Tribe orders evacuation for Spotted Eagle Fire

Members of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council on Friday issued an emergency declaration to some residents to evacuate as a result of a fire that crossed over the reservation boundary.

The order, signed by Iliff “Scott” Kipp Sr., the acting chairman of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, was issued to residents in the fire area of the Family Peak Complex and the Spotted Eagle Fire, tribal officials said.

The council ordered immediate evacuation of all residents in the fire area, including the community of Heart Butte and all residents from Heart Butte to Palookaville Road.

“The fire has now reached the reservation,” said James McNeely, administrative assistant to the chairman of the Blackfeet Tribe. “It is an order.”

Robert Des Rosier of Homeland Security said in a news release that the fire had reached the south side of the reservation.

Tribal and state agencies, including Blackfeet law enforcement and the Glacier and Pondera county sheriff’s offices, were authorized to assist, McNeely said.

He said Heart Butte is a fairly sizable community with 200 students in the local school. He estimated there were maybe 1,000-1,500 residents in the surrounding area.

He said his grandparents have a home in Heart Butte.

“This effects a majority of the reservation because people are related in one way or another,” he said.

McNeely said the Red Cross was coming up from Great Falls to set up a shelter at the ACA Complex south of Browning.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the Family Peak Complex fires in the Lewis and Clark National Forest consist of four fires totaling 941 acres in the southern Badger-Two Medicine area, north and west of Swift Reservoir

•Spotted Eagle — 698 acres in remote, heavy timber; actively burning in upper Lonesome Creek drainage

• Mount Poia — 203 acres in heavy timber surrounded by rock

•Muskrat Pass — 40 acres in steep, remote heavy timber. Spotted across Continental Divide.

•Haywood Creek — 0.2 acres about 1 mile east of NF boundary

The fires are burning in steep, inaccessible terrain. The fire, believed to be caused by lighting, started early Tuesday, forest officials said.