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<br />Western States Water Council <br />Legal Committee <br /> <br />Sioux Falls, South Dakota <br />May 3, 2007 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />WASHINGTON <br /> <br />Ken Slattery <br /> <br />WYOMING <br /> <br />Pat Tyrrell <br />Sue Lowry <br /> <br />GUESTS <br /> <br />Michael Fallon, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dallas, TX <br />Gene Lilly, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa, OK <br /> <br />STAFF <br /> <br />D. Craig Bell <br />Tony Willard son <br />Shaun McGrath <br />Cheryl Redding <br /> <br />WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS <br /> <br />The meeting was called to order by Bill Staudenmaier, Chair of the Legal Committee. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />APPROVAL OF MINUTES <br /> <br />The minutes from the meeting held in Sheridan, Wyoming were approved as circulated. <br /> <br />INDIAN RESERVED RIGHT SETTLEMENTS <br /> <br />A. Progress Report and Upcoming Related Activities <br /> <br />Susan Cottingham reported that there seemed to be some renewed interest within the Department <br />ofInterior in moving forward with these settlements. The meeting last fall with Michael Bogert, Counselor <br />to Secretary Kempthorne, worked into the creation of a meeting that will take place on May 22 in <br />Washington, D.C. A number of us will be meeting with folks from Interior. The meeting will also include <br />representatives from the DOJ, OMB, EPA, the Indian Health Service, Reclamation, congressional staff, <br />NARF, WSWC, WGA and maybe members from the Federal Tribal Funding Task Group. We will be <br />discussing potential ideas on how to fund these settlements, which are starting to pile up. <br /> <br />In Montana, both the Fort Belknap and Crow settlement agreements passed the Montana State <br />Legislature a few years ago, but we still need to have the "heart-to-heart" discussion with the delegation <br />about the dollar figures. The Montana Compact Commission has also been trying to finalize the settlement <br />with the Blackfeet Tribe. Montana's Legislature just passed $15M as a first step in funding that settlement. . <br />However, the legislature left town without passing the budget and so everything is on the table. <br /> <br />2 <br />