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<br />IndIan Warer-1997: Trends and Directions in Federal Water Policy <br /> <br />issues find forward-looking ways to improve institutions and implement <br />administrative arrangements so that diverse needs can be met. It's going to <br />take innovative thinking. It's going to take tribes, conservationists and <br />others being pro-active, and it's going to depend on all of us having the <br />courage and the goodwill to try to work together. <br /> <br />Some would say that environmental demands are the biggest pressure on <br />water in the West right now. In fact, the biggest pressure on water in the <br />West right now are urban demands. In the arid Southwest, in the wet <br />Pacific Northwest, throughout the Rocky Mountain Region, urban growth <br />now is occurring faster than it has at any point in time-anywhere. <br /> <br />Partly as a result of this growth, there are now administrative and <br />management changes that are being proposed in river basins, including the <br />trend that David mentioned toward watershed management. Among the <br />greatest sources of uncertainty, as we try to improve the management of <br />water to meet growing demands, are the settlement and quantification of <br />tribal water rights and the achievement of certain levels of environmental <br />protection and restoration. <br /> <br />As David's comments indicated, I think that more than before, tribal <br />demands and environmental demands are going to have to be met through <br />improved water management, conservation, efficiency, reservoir re-operation <br />and the re-allocation of water through markets and other mechanisms. <br />So from a certain perspective you could say that unmet environmental needs <br />and tribal demands are in the same boat; but at the same time, I recognize <br />fully the difference in the nature of these demands, and that the tribal issues <br />and conservation issues are different at their core. <br /> <br />I think back to a meeting that took place in December of 1995 on the <br />Flathead Reservation. It was a meeting of conservation groups and tribes <br />that was sponsored by the Native American Fish and Wildlife Service and <br />the World Wildlife Fund. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the <br />potential for cooperation between conservationists and tribes. I think <br />anybody who was there would agree that that meeting was candid, and it <br />was honest, and it was difficult. <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />It was difficult because we come from different cultures, and the issues that <br />conservation groups work on are for tribes much more fundamental. They <br />are issues that are part of the tribal identity and self-determination. That <br />difference seems to make it difficult for us to find ways to work together, but <br />I think we can and I think we must. <br /> <br />28 <br /> <br />I <br />