Blackfeet shut border with Glacier for rest of season

The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council voted Thursday to close the reservation’s western border, shared with Glacier National Park, for the remainder of the tourist season.

The border closure, which the tribe’s release said includes Two Medicine, Chief Mountain, St. Mary’s, Cut Bank Creek and many glacier roads, is in response to Thursday’s report of the highest daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Montana since the outbreak reached the state. This action is an amendment to the tribes COVID-19 safety ordinance for Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

The state’s number of confirmed COVID-19 cases have been increasing since about one week after Gov. Steve Bullock announced the start of phased re-opening. Thursday’s 37 cases is greater than the previous peak of 35 seen March 20.

The Blackfeet Tribal Council declared a state of emergency March 15 specifically related to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, passing Resolution 181-2020 in an unanimous decision to help its members and residents limit the risk of infection from the outbreak. The tribes emergency response to health threat also includes a curfew, social distancing, curtailing of non-essential business activity and stay-at-home orders, as well as setting new remote access guidelines for council meetings and votes.

The tribe started conducting community-based surveillance testing for COVID-19 in mid-May and its current round of testing started Thursday and is continuing today. Glacier County, where the Blackfeet Reservation is located, has had seven cases of COVID-19. Tribal officials have said that a tribal member has passed away from complications related to COVID-19, but the individual was not living on the reservation.