Support the CSKT Water Compact

From the Missoulian, Dec.12, 2014

I see by his latest rambling diatribe that Verdell Jackson (guest column, Dec. 10) and his small cadre of xenophobic luddites persist in the belief that water is not a fluid. It seems they would have us believe that there is a fundamental change in properties of water at the arbitrary boundary of the Flathead Reservation. On one side of the boundary is “Indian” water and on the other, “our” water exists, and the two are completely separate entities.

Jackson would have you conclude that the Hellgate Treaty of 1855 provides legal rights to tribes, outside reservation boundaries, only to “take fish in common with the citizens of the Territory,” but not to protect the aquatic habitat that supports those fish. In the real world (which Jackson refuses to inhabit), you have to look no further than the Columbia River Basin, which begins in Montana, to find a profusion of legal precedents supporting the rights of Native American tribes to engage in legal protections assuring that sufficient water to sustain fish populations in their traditional and historical fishing areas remains in quality and quantity to support fishable populations.

The state of Montana, the tribes and the federal government have negotiated in good faith for more than a dozen years to hammer out a settlement that is fair to all parties. In the 1980s, federal law affirmed the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ in-stream flow rights on the all streams running through or bordering the Flathead Reservation. This agreement will codify and protect the rights of off-reservation water users and set up a board to regulate water use on the reservation.
Short intensive workouts if done on a regular basis, effectively improve metabolism & increase testosterone levels in the blood.Now that you are familiar with these natural pills to super active cialis get better and faster results with erectile failures in complete control. It leads to generic levitra cialis sexual disorders like weak erection, semen leakage, sexual weakness and quick ejaculation. What is the abstruse to a adored and acknowledged marriage? Promises, commitment, love? How about passion? Passion, buy viagra tablets however, cannot be one-sided. The pain in your back is usually caused cialis levitra viagra by a deviation of the humors”.
Absent the protections provided by this well-crafted agreement, water users across western Montana will face decades of uncertainty. Don’t let the irrational fears of a few derail this important water compact.

LaVerne Sultz

Kalispell, MT