Urging state lawmakers to place the shared values of Montanans above the divisiveness and “extremes” pervading national politics, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council Chairman Vernon Finley provided the State of the Tribal Nations address to the Montana House of Representatives on Wednesday.

“I’ve always been proud to be from Montana, because we always have had that history of connecting, that history of, even though we have extreme right and extreme left in our state, that in the final analysis, common sense usually prevails,” Finley told lawmakers and other state officials gathered on the House floor.

Referring to an armed march in Whitefish that had been planned by an online white-supremacy group last month, Finley praised the state’s top officeholders for their bipartisan condemnation of the effort. The march’s organizers have not indicated any further plans to hold the march after failing to complete a permit application in January.

“The CSKT Council was very proud to join with them in denouncing hate groups, and we’re glad that they decided not to hold their rally,” he said. “But you couldn’t expect anything less from Montana. That’s the way we are. That’s the way it is here.”

He urged legislators to avoid enacting policies “based on race or socio-economic status or gender,” and praised the chamber’s Tuesday passage of the Montana Promise Act, which would establish a grant program to help eliminate tuition for low-income students at tribal and two-year public colleges in Montana. House Bill 185’s primary sponsor, Rep. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula, is a Kootenai tribal member.

Finley told several stories to illustrate the perspective shared by Montana’s tribal members, who make up about 7 percent of the state’s population.

“For thousands of generations, the people practiced the same way — they received songs, they received guidance, they received help from the world around them,” he said. “And for thousands of generations, when that happens, a certain worldview comes about, where you come to understand and to recognize that you, as a human being, are the youngest of all creation, and everything else that was created before you is to be respected.”

Finley thanked Gov. Steve Bullock for reflecting the state’s tribal population in his political appointments, along with Attorney General Tim Fox, whose policies he said were the first to include “authentic tribal consultation in the Department of Justice.”

He also offered praise for President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., as the next secretary of the Interior. Noting he didn’t agree with all of the congressman’s policies, Finley said his appointment to the helm of the country’s natural-resources department “is really going to benefit the state of Montana.”

In his closing remarks, the tribal chairman returned to the theme of respect and “healthy disagreement.”

“Keep that in mind as you move forward, and you consider all the legislation that has come before you. What are all of these perspectives that are within our state, are they respected with this, is there some compromise that can be made that would respect everybody?” he said. “That would be the plea, to keep those things in mind as you move forward with all of your actions.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at [email protected].