- A lot of water rights issues are now in the legal arena, but what it really comes back to is also a bio-cultural claim, not just a claim to needing water for what we traditionally think of farmers claiming water for, which is irrigation and use. But there is a bio-cultural claim to that water on the behalf of the Nez Perce tribe, isn't there?
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- And why is that important to the tribe, why is the tribe fighting so hard?
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- When the judge looked at the claim and dismissed part of the claim for the instream flows off the reservation, he said that the tribe has a right to take fish in the same numbers as non-tribal members, but it doesn't have a right to have the water the way it was, from time immemorial.
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- You have people such as the Idaho Water Users Association, a Committee of Nine in the state of Idaho, that are objecting to these claims, saying that there are far too many and that they would set your rights as senior and adversely affect so many other interests on the water.
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- Why has the tribe filed claims for water rights off the reservation?
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- I think there is a fear among the state, and of course the irrigation users, that if the Nez Perce are able to have this many rights, that agriculture would be severely hurt, that power would be severely hurt, that other uses of the water would be hurt.
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- Do you feel more confident about your prospects now? Looking back, it's only been the last 15 or 20 years that the tribes have had the power to hire attorneys to litigate or negotiate these types of settlements.
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- Talk a little about the Nez Perce relationship with the fish and why, in claiming these water rights, you are working for a brother.
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- As you know this case is in negotiation, it's in mediation, and the state is spending quite a bit of money to challenge these water rights.
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- Some people worry that the ultimate objective of the Nez Perce water rights claims is to take down dams.
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- Negotiations are a give and take process as opposed to litigation where there is a final decision, and I'm sure in this negotiation the tribe will ultimately have to give. Would you be willing to settle for some sort of compensation in a monetary form for water rights that are not granted?
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- Additional thoughts on water rights?
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