Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Blackfeet Water Compact Sails Through Key Committee
In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee passed the Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement Act, moving one step closer toward full congressional approval of the historic compact, which has been awaiting ratification since 2010.
Negotiations between the Blackfeet Tribe, local communities and state and federal governments began more than 30 years ago to establish water rights in and around the reservation. The compact will also help rehabilitate the Four Horns Dam and long-neglected, century-old Blackfeet Irrigation Project; give the tribe the ability to use, lease or exchange water on tribal land; and protect the rights of non-Indian water users and members of the Fort Belknap Indian Community.
It also includes provisions that protect off-reservation farmers and ranchers that rely upon the water for irrigation purposes.
The water compact with the Blackfeet Tribe still has not received congressional approval, despite passing the Montana Legislature in 2009 and having earned the support of Montana’s entire congressional delegation.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, has introduced the Blackfeet measure four times...more
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