Evelyn PIckering (PhD student)
The Blackfeet Tribe has negotiated with the U.S. government over land and resource rights for generations. These enduring efforts have materialized in recent legislation. In summer 2016, the Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement Act (H.R. 5633), also known as the Blackfeet Water Compact, was proposed by then Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke. The Blackfeet Water 
Compact is a feature within an extensive series of interactions; the Chairman of the Blackfeet Tribe has said that, "The Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement is the culmination of over two decades of work by the Tribe. It represents a historic breakthrough in the Tribe's century long battle to secure and protect its water rights, and we look forward to working with the Congressman in securing final passage of the legislation" (Press Release July 6, 2016). On April 20, 2017, the Blackfeet Tribe voted in agreement with the proposed settlement. The Blackfeet now have a quantified right to water and have been federally funded $471 million for water-related projects.
Research Question
This research will investigate how the Blackfeet Water Compact has emerged as part of a long-term historical trajectory of the Blackfeet Tribe, how cultural principles and practices of resource management have influenced the content of the legislation, and how historic and contemporary governmental interactions have affected Blackfeet perceptions of water rights.
Indian water settlements are inherently complex. The environmental, historical, social, political, and economic contexts surrounding water settlements influence both the actual and perceived outcomes. Sovereignty has been a primary aim throughout Blackfeet history. Paul C. Rosier (2001) suggests that Blackfeet sovereignty has commonly been interpreted by the tribe through the control of natural resources. For decades, oil development was viewed as a method for self-governance provided by Mother Earth (Rosier 2001). The Blackfeet Water Compact can be better understood through this context. American Indian tribes are recognized by the federal government as sovereign nations, but this "can only have meaning if tribes have the ability to use their own natural resources productively" (McGuire et al., 1993, p.20).
The Blackfeet Tribe became federally recognized in an 1855 treaty. The Blackfeet Indian Reservation is a resource-rich environment (1.3 million acres), that shares a boundary with Glacier National Park in northern Montana. Water is abundant, but the tribe has struggled to constitute a settlement due to powerful non-environmental factors. The reservation was allocated water through the 1908 Winters doctrine, however, a water amount was never designated. This new water compact is important for the Blackfeet because it restores control of 95% of their water and will support many development projects. These efforts would improve ecosystems, infrastructure, and community water supplies, as well as economic opportunity for the tribe and thus allow it to use this resource productively
Negotiations of the Blackfeet Water Compact were originally initiated in the 1970s. Over the last 30 years, the Blackfeet Tribe has interacted at a local, state, and federal level to reach an agreement. The multiple agencies and levels of government in conjunction with the temporal scale of these interactions can be interpreted through physical, cultural, and political landscapes. Although the Blackfeet Tribe has worked to secure their water rights for many years, this proposed legislation is a highlight of Blackfeet reservation-era history. This settlement act has been more successful than other Indian water settlements in recent years and is being used as a test case for new regulations put forward by the House Natural Resource Committee. What is it about the Blackfeet Water Compact negotiations that set it apart from the attempts made by other tribes? In order to investigate this case and interrogate the research objectives of this study, I will employ an applied anthropological approach with an emphasis on collaborative research that is firmly grounded on contemporary philosophies of Indian-Western legal interaction. This anthropological research is current, important to the tribe, and has the potential to contribute to the greater understanding of historic and contemporary interactions between the Blackfeet and the U.S. government, Blackfeet sovereignty, and Indian water settlements at large.