FLATHEAD RESERVATION - Today marks nearly a week since control of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project (FIIP) was turned over to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) and the Flathead Joint Board of Control (JBC) in a historic signing agreement.

Officially signed April 7 in Washington, D.C., and effective April 9, the agreement turns over future management and operations of the FIIP to a newly created Flathead Indian Irrigation Project Cooperative Management Entity (CME) that consists of an equal number of representatives from the CSKT and JBC. The JBC is a state chartered entity representing non-Indian interests for the Flathead, Mission and Jocko Valley Irrigation Districts that operate on the Flathead Reservation. The agreement gives the CME power of staffing and collecting fees from the project after decades of disagreements between the CSKT, JBC and the federal government, which previously controlled the project through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a branch of the U.S. Department of Interior. The BIA will continue to own the project.

"This is truly a historic agreement we are signing today with our non-Indian neighbors," CSKT Tribal Chairman Bud Moran said during the ceremony. "I am glad we decided a few years ago to resolve our differences through negotiation. I have every confidence that the cooperative entity we have created will continue to do a good job running this project while protecting the Tribes' interest and those who irrigate lands to make a living."

All the hubbub over the control of the FIIP is for good reason: the project irrigates approximately 135,000 acres of land throughout the Flathead Reservation, and has 17 major storage reservoirs, more than 10,000 structures and 1,300 miles of canals and laterals throughout the reservation and the surrounding area to the north and west. The project began in 1904, said CSKT attorney Rhonda Swaney, and was completed in the 1920s or ‘30s.

"As part of the federal government's General Allotment Act, each Indian was given a parcel of land on the reservation to become farmers, like their white counterparts in the West," said Ranald McDonald, head attorney of the CSKT. "Once each Indian was given acreage, the extra land on the reservation was deemed excess land, and opened to white homesteaders."

McDonald said homesteaders could claim a parcel, and if they made improvements over a period of two years, they were made the official owners of that land. With all the reservation land allotted for farming, the federal government appropriated money to create the FIIP. The idea was that once the debt was paid off for the construction of the project, control of the irrigation system would go to the owners of the land. But with the owners of the land. But with the complexity surrounding the different users of the land, no consideration was made of which group exactly would retain control once the debt was fully paid off, which occurred in early 2004.

"From 1948 to 2000, debate continued over who had the better claim for transfer," Swaney said. "As it kept moving closer and closer, it was in the back of all our minds. We knew, this debt of construction is getting paid off."

Swaney said disagreements almost unhinged the entire negotiation.

"We figured we had two options: figure out a way to get along or continue fighting over it," she said. "We had a track record of fighting not solving the problem, so we decided to focus on the things we agreed on."

Alan Mikkelson, a consultant with the JBC, said serious discussions began approximately seven years ago.

"We had an agreement in principle by April or May [of 2003], but needed to do environmental studies and hammer out various issues," Mikkelson said. "I think all parties were very pleased with the result."

Swaney said once the original agreement was made, the groups worked together to form the CME, which came to fruition two years ago and has been instrumental in making it a smooth transfer. Four members of the CME are appointed by the CSKT, while another four are appointed by the JBC.

"Some of the immediate issues the CME will have is improving protection of bull trout and complying with the Endangered Species Act," Swaney said, noting that some of the structures haven't been updated or renovated since they were built decades ago. "They'll need to modernize [the system] to make it more efficient and for better use of water."

Overall, though, the relief among the parties is mutual.

"It was a tremendous effort," Swaney said. "There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into this, and we're very happy."