Batt Tells Tribe He Hopes Salmon Review Can Continue Governor Wants Process To Go On, Despite Tribes, Montana Pulling Out

Gov. Phil Batt told leaders of the Nez Perce Tribe on Friday that he hoped the rift in the federal salmon restoration review process can be repaired next month to keep the lines of communication between the tribes and state open.

“I’m a little troubled by the fact that several of the tribes have pulled out and the state of Montana,” Batt said as he resumed regular meetings with tribal leaders after a six-month hiatus.

“Maybe it wasn’t the best forum, but it was a forum,” the governor said. “I just hope the whole process doesn’t drop down into individual entities fighting among themselves.”

The Nez Perce and other members of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission pulled out of the process a week ago, declaring it a sham. The claimed the panel formed to resolve disputes over federal salmon policy was acting in defense of federal hydropower and not the endangered fish.

“Maybe you were justified in pulling out, but I hope we can continue some kind of process,” Batt told Tribal Chairman Sam Penney, pinning his hopes on a June 3 meeting in Portland with the governors of Washington, Oregon and Montana and tribal leaders.

But while Batt seemed to be looking for common ground with the tribe on the salmon recovery question, he lashed out at Nez Perce Executive Committee Member Julia Davis after she suggested that the Idaho governor had essentially ignored the tribes concerns about the review process while his colleagues in Washington and Oregon had not.

Citing the regular meetings with unrestricted agendas he has had with tribal leaders since early in his term, Batt told Davis that was flatly wrong.

“I don’t think I’m surpassed by anybody in meeting the concerns of the tribes,” Batt shot back. “I guess I’m frustrated that the attitude comes to this table that I’m not addressing your issues.”

Officials fear that if the tribes remain outside the process, it will doom any chance of a consensus plan for salmon recovery.

And Ted Strong, director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said with a meaningful political procedure the tribes will resume dealing with the federal government as sovereign nations under their treaties and that will put salmon recovery back in court.