WSPC02585

• File Number: 8064
• Description: Indian Water Rights
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 3/17/1997
• Author: Todd M Olinger
• Title: Summary of Indian Water 1997
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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SessIOn I: Western Water Trends and Directions

rights, because there is monetary damage relief hanging out there for failure
to do so. I think it is an important policy matter for the United States, as
much as it is important to Indian tribes and other citizens that depend on
the water resources,.to have Indian water,resources protected.

One other initial point I want to emphasize-not only as an attorney who
represents tribes in the water cases, but also as an Indian person who was
born and raised on Indian reservations-is that our water rights vest as of
the creation of the reservations or since time immemorial in the case of the
aboriginal water right.

So our water right is a property right under U.s. law dating way back, The
problem is that water right has not been quantified. As a consequence of
that failure, a lot of non, Indians, many of whom, not all, but many of whom
are innocent, came along and started diverting waters and streams that they
had no idea belonged to Indian tribes.

That is a very severe problem. We'll hear about it in Indian water
settlements. It's a very complicated thing today to do an Indian water
settlement because you can't find the water. If your assumption in the
settlement is that the existing non-Indian user should be protected-and
there are lots of ways to try to create water, including conservation and
otherwise-but the simple fact of the matter today is that providing the full
amount of the tribal entitlement is very difficult to accomplish. There is a
horrible inequity and unfairness in this fact, complicated further by a world
view about water that's very different throughout the West, which is very
hard to describe.

I don't want to over-generalize or over-romanticize the points of view here.
But there still is, in my view, an attitude throughout the West among non-
Indians that water is something to be possessed, to wring the most value out
of --every single cent and dollar out of it-and make the West a better
economy.

In contrast, the tribal people, by and large-while they will use water for
their needs-still view water as a very sacred resource. Tribal people
consider water to be a living being in a way; one that should be protected and
valued for all time. "For all time" is very important, because in these general
stream adjudications, what we are doing is quantifying an Indian water
right for all time. That's a scary idea-forever-for these Indian tribes and
their present and future water rights.

You can imagine from the non-Indian point of view, trying to think in those
terms. Every time we deal with non-Indians, they are accustomed to 3D-year
planning horizons or no planning horizons at alL The idea that a tribe might
need to claim and quantif'y a huge water right for all time for the present and

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