WSP03082

• File Number: 8064
• Description: Section "D" General Federal Issues/Policies - Indian Water Rights
• Date: 4/19/1985
• Title: Final Report of Tribal Negotiating Team to Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board of Fort Peck-Montana Water Compact
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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the Major Facilities Siting Act, the tribal negotiating team
believes any major industry proposing to transport and use the
water outside the Reservation must comply in substance with
these requirements as part of its own planning process and
under existing law. The requirements should therefore not be
burdensome to the Tribes. And the prospect that the State will
be a participant in tribal water ventures increases the
likelihood that the State will be cooperative as marketing
opportunities arise.

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Of course, it is impossible now to estimate the
economic value of the Tribe's power to market water outside the
Reservation in the future. Since there presently seems to be
substantial water in Fort Peck Reservoir and in the River below
it, it is unlikely that any industrial or commercial user will
pay for water from the Tribes in the near future, perhaps even
in the next several decades. That could change, however,
either if water development cont!~ues to increase in the
downstream states or in Montana, or if the Missouri River is
legally "apportioned" among the states of the Basin, and
Montana reaches the limit of its apportioned share. No one can
tell whether, or when, these events might happen. But if they
occur, the authority to market water could become very
valuable, probably far more valuable than water devoted to
agriculture.

C. PROTECTION OF EXISTING USES

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(1) Summarv of Compact Provisions

Article 1\7 of the Compact protects existing uses,
both Indian and non-Indian, on the various tributaries that
traverse and4~round water basins that underlie the
Reservation, from all future uses authorized by either the
Tribes or the State. As to new uses, all new tribal uses have
priority over all new State uses, irrespective of when
commenced.

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Section A of Article IV sets forth the existing uses
that are protected. The first priority is Indian uses. In
paragraph 1, existing uses of water by Indians on the
Reservation are given the first right on. all of the
tributaries. There are approximately 950 acres of existing

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46water development has been relatively constant in
Montana in recent decades.

47The~e tributaries are defined in Article II (27).