BLACKFEET WATER COMPACT SETTLEMENT ISSUES IN 2015

BLACKFEET INDEPENDENCE DAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1895: The Blackfeet Tribe of Indians and the United States agreed to terms and provisions ratified by Congress June 10, 1896, which reserved the entire reservation land base for the exclusive use and occupancy of the Blackfeet Indians, and Article Five recognized the success of the Blackfeet cattle industry, which was adopted as a treaty guarantee for the Blackfeet cattle ranchers continued success.
BLACKFEET WATER COMPACT SETTLEMENT ISSUES IN 2015:
ISSUE # 1: As a prerequisite to any settlement of state-tribal-federal water compact provisions in 2015 is to resolve all outstanding allotted land issues relating to the 100 year old Blackfeet Allottee Forced Patents land fraud cases, and the restoration of all Blackfeet Allotted Trust land titles and just compensation to the heirs of the original Blackfeet allottees; and just compensation to the Blackfeet Tribe for loss of revenues caused by illegal trespass of the State of Montana, Glacier and Pondera Counties since 1919, and refund of all taxes collected by the state and county to the Blackfeet Tribe, per Blackfeet Tribal Business Council Resolution #224-2001.
ISSUE # 2: Inventory and Quantification of Blackfeet water resources, including but not limited to stock-raising, water marketing, bottled water business markets, domestic uses, recreational uses, industrial uses, fish & game, food and beverage processing plants, hydro-power sites, reservoirs, water wells, and global and domestic market surveys for Blackfeet water uses and production.
ISSUE #3: File water claims for 900,000 acres of allotted Blackfeet trust landowners and remove 529,000 acres of void Patent-in-Fee titles to restore titles to heirs of original Blackfeet Allottees.
ISSUE # 3: St. Mary-Milk Rivers Reclamation Project role in destruction of the Blackfeet cattle industry, and loss of all water rights to those rivers to downstream and Canadian water users, as evidenced by statement of H.N. Savage, Supervisory Engineer for Reclamation Service in Montana in 1903, "I do not see why the Blackfeet Indians might not make a claim to the waters of St. Mary-Milk Rivers with equal propriety of the Fort Belknap Tribes." The Blackfeet Indians voted against the project in 1903 which is the tribal treaty right to refuse any condemnation action by federal agencies on tribal or allotted lands. The Crow Tribe received $500 million in the Cobell Case for 5,000 acres of Crow land condemned by the Reclamation Service for the construction of Yellow Tail Dam on the Crow Reservation. The BTBC did not even file a claim for compensation for the St. Mary-Milk River Diversion on the Blackfeet Reservation, although we provided the information to Earl & Sassy.
ISSUE # 4: Settlement of all past treaty violations by state, county, federal,  and fee landowners.
ISSUE # 5: Tribal and Federal recognition of the treaty rights and land titles of all Blackfeet Indians, heirs of original allottees, and the organization of the Blackfeet Landowners and Water Rights Owners to hear the issues important to the Blackfeet Indians. What do the Blackfeet Indians want from the water compact settlement? How much is the water resources worth of the Blackfeet Water Rights in market value in domestic and global water markets? The Blackfeet Indians do not at present know the quantification and value of their water resources, but are being forced to make an uninformed decision of the greatest magnitude for all time. This is a human rights issue as much as a business issue, and it calls to justice for a people much abused by the state, county, and federal governments for 100 years. Compacts are forever, let us settle past injustices lest we create more injustice for an oppressed people whose treaty rights have been violated for 100 years.
Bob Juneau Sr.