The Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes of north-central Montana are closing in on a bipartisan deal to settle their water rights in Congress. The more than $1 billion policy comes after decades of negotiation and would close out a century of tribal water disputes in the state.
Fort Belknap President Jeffrey Stiffarm told a committee of U.S. senators Wednesday his community made great sacrifices to strike the deal.
“We ceded a lot of land away that we wanted — that was rightfully ours, that was taken from us,” Stiffarm told lawmakers. “We put that aside, and we thought, you know, ‘Water is more important.’”
The Fort Belknap Reservation is home to the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes. It’s the last of seven reservations in Montana without a water compact. More than a hundred years ago, the tribes were at the center of a 1908 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found water rights were implied in tribal treaties.
Montana’s Democratic Sen. Jon Tester thanked Stiffarm and Montana politicians for negotiating the compromise agreement.
“For years, we've talked about moving this settlement forward, and this Congress, we’ve got a real shot,” Tester said.
If Congress approves the compact, the tribes would receive federal dollars to repair and improve an aging irrigation project that provides water to more than 120,000 acres of farmland.
Montana Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras told committee members her state’s Legislature passed the Fort Belknap compact in 2001.
“And yes, President Stiffarm, it is, after a century, time to close this circle and grant this tribe the water rights that were intended for them,” Juras said.
Committee chair Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said lawmakers would work to pass the policy as expeditiously as possible.
