Concerned about the contamination potential increased oil exploration and fracking could bring to their land, the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana has signed an agreement with a hi-tech water treatment company to help keep fracking waste out of their water systems.

Exploration for oil has exploded on the Blackfeet Reservation. The people have worked hard to protect sacred sites around the area and hope the contract with Ecosphere Technologies will protect the water.

Missoulian reporter Tristan Scott has the full story:

The Blackfeet Nation signed an exclusive letter of commitment with the water treatment company, Florida-based Ecosphere Technologies Inc., which has ties to Whitefish and will soon introduce its chemical-free treatment method to reservation lands leased for “fracking.”

The fracking process involves pumping millions of gallons of water into the ground at high pressure to fracture shale formations and create pathways for natural gas to flow back to the surface. The process is controversial because about 70 percent of the fracking fluid remains underground, and the flow-back water contains oil sheens, heavy metals and bacteria. The refuse must then be collected and trucked off site for disposal or storage.

Ecosphere Chairman and CEO Charles Vinick said his company’s patented treatment process, called Ozonix, involves a non-chemical method of recovering and sanitizing all of the water pumped underground. The process uses ozone to decompose contaminants and chemicals in the flow-back water, precluding the need to truck the discharge off site. Instead, Vinick said the highly ozonated water can be recycled and reused for continuous fracking operations, saving energy companies money, protecting the environment and preserving the community’s water supply.

Jenna Cederberg

Gyasi Rossi has a point. One that’s pretty well made in the photo above.

When March rolls around, it brings with it basketball tourneys across the country. Basketball tourney time, as Rossi says, is special thing in the eyes of many in Indian Country. Missoulian photographer Kurt Wilson took this shot on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northern Montana.

In a sign of the season in and around several rural Montana towns, the local high school basketball team is given a hometown boost during this weekend’s slate of state basketball championship tournaments. This one was put up outside Browning on the route the team bus took to the state tournament in Butte.

Here’s a little more from Rossi’s ICTMN column on “March madness”:

The basketball teams in many of our reservation towns are some of the crowning jewels of our people. We literally pile in—convoy—60, 70 cars in a row to go to the larger cities, armed with good medicine, some Shasta pop and a ring of red and a loaf of bread. We go to watch these beautiful Native kids—some with braids tucked into the backs of their jerseys, most with shaved heads and closed-cropped haircuts—and see a glimpse into the future that they can have, with hard work, dedication and prayer.

Indian boys and girls can go to state and can compete and even beat the larger white/black/Latino schools if they work hard as a team. They can accomplish anything if they really want to—Indian men and women competing in spite of racism, in spite of historical trauma, in spite of a history of genocide, alcoholism, and abuse.

Jenna Cederberg

Missoulian reporter Tristan Scott takes a closer look at the U.S.-Cadanda border and how crossing that line is sometimes a struggle for tribal members.

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe officials have been mulling options and expressing frustrations about the situation at the border during talks with U.S. Border Patrol and Customs representatives this winter.

As Scott writes, there is a lot to discuss.

ELMO – The 49th parallel. The International Boundary. The Border.

In Montana, it is the northernmost perimeter, a 545-mile-long line along which the state rises to meet three Canadian provinces. The border distinguishes two nations and was born of negotiations that helped end the American Revolutionary War.

But to members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Blackfeet Nation, among others, the U.S.-Canada border is an arbitrary line demarcating ancestral lands, separating families and undermining tribal sovereignty.

In the most trifling circumstances, the border poses an annoyance to tribal members who regularly travel between Canada and the United States for family visits, council meetings or cultural and religious ceremonies. However, in other instances, either due to a lack of cultural awareness or a misunderstanding by officials with Customs and Border Protection, tribal members have been deeply offended or had their travel plans derailed.

Too many tribal members share horror stories of family members who are prohibited from crossing the border because they do not have a passport (they are not required to possess one) and of religious or cultural items that are unknowingly desecrated by Customs personnel, such as eagle feathers, sweetgrass or sacred medicine bundles.

“A lot of law enforcement and border patrol are ignorant about our culture and tradition in general,” said Vernon Finley of the Kootenai Culture Committee. “They don’t understand that as a tribe who lives along the border, we are allowed to move fluidly throughout our territory. We always have been. And they don’t understand the significance of our religious objects.”

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Firefighters are on their way to containing several grass fires that ripped through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana Wednesday night.

It was a terrifying night for many there, as evacuations disrupted the town throughout the evening.

The Missoulian website has the latest Thursday morning from Browning:

Blackfeet tribe officials say firefighters are starting to get a handle on two wind-fueled fires that have burned buildings and forced evacuations on the northwestern Montana reservation.

The fires started Wednesday evening and quickly spread to 45,000 acres overnight, fueled by wind gusts greater than 70 miles per hour. At least 300 people were forced from their homes, though no injuries were reported.

The Great Falls Tribune reported from the fires last night:

“This is probably the worst grassfire that we’ve ever experienced in our history,” Wayne Smith said.

As of 10 p.m. Wednesday, the worst of the fires were two separate blazes that had grown to a combined size of 10,000 acres — and were still growing — Smith said.

. . .

ribal police were moving ahead of the flames to evacuate homes in the fires’ path. The Hutterite colonies of Seville and Hidden Lake near Cut Bank also were evacuated, Smith said.

He added that no injuries had been reported as of late Wednesday, but some structures had been consumed by the fires.

“The fires just got out of control,” he said. “It’s been spreading at a rapid pace.”

The Montana Department of Transportation closed Highway 2 from the Highway 89 junction in Browning to Cut Bank because of the nearby fires.

Jenna Cederberg

Crews are still working to cleanup the area along Cut Bank Creek on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwest Montana where oil spilled almost a month ago.

The Great Falls Tribune reports that soil and water contaminated with oil is being hauled off the area where 20 barrels of oil spilled.

A faulty pipe on land leased by FX Energy of Salt Lake City caused the spill, which was originally unreported. Any where from 420 to 840 gallons were leaked and as of Aug. 7 only half had been cleaned up.

So far, 13 55-gallon drums have been filled with oil and water, and contaminated soil filled up 18 nylon tote bags that each have a capacity of 2,000 pounds.

One of the key challenges of the project was moving the heavy barrels and bags out of the ravine.

Also in the story, the Tribune reported the spill might change how the Blackfeet manage their oil leases.

Don Judice of the BLM, which regulates oil and gas activity on the reservation, said the agency is evaluating the possibility of requiring FX, and other companies operating on the reservation, to replace old collector lines. The BLM has sent the company a notice of violation for not reporting the leak.

Officials with the BLM, Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Indian Affairs will participate in a final inspection of the cleanup to make sure the oil is recovered and the environment protected, he said.

Jenna Cederberg

The Censored News blog – dedicated to indigenous peoples and human rights – was one of the first places to report the oil spilled from a broken pipeline onto the Blackfeet Indian Reservation last week.

Details are still thin so far, but it looks like around 400-600 gallons leaked.

The Censored News story was posted Sunday. More traditional news organizations had the story Monday afternoon, but didn’t include much about the damage on the reservation.

Thanks to Destini Vaile (Blackfeet) and Reed Perry for sharing on the blog.

Jenna Cederberg

From Kim Skornogoski, of the Great Falls Tribune:

Almost eight years after federal officers armed with assault rifles drove onto the Blackfeet Reservation to fire every law enforcement officer from the police chief to the jail cook, the tribe is taking back the reins of crime control today.

The tribe has been working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs since 2007 to slowly resume operating law enforcement.

“Getting the program back under the Blackfeet Tribe is in the best interest of the Blackfeet people,” said Henry Devereaux, who has worked for the tribe as the director of the new Blackfeet Law Enforcement Services since February. “It has to grow into a good department and not repeat the mistakes of the past.”

In February 2003, a special BIA report exposed evidence of poorly trained law enforcement personnel, mismanaged budgets, bungled case reports and political interference from tribal council members.

The report prompted the federal agency to head up a surprise takeover, using a SWAT team to confiscate officers’ guns, badges and uniforms.

The BIA initially hired 32 uniformed officers — effectively doubling the reservation’s law enforcement numbers. But in the years since, the department has struggled to retain officers and the number on patrol has dropped as low as five.

Though the BIA will continue to run the Blackfeet jail, the last patrol officers will be gone by the end of December. Most will pack up their files starting today.

Two have agreed to stay on while the tribe completes background checks and trains three potential officers.

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Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) came one step closer to sealing a long-fought victory in her lawsuit against the Interior Department as the Senate on Friday approved the $3.4 billion settlement in a package. The legislation now moves to the House, where similar language has already been approved.

“It’s 17 below and the Blackfeet nation is feeling warm,” Cobell told the Associated Press. “I don’t know if people understand or believe the agony you go through when one of the beneficiaries passes away without justice.”

Here’s the full AP story on Missoulian.com.

You can read full statements from Elouise Cobell and President Barack Obama on the Senate vote at Jodi Rave’s blog, Buffalo’s Fire.

In other news,
U.S. Senate approves water rights settlements with Crow Tribe, others
The Senate also approved Friday several water rights settlements, including a a $462 million portion going to Montana’s Crow Tribe. Arizona’s White Mountain Apache Tribe and New Mexico’s Pueblo of Taos and a group of four other pueblos were also included in the almost $1 billion settlement.

The measure would guarantee the tribes’ rights to water resources, while the money attached to the settlement would help build safe drinking water and irrigation systems, the Associated Press reports.

“It opens the door to economic recovery for the tribe,” said Crow Chairman Cedric Black Eagle, whose tribe has long struggled with poverty. “We would have the potential to utilize Crow water for industrial use as well as commercial use, having safe drinking water, having an irrigation project.”

Jenna Cederberg

The Associated Press has the story (Photo agove from DeLaSalle.org):

BROWNING, Mont. – A Catholic priest who for decades has worked on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation is in the running with five other finalists for an award from a church group.

Rev. Edward Kohler is a candidate for the Lumen Christi, or Light of Christ, award from Chicago-based Catholic Extension.

The honor comes with a $50,000 prize, shared by the recipient and his or her diocese.

Kohler came to the reservation’s Little Flower Parish in 1982, and apart from a five-year stint in Guatemala has been there ever since.

He helped found the De La Salle Blackfeet School in Browning in 2001.

Brother Paul Ackerman, the school’s president, says one of Kohler’s biggest attributes is his respect for tribal traditions.

The Helena Independent Record says a winner may be named in a few weeks.