Page 5 - Flathead Beacon // 4.22.15

FLATHEADBEACON.COM
NEWS
CSKT Water Compact Faces Long Journey from Helena to Washington
CSKT Tribal Council member Vernon Finley listens to public comment about the water compact during a meeting last year. BEACON FILE PHOTO
APRIL 22, 2015 | 5
W•O•R•D•S of the Week
AN INDEX OF RECENT NEWSMAKERS
WATER COMPACT
An agreement decades in
the making, the Flathead Reservation water compact was officially settled by the state Legislature, receiving approval on a 53-47 vote
in the Montana House. The proposal will go to the U.S. Congress for authorization.
MEDICAID
After much debate and back- and-forth strategizing, the state Legislature passed
a bill expanding Medicaid eligibility to about 70,000 low-income Montana residents.
KRAKAUER
This week marks the release of Jon Krakauer’s new book, “Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town.” National media outlets already are running stories about the much-anticipated book about campus rape.
FIRES
An unseasonably warm winter has turned into an unseasonably warm, dry spring, and fires are already causing problems across the Flathead Valley. Firefighters from across the valley responded to a large blaze near Somers that spewed black plumes of smoke into the sky on April 17.
Even with approval from state Legislature, tribal water rights measure must clear numerous hurdles
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
If whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting, as Mark Twain famously said, then the 2015 Montana Legislature af- firmed the truism.
And for proponents of the Confederat- ed Salish and Kootenai Tribes water rights compact, the fight is far from over.
After hours of debate, the state House of Representatives on April 15 endorsed the water-rights compact between Mon- tana and the Confederated Salish and Koo- tenai Tribes, and the next day gave final approval to Senate Bill 262, the only water compact involving a Montana reservation that remains un-ratified.
It’s been at the center of a tumultu- ous and hard-won political battle over a complex issue, the intricacies of which
were further drawn out by a House rules tug-of-war narrowly won by a “working majority” of legislators, including all 41 Democrats and a dozen moderate Repub- licans.
That fight, which occurred in commit- tees and on the House floor, mirrored the political maneuvering that ushered Med- icaid expansion through the state Leg- islature, and while it offered a revealing glimpse at the bare-knuckle brand of poli-
See Compact PAGE 22