Senator's support of water compact is questioned

Re Sen. Bruce Tutvedt’s opinion on “The politics of personal destruction”:

Your principles (rules or standards) dealing with the Salish and Kootenai water compact are not working better nor show accountable treatment of all Montanans. 

Conscience is the state of being aware and you have been so misguided. By definition you could be labeled the extremist: holding political views that deviate drastically and fundamentally from convention, traditional belief or law. The tribal compact transfers state waters to the U.S. government and gives control of said waters to the Salish and Kootenai tribal government. 

The Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission claims to protect water rights but it doesn’t protect water rights or the beneficial use of the water. The historical allotted farm use of water on the Flathead Reservation will be reduced by 70 percent, devastating non-tribal agriculture endeavors. The compact has not quantified the water needed to support agricultural land owned by tribal and/or nontribal landowners ensuring sufficient water to maintain Northwest Montana agriculture. 

Negotiations: a dialog between two or more parties intended to reach an understanding and resolve. The compact commoission as one group collectively crafted a compact for the sole benefit of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Approximately 90 percent of the reserved irrigable land is privately owned by non-native Montanans not the tribes. 

Private landowners were not represented or included during the decade-long negotiations. Public input or comment was not solicited until private negotiations with the tribes were finished in April 2012. The public was then solicited to review and was granted only two weeks to comment. 

Article III of the Treaty of Hellgate, which secures “the right to take fish… in common with citizens of the territory,” has been incorrectly claimed by the tribes as an off-reservation water right. The website  https://westernmtwaterrights.wordpress.com will provide the reader insight to the negative impact and overreach of the Salish and Kootenai compact as related to the Hellgate Treaty, Stevens Treaty, Dawes Act, Winters Doctrine, state laws and federal laws. Our state representatives need to be fully informed before approving this ill-conceived 1,400 page water compact. —Richard Coleman, Hamilton