An agreement to settle water rights issues and provide water to Fort Belknap Indian Community — and to people all along the Milk River — decades in the making took a major step forward this week when the Fort Belknap Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act was heard in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
“What this water settlement is going to mean for the people in Fort Belknap and in surrounding communities is clean drinking water, water for the future, like we talked about for our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren” Fort Belkap Indian Community Council President Jeffrey Stiffarm testified in Wednesday’s hearing. “You know, that’s what we’re all here for.”