Tester: Hire Blackfeet firefighters
Montana Sen. Jon Tester wants to see Blackfeet Indian firefighters put to work on the Reynolds Creek Fire if need be.
“We have a trust responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of the Blackfeet Nation, as well as ensure that they have the resources necessary to protect and preserve their homelands from this impending disaster,” he said in a letter to Department of Interior Sec. Sally Jewell on Thursday.
Tester noted that Blackfeet Tribal officials have reached out to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to pay for more firefighters in this historically hot and dry summer, but to date, no additional personnel have been hired.
Earlier this summer, the Tribe passed a resolution asking the BIA to fund an additional 100 firefighters.
Tester asked Jewell to urge the BIA to make funding for firefighters available should the fire cross into Blackfeet lands, which, if the prevailing winds continue, is almost inevitable.
There is already bad blood between Tribe and the Park Service concerning wildfires.
The Tribe is currently seeking $60 million for damages caused by the 2006 Red Eagle Fire that started in Glacier National Park and spread eastward, burning 19,000 acres on the reservation.
The Red Eagle Lake Fire started July 28, 2006 near Red Eagle Lake in the St. Mary drainage. Stoked by high winds and dry, beetle-killed fuels, the fire quickly spread outside the Park, forcing the temporary evacuation of the St. Mary town site. All told, the fire burned more than 32,000 acres.
The Reynolds Creek Fire has similar tones, but hasn’t moved nearly as fast the Red Eagle Fire, which burned more than 15,000 acres in a single day.
“Had the United States performed reasonable fuel treatments and manipulations to Glacier National Park’s boundary lands, contiguous to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, the Red Eagle Fire would not have spread onto the Blackfeet Reservation and damaged the Tribe’s forest trust lands,” the Tribe claims in its lawsuit.
The Red Eagle case is still ongoing in federal court.