By Josh Margolis
ROCKY BOY, Mont. (NMB) – The Montana Legislature’s State-Tribal Relations Interim Committee paid a visit to the Rocky Boy’s Reservation on Friday to hear from the Chippewa Cree Business Committee and other local leaders.
The legislators fielded thoughts on a variety of issues both from the Business Committee and Representative Jonathan Windy Boy (D-Box Elder), who is a former member of both the Tribal Council and the State-Tribal Relations Committee.
“I was glad that the Chippewa Cree Tribal Council had brought forth issues that have been pressing, and I’m looking forward to the next session over the next two years of what the Committee is going to be working on on the bills that they are going to be proposing,” Windy Boy told New Media Broadcasters after the meeting.
He says one issue that is of particular concern to the Chippewa Cree Tribe is language preservation.
“What has occurred over the last couple of years, since the pandemic has happened, we have experienced even more decreased number of fluent speakers in our Tribe,” Windy Boy said. “I used to always say that in 2013, we had 167 fluent speakers. Now we’re down close to single digits. We used to have one Ojibwe speaker, but we’ve lost that speaker in the last year.”
Tribal Chairman Harlan Baker agreed with Windy Boy, saying that they have lost six native speakers in the last week and need funding to continue to preserve the Chippewa and Cree languages.
Other issues brought up during the meeting included the legalization of recreational marijuana, tribal sovereignty, Indian Education for All, the reintroduction of bison on the Reservation, the potential expiration of Medicaid expansion and certain SNAP benefits, and the lack of jurisdictional authority of local law enforcement to deal with non-natives on tribal lands.
“I’ll talk with the Attorney General and see what he feels like we can do,” State Senator Bob Brown (R-Thompson Falls) told New Media Broadcasters after the meeting when asked how the legislature can help local law enforcement. “But just giving them the authority to detain those (non-Tribal members) so the local authorities, the Sheriff, the State Police or whoever it is they need to get, can come get those. They can do the investigation they need, that kind of stuff, so we can put the bad people behind bars.”
Four other state legislators were in attendance: Senators Bob Brown (R-Thompson Falls), Jason Small (Vice-Chair – R-Busby) and Susan Webber (D-Browning), and Representatives Tyson Running Wolf (Chair – D-Browning) and Frank Smith (D-Poplar).
Five of the 10 legislators on the Committee were absent, all of which were excused. They were Senator Mike Fox (D-Hays) and Representatives Casey Knudsen (R-Malta), Joe Read (R-Ronan), Lola Sheldon-Galloway (R-Great Falls), and Sharon Stewart Peregoy (D-Crow Agency).
Also in attendance was Misty Kuhl, the Director of Indian Affairs for the Office of Governor Greg Gianforte. She told the Committee they were welcome to meet with Gianforte in his office for a one hour in-person meeting in the coming months.
Following the meeting, the Legislators were provided a tour of the Reservation. This included stops at the new Help Lodge and the Rocky Boy Health Center.
