© 2023 Concerned Citizens of Western Montana

In the past, we’ve tried to explain that the water compact was designed to wage war upon those who will try to defend themselves against it. This type of strategy is called lawfare.

What is Lawfare?

Legal warfare, also known as lawfare, is the use of legal systems and institutions to damage an opponent or to deter or restrict an individual’s use of their legal rights and constitutional protections. It also describes a tactic used by repressive regimes to discourage or prevent individuals from protecting their legal rights via the legal system.  

Here are just a few of the multitude of provisions in the compact that were specifically designed for the purposes mentioned above:

  • Unitary Management provisions in the compact at best restrict, and at worst eliminate the Montana Water Use Act from applying within the boundaries of the Flathead Reservation.  According to the Chair of the Compact Commission, the state agreed to remove non-Indian rights on the reservation from the jurisdiction and control of the state and place that somewhere else at the tribe’s request.  The Compact then provides immunity from damages to an unaccountable Flathead Water Management Board that for all intents and purposes is tribally controlled, and fails the construct of a constitutionally warranted republican form of governance.  This board will be the arbiter of all new uses of water, and will be the enforcer of the tribe’s water right.  State courts and constitutional protections will no longer apply for 30,000 taxpaying Montanans for their water needs.
  • Mutual Defense – The compact provides that the compacting parties mutually agree to defend the compact against all challenges.  This means that not only will the people who object to, or try to fight the compact have to defend themselves against the deep pockets of three different governments, but it also pits the state of Montana against the best interests and property rights of its citizens.
  • Despite the fact that the compact commission ensured the public that their “settlement” protects “existing uses of water,” they found it necessary to offer within the compact something called “Consensual Agreements” with the tribe to protect people’s “existing uses of water.”  Montana allowed this travesty to be codified into its statutes, and failed to tell people they would very likely be giving up their constitutional and jurisdictional protections if they sign such an agreement.
  • Gives Amendment Authority on the Secretary of the Interior – The compact restricts the Montana legislature from making any amendments to the compact, giving all authority for amendments to the Secretary of the Interior.  It greatly concerns us that Montanans affected by the compact may have no visibility of such revisions, and also that they will never be codified in state law.  If this happens, water users could not possibly know if they are following the law, or if their water use limitations have been changed without their knowledge.
  • The compact, sold as a final settlement of the tribe’s water rights dismisses all other claims of the tribe, including the 10,000 claims filed over 2/3 of the state of Montana “WITHOUT PREJUDICE” meaning they can be resurrected in the future. 
  • The compact creates an Effective Date that ensures it will be implemented well ahead of the water court judicial review of the compact.  To note:
    • Per the terms written into the compact and the Daines’ legislation, Greg Gianforte and Kristen Juras have been actively implementing the compact via the Flathead Water Management Board, and by expediting the land swap provisions of the compact in the Steve Daines’ legislation. 
    • The Flathead Lake level problem is very likely the result of tribal implementation of the compact and the compact’s failure to provide sideboards or the transparency necessary to ensure that historical uses of the lake continue as they have for nearly a century.
    • We recently reported on the public notification that the Flathead Irrigation Project is no longer an irrigation project, and is now a fishery.  We are now hearing reports that irrigation water will soon be shut down, causing great financial harm to the agriculture community that relies upon it for their businesses.  While we understand that there are indeed issues with the water supply, we also believe that the tribal manipulation of water shortages via reservoir levels on both Flathead Lake and the project reservoirs have greatly expedited this result. 

Think about it:  Greg Gianforte is taking steps to ensure the compact will be implemented before we ever have a chance to fight back in the courts.

What good does it do to have a water court judicial review that takes place after the compact has already been implemented and the damage to people is already done?   

Greg’s actions make it clear that he fully supports such an outcome.  

Knudsen vs. Gianforte

In June we reported to you that Attorney General Knudsen issued a letter to the Flathead Irrigation Project operator requesting that they stop implementing the compact until the water court had completed its judicial review of the compact.  

See:  May 30, 2023 Knudsen Letter

Apparently this did not sit well with our “esteemed” governor who is all in on the compact implementation. 

On June 21, 2023, in response to the Knudsen letter, Gianforte issued his own letter, undermining his attorney general’s request of the Flathead Project to delay implementation. 

Clearly Greg is not interested in the due process of the 360,000 Montanans who will be affected by a compact that he voted for while he was in Congress.

See: June 21, 2023 Gianforte Letter

Our governor is nothing more than a puppet for federal interests. But what did we expect after we sent him to the federal training grounds in Washington DC? 

He is actively engaging in lawfare against the people he is supposed to represent, and by undermining due process and equal protection under the law he, has also violated his oath of office. 

He needs to be impeached.

Gianforte Body Slam