead River. The tribes want certain flows to be met in order to protect fish.

PPL Montana, however, faces demands from businesses and local landowners who want the levels in the lake maintained at a high level. PPL says the tribes and the Department of Interior refuse to concede on this point.

A portion of the Flathead Lake lies within reservation boundaries. As an attorney in the 1970s, a federal judges appointed to his post by President Bush fought the tribes' right to regulate non-Indian use of the lake.

A federal appeals court eventually upheld the tribes' claims and the Supreme Court declined to hear the issue, although some Justices wanted to review the case.

Get the Story:
Flathead Lake level raised this year (The Missoulian 12/16)

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Mont. tribe to discuss lake levels (8/7)
Mont. judges headed to work (7/25)
Tribe agrees to lake levels (7/13)
Bush names judges to Montana federal court (5/22)