And now:Sonja Keohane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
<http://www.billingsgazette.com/regionframe.htm>
Blackfeet Tribe starts talks on water-rights agreement
Final agreement probably is years away
HELENA (AP) - Blackfeet Tribal Council members elected this year have
entered the lengthy process of developing a water-rights agreement
involving their tribe, and the state and federal governments.
The council is dedicated to protecting the tribe's natural resources, which
Blackfeet members consider spiritually significant, William Old Chief said
Monday at a meeting of negotiators. Old Chief is the new council chairman.
The session Monday was the first involving council members elected last summer.
Representatives of the tribe and state and federal agencies are just
beginning to sort out details of water rights for Indian and non-Indian
users of water in drainages of the Marias and Milk rivers.
A final agreement probably is years away and would require approval of the
tribe, the Montana Legislature and Congress.
Until last year, the Blackfeet had declined negotiations, choosing instead
to pursue the water-rights issue through the state Water Court. Among
Montana's seven Indian tribes, only the Blackfeet chose to litigate rather
than negotiate water rights.
But negotiations can be advantageous for both the tribe and the state, said
George Heavy Runner of Browning, a former state legislator elected to the
Tribal Council last summer. Reserving water for the tribe could mean more
water for the state, in the face of demands from downstream water users in
the Missouri River Basin, Heavy Runner said.
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