Trump Foreign Policy Advisor Tied to Montana Anti-Tribal Efforts

A top foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump is part of a Western Montana campaign against the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT). Joseph E. Schmitz’s involvement in a failed lawsuit attempting to block tribal management of a dam located on the Flathead Reservation (home to the Tribes) also demonstrates how anti-Muslim bigotry increasingly accompanies attacks on tribal communities.

Schmitz was named by Trump as one of five foreign policy advisors in mid-March. In September 2015, Joseph E. Schmitz joined Lawrence Kogan as co-counsel in Keenan et al v. Bay et al, a lawsuit filed on behalf of Montana State Senator Bob Keenan (R-Bigfork) and former state Senator Verdell Jackson (R-Kalispell). The lawsuit sought to block CSKT acquisition of the former Kerr Dam. The structure was renamed the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ dam when the tribally-owned Energy Keepers, Inc. assumed its management.

http://www.irehr.org/2016/04/19/trump-foreign-policy-advisor-tied-montana-anti-tribal-efforts/