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Federal government moves to seize water rights from Montanans

Under the radar theft: The federal government, in league with the Montana state legislature, is moving to seize the privately-held water rights of 100,000 Montana citizens and hand those rights over to the Flathead Indian Reservations, after which the rights would be controlled and administered by the federal government.

The tale of woe begins with the Hellgate Treaty of 1855 that created the Flathead Indian Reservation. Article III of the Treaty is the point of contention, as it states the Indian tribes have an established “right of taking fish” in waters not on the reservation. The article has been selectively interpreted and further manipulated to this end: the tribes must be able to ensure water quality of their fishing sites; therefore, the water rights in 11 counties must fall under the Tribal jurisdiction.

Enter the EPA to set standards of water quality, the Water Compact Commission, a board that is relentlessly pushing the compact on the populace, the Department of the Interior, the bureaucracy that will collect and manage revenue “on behalf” of the tribes, and the DHS, the enforcement arm of compliance. Should the tribes and the aforementioned players win this fight, all surface water and wells (private wells, mind you) within the boundaries imposed by the Compact will be metered and taxed.

The whole thing is a travesty and should be a moot point in reality: Article I of the same treaty ceded, relinquished, and conveyed (by the tribes) all rights or claims to any land and waters except the Reservation. The State Senate just voted on it a few weeks ago. The Senate holds 29 Republicans and 21 Democrats; however, 11 Republicans voted for the Compact and the measure passed, 32-18. The bottom line: there was not one dissenting Democratic vote on the whole measure.

The conflict here is obviously complex, but the result seems pretty simple. While before private citizens owned their own private wells (dug with their money and sweat), afterward those wells would be controlled by government bureaucrats, who will use that power to tax and regulate the use of those wells. As the article notes, if this should pass it will “set a precedent for the courts throughout the United States by the Federal Government to deprive us of our water rights.”

But who cares? Let’s instead go ga-ga over a stupid ill-advised publicity campaign from a stupid overpriced coffee company.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Cotour

    1. Montanan water rights an analogy for Israel and slavery reparations.

    2. The Starbucks race relations campaign is the result of an over thinking next gen type executive attempting to solve a “problem” exacerbated and purposefully made worse by the temporary political administration currently occupying the oval office in an inappropriate way in an inappropriate venue. A “well intentioned” executive with apparently too much time on his hands. I would make him permanently Ex and I would fire him.

    Is this the path that next gen run corporations of America will be taking in the future? Is this the brave new world? Will activist corporations require certain types of customers that adhere to their agendas? The corporation Starbucks an analogy for fascism light?

  • wodun

    The EPA did something similar in Wyoming a few years back.

  • danae

    The Nezperce tribe tried seizing private landowners’ water rights in Idaho. I’m guessing it was 15 or more years ago. It dragged on through hearing after hearing for years, but the tribe was unsuccessful in the end. The Nezperce are good people; they simply had more social justice activists running their affairs at that time than they have since.

    Depending on the outcome of the Flathead adjudication, I suppose the Nezperce could initiate another go-round if they were willing to generate as much ill will toward the tribe as they did during the previous kerfuffle.

  • PeterF

    Is the tribe the actual driving force behind this or is the EPA using the tribe as a foil in yet another power grab?

    either way, welcome another group of citizens who will utterly reject socialism because they have been on the receiving end of their “good intentions”

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