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 J: Western Water Trends and Directions

Comments of the Chairman of the Northwest Indian
Fisheries Commission

Billy Frank, Jr. 19

Water, as you heard, is so important to all of us. Right after World War II,
there was a guy who sang a song about a another guy name Ira Hayes that
lived right over here. He sang about the Pima Indians that live right over
here. He sang about the water, the river, and the Indian people, and where
are they at today?

You know, in 1945 Ira Hayes went to war; in 1945, I went to jail for treaty
rights, fishing on the Nisqually River, and I also went to war like a whole lot
of us.

Then where are we today? Where are them people today? They dried that
river up over here. There is no river. They took all of their way oflife away
from them. They took their food, and they gave them surplus food. When
they gave us surplus food, they gave us sugar diabetes. When they took our
water away, they give us sugar diabetes. When they took our culture away
and our way of doing what we do, they gave us sugar diabetes. Today, we
have it.

I see a lot of my friends walking around without any legs on. That's very
sad, and that's what we are talking about here today. We are talking about a
culture and a race of people that nobody in this country gives a damn about.
Nobody. There is no leadership out there today that gives a damn about
Indian people.

There is no leadership within these states that gives a damn about Indian
people. There are no legislators and no Congress that gives a damn about
Indian people, and it seems like we are going on a head-on collision with the
United States Government, and with our neighbors that are in our own
backyards.

This river right over here that they dried up-those Indian people can't move
to New York, or to the Northwest, or to the Pacific Ocean. This is their land.
None of us move. None of us Indian tribes move anywhere. This is where we
are and this is where we live, and we'll be in these types of forums
addressing water from now on.

19 Chainnan, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Olympia, Washington.

33