“It's clear that both sides are passionate about the range,” CSKT spokesman Rob McDonald said. “Our history goes back longer, but (the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's) history there is 100 years long, too, and I think they see how much we both care about the land, the animals and the complex itself.”
Four high-ranking Department of the Interior officials spent the bulk of their day on the Flathead Indian Reservation listening to the issues and concerns of FWS employees who work at the Bison Range, and the tribal employees who were locked out of their jobs after Fish and Wildlife Service director H. Dale Hall on Dec. 11 canceled a funding agreement that had made the tribes responsible for some of the duties there.
Hall pulled the plug after receiving a letter from regional director Mitch King saying King had come to the conclusion that joint operation of the range would not work. King cited unacceptable work performed by the tribes, concern for visitor safety and a hostile work environment created by CSKT's involvement as reasons the refuge should be returned entirely to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Bush administration appointees at the Department of the Interior, who oversee the FWS, overturned Hall's ruling 18 days later and - along with Hall - announced their intention to re-establish a working relationship with the tribes at the Bison Range.
That brought Hall, associate deputy secretary James Cason, Bureau of Indian Affairs director Pat Ragsdale and David Verhey, acting assistant secretary at Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, to the reservation.
Tribal employees who lost their jobs described their four-hour session with the group as positive.
Chelsi Camel, who worked in the maintenance shop at the refuge, said that while the federal officials heard the tribal employees' take on what had gone on at the range, the discussion “was focused on getting us back out there.”
“It went very well,” said Clayton Matt, head of the CSKT Natural Resources Department. “The purpose is to help the Department of Interior and the Fish and Wildlife Service understand our perspective, thereby helping them in the process of understanding what kind of things can be done to improve a working relationship.”
No. 1 on the list, all agreed, was better communication between the federal and tribal employees.
“They're diagnosing the situation,” McDonald said, “and it's evident there was a profound lack of communication going on.”
“If we can get communication back on track it would solve 99 percent of it,” said Sheila Matt, who was tribal coordinator at the range (and is no relation to Clayton Matt). “I can honestly say I'm glad to be at this point where we're talking about the issues and moving forward.”
FWS personnel are not allowed to talk to the media, but it is known they feel their employer has sat on a grievance some of them filed last fall charging that tribal involvement had created a hostile workplace environment.
The federal officials also learned at their morning meeting with FWS employees that “Fish and Wildlife employees, at least some of them, were concerned that them helping us succeed could help them out of a job,” McDonald said. “That's not the sentiment of the whole group, but we need to be sensitive to that.”
Things heated up at the refuge when it was learned the tribes were in negotiations with the Department of the Interior to take over complete control of the Bison Range. In the Dec. 29 announcement that they wanted the tribes involved again, Interior officials said those negotiations would be “suspended at this time.”
While CSKT Chairman James Steele Jr. was ill and unable to be at work, the federal officials also met with the tribal council briefly, a meeting Clayton Matt described as “open and honest.”
“The tribal council expressed their concerns and frustrations, but the main focus was to get to talking about the future,” he said.
Hall, Cason, Ragsdale and Verhey planned a breakfast meeting Wednesday morning that would bring together both FWS and tribal personnel before the four returned to Washington, D.C., in the afternoon.
There was no word on when, or if, a new funding agreement would be in place, but at the time the Interior Department overturned Hall's decision to cancel the original agreement, a spokesperson had said tribal employees could be back at work on the range before the end of January.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at (406) 319-2117 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
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