Page 20 - Flathead Beacon // 5.13.15

20 | MAY 13, 2015
REBUILCDOINVGEARNATION
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U.S. Highway 2 in Browning. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON tribal government to solve the economic
issues by itself. Late last year, a small group of business owners revived the local business bureau and rebranded it the Blackfeet Country Chamber of Commerce. In May, the group had more than two-dozen members and more are signing up.
Chamber President Skye Gilham, who runs the local Radio Shack, said that a year ago, a tourist from New York visited her store and asked about what type of attractions they should see. Gilham said she had a hard time coming up with a list, and it dawned on her that local businesses could band together to solve that.
Alger Swingley, owner of Blackfeet Outfitters, said one of the chamber’s goals is to attract some of the 2 million people who visit Glacier National Park every year.
“People just drive through town and they never stop,” Gilham said. “But we want them to stop and enjoy our beauti- ful landscape, meet our people and ex- perience our unique culture.”
To help foster tourism on the reservation, the chamber is working on hosting a series of events this summer, including art shows and farmers markets. It’s also helping businesses
by getting out brochures and plans on creating a mobile visitors center that can be taken to local events. It has also sponsored cleanup events around town to make Browning more attractive.
“Browning has a negative reputation among locals and that’s unfortunate,” Swingley said. “But we’re going to move past it.”
Swingley and Gilham both said that the stable political climate in the last 10 months has helped the community sig- nificantly, noting that the area’s econo- my took a major hit when tribal employ- ees weren’t getting paid because of the split council.
Perhaps most important of all of the recent changes on the Blackfeet In- dian Reservation is a grassroots effort to reform its government and possibly change the constitution.
Blackfeet government – or any tribal government established through the Wheeler-Howard Act of 1934 – is that there is no separation of powers and the tribal council controls everything. In June 2008, voters on the Blackfeet reservation overwhelmingly passed a referendum to reform the constitution and implement a government with three branches, much like Crow Nation did in 2001. A constitutional committee was established, but after a few years the ef- fort faltered.
After the political dysfunction of the last few years, support for change is once again growing and even those in the gov- ernment support the idea.
“This is a bad form of government,” Barnes said. “And now that I’m in it I can see where all the weaknesses are.”
meeting to discuss reforms. In July, Blackfeet tribal members will go to the polls and be asked a simple question: Do you want to see a different form of tribal government? If a majority of voters support reform, a formal committee will be created and a constitutional convention could be held to rewrite the government’s core documents. Supporters of the reform say that drastic changes in how the government is set up could prevent future dysfunction.
However, even without restructuring its government, positive momentum seems to be growing on the reservation.
Earl Old Person has been on the trib- al council off and on since the 1950s and was named chief in 1978. Last week he said that the current tribal council is one of the most effective he has seen in years, but noted that there is still more work to be done.
Chairman Barnes agrees, but said he is excited for the future of the Blackfeet Nation and its people.
One of the biggest criticisms of the
“I recently asked a tribal member how we
In recent months an informal group of tribal members has been regularly
through the mud and blood and beer and were doing as a council and she told me that “Our reputation was dragged
we were ‘boring’ to watch when compared to the last one.” Tyson Running Wolf
tears,” Barnes said of the last few years. “But the Blackfeet Nation has always been a leader in Indian Country and we will be that again.”
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