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Attorney general candidate condemns Knudsen's inaction in Flathead criminal jurisdiction • Daily Montanan [1]

['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- March']

Date: 2024-03-14  

Democratic candidate for Montana Attorney General Ben Alke slammed his opponent and the state’s top lawyer, Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen, for what he perceived as inaction over felony jurisdiction on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

In a letter sent Wednesday, Alke asked Knudsen to step up in the ongoing dispute between Lake County and Gov. Greg Gianforte’s office over who is financially responsible for executing a decades-old agreement wherein the state took responsibility for criminal jurisdiction on the reservation.

With Alke’s letter, the long-simmering political clash has made its way into the 2024 race for attorney general. Knudsen won the job handily in 2020 by more than 100,000 votes over attorney Raph Graybill, who is the lieutenant governor candidate on the Democratic ticket this year. Alke is a resident of Gallatin County, according to candidate financial documents.

Republican and Daniels County Attorney Logan Olson filed in the primary against Knudsen earlier this week.

A spokesperson for the Montana Department of Justice did not respond to emails sent Wednesday and Thursday morning requesting comment from Knudsen.

Montana opted into the agreement, passed by Congress as Public Law 280, in 1963 exclusively for the state to oversee criminal jurisdiction of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation, with other tribes still overseen by the federal government.

The county has provided law enforcement through the terms of this agreement for years, but recently has said it cannot afford to keep spending $4 million annually doing so. Gianforte, who vetoed a 2023 bill that would have funded the effort, most recently told commissioners the only tool left for him is to pull out from the agreement entirely.

If no other steps are taken, upon the governor’s anticipated proclamation in May to withdraw, the Flathead Indian Reservation will return to federal oversight like the other reservations in the state, a legal expert told the Daily Montanan. Lake County Commissioners are scheduled to meet with the U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana Jesse Laslovich next week to discuss a potential plan forward.

Alke sent his letter to request Knudsen coordinate with Gianforte to “take immediate action to protect the residents of Lake County and the Flathead Reservation.” Alke said the county isn’t able to handle the crime on the reservation without the state’s help, saying Sheriff Donald Bell referred to it as a “catch and release” county.

Bell was not immediately available to confirm his comment on Wednesday. However, commissioners made a similar comment in 2022 prior to the 2023 legislative session when they announced their intent to withdraw from the agreement.

Alke said residents in the county were now looking to Knudsen as “Montana’s top law enforcement official” for the plan forward for law enforcement in the county following the collapse of PL-280 or “hope that the Biden Administration steps in to do your job.” He said there is currently no plan after the anticipated proclamation is issued.

“The State is not honoring its obligations to the CKST [sic] and is leaving residents of Lake County and visitors to the area subject to lawless chaos and the threat of felony-level violence with no law enforcement in place,” Alke said.

Professor at the University of Washington Law School and Director of the Native American Law Center Monte Mills told the Daily Montanan if there is no more PL-280 jurisdiction, the reservation would revert to the same jurisdictional scheme as other reservations in the state, meaning, the federal government would take over.

Lake County Commissioners previously told the Daily Montanan they are not optimistic adequate resources would be available for the feds to oversee felony crimes on the reservation.

But Mills said the governor could be specific in the proclamation as to what process should take place, and action could be taken in the interim before the proclamation to establish a new jurisdictional agreement.

Mills said the proclamation would only answer the jurisdiction question, but not the funding question. And he said there’s always the possibility of litigation, so a lot could change.

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