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Indian Warer-1997: Trends and Directions in Federal Water Policy I I if efficient diversion works were used and reasonable uses were made of the water. Ifwater is freed up from non-Indian uses by enforcing the beneficial use requirement, more may become available to satisfy tribal needs, from fisheries to farms. Tribes have a right to insist that uses be reasonable and beneficial in the state system and to help bring the state systems into the Twenty-First Century-or at least, into the Twentieth. Structural Solutions: Tribes Need Water Facilities I I I It is often said that we have reached the end ofthe big dam era. I would be surprised if the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission publishes a report without saying just that, While the statement is generally true, there are exceptions to the conclusion that the nation is finished building dams. Indeed, before policy makers totally dismiss structural solutions to water supply problems, tribes might well say: "Not so fast!" I I I The tribes' place in most of the trends in western water policy is squarely in the mainstream-as participants and leaders. When it comes to water facilities, tribes are in a different position: they are the exception. Unlike western irrigators or cities all over the nation who benefit from water developed, treated or distributed with the assistance offederal financing, unlike shippers using federal locks and dams, and unlike populations protected by federal flood control facilities, tribes by and large have been left out of the nation's water development largesse. While the rest of the nation was dipping into the pork barrel, the tribes stood by and saw the barrel repeatedly refilled with tribal water. I Following Winters, more than fifty years elapsed before the Supreme Court again discussed significant aspects of Indian water rights. During most of this fifty-year period, the United States was pursuing a policy of encouraging the settlement of the West and the creation of family,sized farms on its arid lands. In retrospect, it can be seen that the policy was pursued with little or no regard for Indian rights and the Winters Doctrine. With the encouragement, or at least the cooperation, of the Secretary of Interior-the very office entrusted with all Indian rights-many large irrigation projects were constructed on streams that flowed through or bordered on Indian reservations, sometimes above, more often below the reservations. I I I I I I I I Not only were the tribes denied most of the benefits of the nation's water development programs, their water was used to fill the dams and canals built for non-Indians. The National Water Commission recognized this 24 years ago. Its report concluded: 6 I