Is it just greed?

In September 2013, I went to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in Kalispell to inquire about getting a water right to irrigate a small one-acre campsite (fire safety) on the Little Bitterroot River. 

I was told I would never get an irrigation water right on that stream. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are claiming all the in-stream water and the top few feet of surface water on Little Bitterroot Lake.

Greed does not make the water compact a good compact. My parents ranched for 35 years on the Flathead Reservation, and I ranched with them most of those years. The Salish and Kootenai friends and neighbors who I grew up with, went to school with, worked with, hung out with and socialized with were all very sharing and caring people. Still are to this day.

My question is this, where did the greed come from? Is it a handful of tribal council members and their high-powered attorneys? Compact proponents have a lot to say about existing water rights being protected. What about future water rights? If I can’t get a water right for a campsite, what is a municipality going to do?

We would not be having this debate if the greed were removed from the compact. The Salish and Kootenai Tribes deserve to have water rights but they should be limited to within the reservation. The saddest part of all is the tribal threat of even greater greed if they don’t get their way. It is time to kill the compact. Let the tribe file their water rights in a Montana Water Court. —Bill Tripp, Kalispell