Sen. Jon Tester’s staffers visit Tribal Council and staff

By B.L. Azure

Kevin Howlett, CSKT Tribal Health and Human Services director, talked to Amy Croover of Sen. Jon Tester’s staff about the health care needs of the Flathead Indian Reservation. (B.L. Azure photo)

PABLO — The U.S. Congress is currently in recess and for the most part that means the national political representatives are putting rubber to the road as they reach out to their home state constituents. And so it goes in Big Sky Country.

On Monday, two of Democratic Senator Jon Tester’s staff stopped by the tribal complex to visit with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council and several tribal department directors and staff. Mark Jette, legislative assistant from Tester’s Washington, DC office and Amy Croover from his Kalispell office got a laundry list of tribal concerns as well as kudos for the work Sen. Tester has done for the CSKT and Indian Country.

Clayton Matt, director of the CSKT Natural Resources Department and lead water compact negotiator briefed Jette and Croover on the water negotiations with the Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission.

The entities as well as the federal government are currently in negotiations for the water compact for the Flathead Indian Reservation. “Negotiations are generally going well,” Matt said. The state legislative act that authorized the MRWRCC and its mission of negotiating water compacts for federal lands within Montana ends June 30, 2009. The Tribes are concerned that the act may end before a compact is reached on the Flathead Reservation. “Our goal is to get the sunset date extended. We asked for an extension the last session but it didn’t pass. We are presently asking for a four year extension.”

CSKT Police Chief Craige Couture asked Tester’s people to try to find a way to fund the Northwest Drug Task Force which has had its budget slashed by 70 percent. That has meant Lake County no longer has funds available for the task force. The Tribes currently have two law enforcement people on the task force and that severely restricts its ability to properly conduct drug investigations.

Couture’s main concern is the methamphetamine problem in the area. The potent and addictive drug is corrosive far beyond its users. Families, social organizations, healthcare officials and hazardous waste technicians, among others are all negatively affected by the problem. Illegal prescription drug use is also high on the list of local — and national — concerns. Both kinds of drugs — illegal and legal — can and do cause death.

Couture speculated that the war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq are the culprits for funding shortfalls. “It’s sad, just sad to think that the cuts are because of the war effort,” he said. “This is hurting everyone not just Native Americans.”

Tribal Health and Human Services Director Kevin Howlett said the Tribes appreciate the work that Sen. Tester did to increase funding for the Indian Health Service. However because of years of under funding and escalating healthcare costs the money doesn’t go far. Another problem, according to Howlett, is the bureaucracy that is IHS.

“There isn’t enough money in Indian Health to meet the needs. We are working very hard to get the funding increased,” Howlett said. “I would like to see Sen. Tester take a look at the Indian Health Service because it is broken. The agency is more interested in perpetuating itself than providing for the healthcare needs of Indian people. I am hopeful and optimistic that the new administration will work on fixing Indian Health (so it is able to fulfill its treaty-based responsibilities).”

Tribal Education Director Joyce Silverthorne said Indian people are being cut by the double-edged sword that is No Child Left Behind. “Native Americans have achievement gaps that are the most concern but they are the ones that get the least discussion (on how to remedy them),” she said. “There needs to be a cultural approach to education that goes beyond the regurgitation of facts.”

Nate Shourds of the CSKT Lands Department said that the state Montana requires tribal governments to pay taxes on fee land purchased until it is put into trust. That is a long process that can take years meanwhile a sovereign tribal nation has to pay taxes to another sovereign. “It’s a state law that no other states have,” Shourds said.

“It never used to be like this,” said Council Vice-Chair Ernest “Bud” Moran. “We need to investigate why other tribes in the United States don’t have to do this.”

Moran said the CSKT donate more money and in-kind services to the Lake County than the county gets on taxes from tribally owned fee land.

Jette said that if it is a state law there isn’t much that Tester or federal authorities could do about the situation.

Tester’s staffers said they would relay the Tribes’ concerns to the senator.