Walsh stops in Havre during tour of Indian Country

Newly appointed U.S. Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., stopped in Havre Friday during a tour of the state in his second week on the job.

Walsh joined fellow Montana Democrat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, keynote speaker at Friday’s Bear Paw Development Corp. meeting, at the Student Union Building Ballroom at Montana State University-Northern for the 45th annual meeting of the economic development agency.

Walsh said in an interview his first two weeks have been busy, although he was sworn in Tuesday, Feb. 11, and the Senate went into recess that Thursday for the Presidents Day recess — something Walsh jokingly said never would have happened under his former boss, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

Bullock appointed Walsh, a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat up for election this year, to take the place of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Baucus announced this year he would not run for his seventh term in the Senate.

President Barack Obama in January appointed Baucus as U.S. ambassador to China, opening the seat before the end of the term. The Senate confirmed Baucus Feb. 6 in a 96-0 vote, and the next day Bullock appointed Walsh to the seat.

Last week, Walsh and Tester — who just took over as the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee — took a tour of Montana focusing on Indian Country, including stopping at Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Indian reservations Thursday and Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation Friday. The tour wrapped up Saturday with a meeting of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Pablo. Tester and Walsh met with groups outside of the tribal representatives last week including veterans, business owners and representatives of local government.

Walsh said that in the tour of the state, which started with members of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Great Falls then went on to the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations, he is hearing many of the same comments. Many people are talking about the same issues, he said — jobs and the economy.