Sent at the request of
author, Elaine Willman for immediate distribution. Essential to read prior to
SB262 going to the House for voting. This provides “teeth and backbone” in our
presentations. cr
MONTANA in the
70’s: When the State Stood Tall for Its People and Its Lands vs. the
Self-Inflicted Injury of the Proposed CSKT
Compact.
By Elaine
Willman,
Author of Going
to Pieces...
There was a time
when the Montana legislature was at the forefront of environmental policy, state
sovereign authority and diligent protection of the rights of Montana citizens.
Look at this interesting time line of events from 1970 through 1981 when Montana
legislators were taking excellent care of their State and
citizens:
1970 National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This federal
mandate requires assessment and analysis for all significant projects affecting
the environment, across the country.
1971 Montana
Environmental Policy Act (MEPA). Farsighted
legislators passed, 99-0, a state mandate, MEPA, requiring assessment and
analysis for all significant projects affecting the environment. MEPA stepped up
the “spirit” and strength of the federal act, NEPA, and significantly expanded
the public right to participate in government decisions. Perhaps now we better
understand why both of these environmental mandates have been avoided at all
costs. The proposed CSKT Compact is in direct violation of NEPA, MEPA, and the
Administrative Procedures Act of 1946, requiring due process and a remedy for
grievances against government decisions. MEPA was preparatory to the development
of a new Constitution for the State of Montana, adopted in
1973.
1973 Montana
State Constitution. Legislators adopted a Constitution that incorporated
the intent of MEPA into Article IX of the new Constitution, and additionally
provided Montanans with 35 enumerated rights in Article II, including popular
sovereignty, the right of participation, and the right of
self-government.
1975 Indian
Education and Self-Determination Act (Public Law 93-638)
provided tribes with the right to self-government and management of their
own federal funds through contracted services. Unfortunately, many tribes
ignored the critical word prefix self in self-determination and
took actions toward asserting tribal government authorities to tax and govern
non-tribal persons and properties.
1981 Montana
v. U.S. 450 U.S. 544. In 1973 the Crow
Tribe attempted to assert its jurisdictional authority over non-tribal lands and
persons. The State of Montana argued valiantly for many years to protect Montana
citizens, and obtained the ruling in Montana v. U.S. that continues to be
a landmark Supreme Court case protecting citizens in Montana and across the
country from tribal governance over non tribal persons and
lands.
Throughout the
1970s and into the 1980s the Montana governors and state legislators were
diligently protecting state sovereign authority, state natural resources and the
individual rights of Montanans. So what happened between 1981 and 2015?
The emerging
coalition of a powerful triumvirate: 1) federal Executive branch over-reaching;
2) tribal government political influence and tribal government over-reaching; 3)
coalitions of environmental extremists; the trendy aboriginal and United Nations
movement, and the globalists promoting Agenda 21. All of these folks are on the
same page, singing from the same hymnal and absolutely dedicated to the demise
of State sovereignty, citizen and property rights. This cumulative political and
financial power has had oppressive and intimidating success among elected
officials at every level of state government and academia in Montana. The 2015
Montana State Legislature does not remotely resemble the Montana Legislature of
the 1970s, when the State was acting like a State and damn proud of
it.
What will be the
end result of the CSKT Compact if Montana's legislators breathe life into this
legislative Beast? Look again at the policies and laws noted in the time line
above. The CSKT Compact will render irrelevant the U.S. Constitution, the
Montana Constitution, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Montana
Environmental Policy Act, and this is just openers. Current state legislators
passing the Compact will ensure their ongoing and future irrelevancy as elected
officials of a state intentionally enfeebled by the CSKT Compact. Oaths of
office and the Pledge of Allegiance are now just meaningless, irrelevant
rituals. One of the finest State Constitutions in the country, Montana’s 1973
Constitution becomes toilet paper.
Another irony:
Passage of the Compact will also overturn hard-fought protections from tribal
governance over non-members in 1981 Supreme Court case of Montana v. U.S.
for Montana citizens; however, the rest of the country will remain protected by
this Landmark ruling of the High Court because the ruling protects
citizens from tribal governance absent their individual consent. The
Compact legislatively removes individual citizen consent for some 350,000
Montana citizens in 11 counties that will be subject to tribal government
control of their water, their water rates, and water-dependent land
use.
The Compact is not
just about water. It is now about the Rule of Law as well. Our federal and state
Constitutions matter, or they don't. Our federal and state environmental
mandates matter, or they don't. Supreme Court rulings matter or they don't.
Exactly what does matter to current legislators and an entire cadre of
well-paid Montana state attorneys? It certainly does not seem to be to uphold
the Rule of Law in the State of Montana. The once youthful and muscle-bound
State of Montana is voluntarily surrendering its Statehood to Assisted Living in
perpetuity, to be governed by tribes, the federal government and International
organizations intent on destroying State authorities, property rights and the
rights of the Popular Sovereignty of each and every citizen. Montana is already
buckling at the knees; the proposed CSKT Compact begins the process of turning
off the State’s life support as a State. The battle then goes to all of the
other Western States.
One more sad irony:
There is within the rule of law the Doctrine of Parens Patriae. This is a
legal doctrine wherein a State within its sovereign capacity may provide
protection, and may even sue on behalf of, citizens unable to care for
themselves. The proposed Compact will render tribal and non-tribal landowners,
11 counties and their municipalities, and some 350,000 Montanans needing water
for the homes and businesses, hard pressed to pay high water rates, or take care
of themselves in the future. Do you suppose your current or future Governors and
State Legislator will step in to help them?
A victorious CSKT
Compact opens the door for the federal government, tribal governments and
globalists to fundamentally transform Montana to something unlike
the proud State that existed in the 1970s. Montana legislators passing this
Compact may just as well turn off the lights in the Helena Capitol because the
CSKT Compact is a fatal, self-inflicted injury to State sovereignty and all of
Montana's waters. Legislators voting for the Proposed CSKT Compact are assuring
their future as useful idiots to federal, tribal and international
influence.
Elaine
D. Willman, MPA
Author,
Going to Pieces . . .the dismantling of the United States of
America
Work:
920-615-2882
Cell:
509-949-8055
