Don Wilson of the Blackfeet Tribe confirmed that the $14.5 million was only part of the story. The Blackfeet Tribe could receive $15 million in an agreement that would make all three sides involved satisfied (pacified). Blackfeet get $15 million over 15 years while the farmers get water and the State of Montana is happy, everyone is happy. The Blackfeet would have to agree not to irrigate a portion of their own land in return for payment.
The compact is a separate negotiation that has the possibility of making its way into the Federal Court System if the Blackfeet do not reach an agreement by the end of their current extension. If the case went to court the tribe would then lose their ability to broker the deal. The Federal government would calculate the amount of unused water followed by a tally of what is utilized on the reservation and then the Feds would take what they believe they are entitled to. The Blacfeet would be left with only the amount they currently use which is about 10 percent.
White men beleive that if you do not develop the land then you do not really own it. So if you live on a land rich in minerals and you don't want a mine and you leave it alone, the way you found it, you don't own the minerals. This is absurd but we have to look at this from a historical standpoint. Colonialism has reached the shores and door steps of almost every Indigenous nation in the world. The primary objective of colonialists is to claim resources - make a work force of the people - exploit them - and the pattern continues onward.
A lot of people depend on water and water is what the Blackfeet have. Both the Missouri and the Mississippi are fed by the waters that originate in the mountains sacred to the Blackfeet people. After all, they were created there. Very few tribes can still say they are on the land where they came to be human beings. The game of musical chairs better known as the Dawes Act left Indians basically where they were when the music stopped. But the Blackfeet were still there in the mountains and valleys of the eastern slopes of the Rockies.
Downstream the Blackfeet have neighbors who depend on what flows to them after many diversions into ditches along the way. Farmers depend on the Blackfeet tribe to sell them enough water to sustain their livelyhood, the American dream. The state negotiates on their behalf with their best interests in mind.
What is a fair price to pay for ones livelihood? Is $400 million or even $600 million enough? It is going to take a tough legal team to fight for what it is really worth. Will the Blackfeet tribe fight for what could change the economic landscape of the reservation or will the council settle for whatever they get.
