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<br />Indian Water- 7997: Trends and Directions in Federal Water Policy <br /> <br />The greater recognition of the role of watersheds is pervading all of water <br />law and policy. These efforts are informal, mostly outside government <br />frameworks. They are processes that work from the grassroots up. Most <br />importantly, they have proved capable of solving some complex problems <br />that state and federal governments had not effectively addressed. Where <br />tribes have been involved in these efforts they have made a signal <br />contribution. For instance, on the Zuni River, a lawsuit was settled by <br />creating a fund for the Zuni tribe to rehabilitate land in the Zuni watershed. <br />The tribe realized that it needed the cooperation of state and private land <br />owners upstream in the same watershed. They enlisted that cooperation, <br />and today there is an Indian-non-Indian, public-private, cooperative effort to <br />improve the watershed. It is succeeding with tribal leadership. Another <br />example arises on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, where the tribe has <br />participated in the Rio Puerco Management Committee to solve non-point <br />source problems in that watershed. These are just two of the many examples <br />that can be drawn from around the West. They demonstrate tribal <br />leadership, working at the forefront of the revolution in western water policy <br />by participating in new institutions. <br /> <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />In each of the policy areas I mentioned-water conservation, structural <br />solutions, marketing, environmental protection, and institutional <br />reform-tribes are implicated. They can and should take their place as <br />participants and leaders. The revolution is about tribes and tribal water as <br />much as it is about the future of the West. <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />12 <br />