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tribes that are within this partnership in the Upper Basin are pecuris, Apache, Southern Ute, Northern Ute, Ute Monute, and those in the Lower Basin are Chimawave, Cocapaw, Ft. Mojave, Croacian, and Navaj o. The ten tribes have unique geographical boundaries that straddles both the Upper and Lower basin. We hear discussions and reference to surplus water. In December, the President of the Navajo Nation, Mr. Peterson, after hearing what California's position was, cautioned the states and federal government that the so called surplus water in the Upper Basin was undeveloped water reserved to the tribes. You must bear in mind that although the need maybe in California, the need maybe in Nevada, it cannot be addressed without having those states come to the tribes with their interests. In respect to the ten tribes partnership, each tribe has one representative. As I stated each should contain complete authority of its own resources. The need for leadership would be determined by the ten tribes who will be responsible for its administrative affairs of the partnership. This position will be rotated among the members of the tribes. Also, out of this, a three person team is created to be the spokesperson and to carry out the discussions concerning the operation and use of the Colorado River. The three people, are myself, the next speaker Mr. Jerald Peabody of the Ute Monute Ute tribe, representing the Upper Basin, and Mr. Fritz Brown of the Croacian tribe, representing the Lower Basin. The three of us are presently scheduled to talk with the state of Nevada. We do so eagerly and with high expectations that out of this we will begin to collate efforts that will address the needs of the states that are supposedly short of water, and address the interests of the Indian tribes from an economic and a legal standpoint. One of the main issues that is before the ten tribes, as individuals, is the opportunity to market their water. This is a new concept in terms of how Indian people are thinking. Water has been precious to the Native Americans, as well as to the communi ties, municipalities, and the seven states along the Colorado River. We all know that the various tribes in the southwest are economically disadvantaged. Within the Navajo nation our unemployment rate is as high as 45 to 50%. We have a population that is nearing 250,000. The percentage of youth is the majority. Before us, as a nation, lies the question how do we economically develop? Keep in mind that we are willing to be a contributor to the economy of this nation. Years ago the great president, Mr. Lincoln was supporting equal opportunities for the blacks, and his position was strong with respect to slavery. As he was saying that, before him was legislation to develop and finance one of the greatest tragedies in the United States and that was to develop Ft. Sumner. The Navajo refer to it as the Great Long Walk. We took that long walk and on the way many of our, people died. We were not even given the opportunity to bury them. We came back, and we went to be taught the new lifestyle, to be farmers, to be agriculturers, to be self-sustaining. Some 700 years later, we have reached that; we are farmers; we are agricultural. We know what we need to do with our water. We have had our water developed with the Navajo by Congress, by law, in accordance with the treaties that we agreed to sign and live by. That law established the water projects and out of these laws and out of Congress came Navajo 51