"COMPACTS ARE FOREVER"

WATER RIGHTS COMPACT ENTERED INTO BY THE BLACKFEET TRIBE OF THE BLACKFEET INDIAN RESERVATION, THE STATE OF MONTANA, AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO SETTLE ALL EXISTING CLAIMS TO WATER ON BEHALF OF THE BLACKFEET TRIBE, ITS MEMBERS, AND ALLOTTEES OF THE BLACKFEET INDIAN RESERVATION: WHAT ABOUT FORCED PATENTS CLAIMS? 
PROBLEMS WITH THE COMPACT: The water compact says nothing about existing Blackfeet allottee forced patents claims to 1,200 Blackfeet Original Allotments; our claims will restore the Blackfeet trust land titles to 1,200 Blackfeet allotments and "void" Patent-in-Fee titles of white men robbed during the allotment period 1912-1922. If this compact is approved prior to the settlement of our allotted land claims we will have given the white men the title to our reserved water rights by agreeing to this compact. Federal trustees-BIA and Interior Dept. will have ended their trust responsibility to restore restricted Blackfeet Allotments which they admitted "complicity" [partners in crime] in the testimony of Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard to the Select Committee on Indian Affairs in 1979, "We are unable to locate many of the Indian heirs [to the original allottees]. The United States, of course, has a trust responsibility to them just as it does to recognized tribes, bands or groups. The title issues in Indian land claims on Indian reservations are not subject to the federal statute of limitations [Blackfeet lands are held by the 1896 Agreement/Article Five-two thirds of the adult males of the tribe must vote to accept state jurisdiction or change the treaty]. If the Indian claims do not survive the statute of limitations, there would be a suit against the United States as trustee for failure to carry out a fiduciary obligation, a breach of the trust obligation to bring an action on the Indian claimants behalf. It would also be a suit by the federal trustee against the United States Government, and the public spectacle of the United States Government suing itself on behalf of its Indian wards. In many cases we are looking at the prospects of regaining title to Indian property from white citizens who are holding VOID PATENT-IN-FEE TITLES. The claims include trespass, harmful use of Indian property, breach of contract and wrongful transfer or alienation of Indian property against states, counties, local governments, private individuals and corporations. Most of the claims have been rejected by the Secretary of the Interior and Attorney General as inappropriate for litigation. The Secretary of the Interior has also rejected legislative resolutions by Congress [restoring Indian titles]." President Reagan and Secretary of the Interior James Watt defied Congress and refused to send the Indian claims to Congress. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee passed Public Law 96-217, Section 2 which Provides: "Not later than June 30, 1981, the Secretary of the Interior, after consultation with the Attorney General, shall submit legislative proposals to the Congress to resolve those Indian claims subject to the amendments made by the first section of this act [extending the statute of limitations] that the Secretary of the Interior or the Attorney General believes are not appropriate to resolve by litigation." We were in Washington D.C. in 1982 meeting with the Senate Indian Affairs Committee lawyer and were told to get a tribal council resolution requesting a senate investigation of the Blackfeet forced patents and the committee would restore our allotted lands with $300 million in compensation for the heirs but we were rejected by Chairman Earl Old Person and Vice-Chairman Archie St. Goddard. In 2001 we got a tribal council resolution passed by the tribal council which forced Chairman Old Person to sign it, but he never went to Washington D.C. to request an investigation and told the senate lawyer the Blackfeet were not interested in pursuing their claim- that was 13 years ago. Now comes the water compact which will wipe out our claims forever! And by all that is evil', who was the chairman who approved that compact? Earl Old Person, that's who! We tried to bring up our claims in the water compact meeting in Browning and I was thrown out of the meeting and the NARF lawyer told the people they didn't own any water rights. If the Blackfeet people approve this compact without winning their forced patents claims it will result in a "legal steal" of both Blackfeet allotted lands and water rights. The compact erases Blackfeet Treaty Rights to allotted lands and water rights in exchange for money. And it lets the Interior Department, Glacier and Pondera Counties, white landowners of 529,000 acres of stolen Blackfeet allotments, and tribal councilmen who acquired some Blackfeet allotments by hook or crook which they are hiding from the public. Vote no on the compact, vote yes on opening up the Senate Indian Affairs Committee investigation of the Blackfeet land frauds conducted by the BIA, white men, and Glacier and Pondera Counties during the allotment period 1912-1922. It is all documented in the book The Sacred Buffalo Vision and known by Congress but where is our chief-on the white side as usual. Vote No on the Compact-it is a continuation of land and water frauds on the Blackfeet people. Water attorneys warn the Indians "COMPACTS ARE FOREVER" What is the harm of looking into our land issues? You would think that some powerful people are sweating profusely at the thought of the Senate Indian Affairs Investigation of our allotted lands. BOB JUNEAU