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1':1 ';'j 0-' " --':.! '.- An Overview of the Basin's Resource-Management Problems ~,~ /, . We understand poorly the basis for cultural identity or the reasons for cultural conflict. ... To an outsider or casual observer it is easy to suppose that conflicts between different cultural groups are conflicts about culture. In fact, [in many conflicts] people struggle not for their culture but for more fundamental economic and political issues that happen to be expressed in cultural terms. ... . ,- ~ . If such disputes [over resource management] have an economic or political basis, but are expressed in cultural terms, then to address only the cultural issues is not to resolve the problem. This is not to deny that people often have strong feelings for traditional uses of land. Such uses are often a central part of cultural identity and may be no easier to abandon than religion, language, or community. The point is that if attempts to mediate disputes address only expressed cultural issues, the attempts will fail. The fundamental economic and political disputes must be resolved as well. 'P ,:, ,.; , ':' B.4. Contributory Problem #4: Many Groups Feel They are Unable to Participate Effectively in Resource-Management Decisionmaking Ii' '" /~ There is no neat, clean, simple way to address and resolve all the cultural, economic, and political issues described above. The issues intensify daily insofar as decisions are made allocating the Basin's water and related resources among the competing demands for them and many groups feel they have not had a fair opportunity to participate in the decisionmaking. Those whose demands for the public-goods aspects of the resources have materialized lately conclude that they have little, if any, ability to see their demands met insofar as the rules and rights for using the resources were set decades ago and there is no economic or political marketplace where they can purchase what they want. Even if there were water rights available for sale, if a group wanted to buy water rights and leave the water in the river to benefit riverine-riparian resources in New Mexico, for example, state water law does not recognize instream flows as a beneficial use of water and, hence, would not protect the water from being withdrawn. , I I i, ! ".,i Those whose demands have long roots also are frustrated. The Indian Pueblos, with a history of water use extending back centuries, have seen water rights issued to others but have not been able to have their demands ( 'C2977 97