Transcript

Delbert Farmer: The real issue is . . . the clouds

My name is Delbert Farmer and I am with the Shoshone Bannock tribes. I appreciate this session because I think that one of my comments in reference to public television was that we needed to bring out some of the rights issue rather than the cultural issues onto the forefront because I think that's where Indians are always passed off -- in the cultural area. But we want to talk about rights, and what I would like to say is that when we signed our treaty, I don't think that a lot of people understand that, we agreed to unoccupy all of this land and to move to the reservations. And I will say that again -- we agreed to unoccupy, we gave up the land. The land is what we are talking about, it has the water rights. So we kind of in some ways stabbed ourselves in the back. We are on this reservation, which is our homeland that we have to perpetuate from now on and continue to maintain. That is my little spiel for history, but let me tell you about the real issue. The real issue isn't that mountains create water, that springs create water; the real issue here is the clouds. Now who is going to lay claim to the clouds because we all know that's where the water comes from? So what's this deal about prior appropriation and all this other stuff, first in time and beneficial use, when it is the clouds that come every winter and provide moisture to the mountains and water to the streams? As far as Shoshone Bannock is concerned, we lay claim to the clouds. Thank you.

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