TITLE: In Support of a Request for a Hearing on the Impacts on the Water Rights of Tribes Located in the Missouri River Basin
WHEREAS, we, the members of the National Congress of American Indians of the United States, invoking the divine blessing of the Creator upon our efforts and purposes, in order to preserve for ourselves and our descendants the inherent sovereign rights of our Indian nations, rights secured under Indian treaties and agreements with the United States, and all other rights and benefits to which we are entitled under the laws and Constitution of the United States, to enlighten the public toward a better understanding of the Indian people, to preserve Indian cultural values, and otherwise promote the health, safety and welfare of the Indian people, do hereby establish and submit the following resolution; and
WHEREAS, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was established in 1944 and is the oldest and largest national organization of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments; and
WHEREAS, Congress authorized the Missouri Basin Pick-Sloan Program in the Flood Control Act of 1944, comprised of six massive earthen dams on the Missouri River, built and operated by the Corps of Army Corps of Engineers, and numerous tributaries dams controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation; and
WHEREAS, the Pick-Sloan program destroyed approximately 360,000 acres of Indian land along the Missouri River, which were wooded, riparian bottomlands, with fertile soils, abundant water supplies, timber, wildlife habitat, rare plants used for medicinal purposes, and these lands were the aboriginal homelands of the Missouri Basin and Great Plains Tribes for thousands of years; and
WHEREAS, the Pick-Sloan program resulted in the forced relocation of numerous Tribal communities along the Missouri River, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, to new town sites on the plains above the river valley, causing dislocation and socioeconomic hardship; and
WHEREAS, the late Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux), distinguished scholar and former Executive Director of NCAI, described the Pick-Sloan program as “the single most destructive act ever perpetuated on any tribe by the United States;” and
WHEREAS, the Indian Nations of the Missouri River Basin suffer the on-going impacts of the Army Corps of Engineers’ operations under the Pick-Sloan program, which cause dramatic streamflow fluctuations on numerous Indian Reservations in the Upper Basin, diminishing water supplies needed for human consumption, fish and wildlife and economic development; and
WHEREAS, the proliferation of hydrofracturing in the Williston Basin has led to increased water demand in the upper Missouri Basin; and
WHEREAS, the Corps of Engineers has issued surplus water reports for the Missouri River main stem reservoirs of the Pick-Sloan program, which seek to limit future municipal and industrial (M & I) water use and to impose storage fees and water supply contract requirements for future M & I water use, to wit –
Final Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea 100,000 acre-feet
Draft Fort Peck Dam/Lake Fort Peck 6,932 acre-feet
Draft Oahe Dam/Lake Oahe 57,317 acre-feet
Draft Big Bend Dam/Lake Sharpe 62,268 acre-feet
Draft Fort Randall Dam/Lake Francis Case 27,973 acre-feet
Draft Gavins Point Dam/Lake Lewis and Clark 28,427 acre-feet
Total 282,917 acre-feet; and
WHEREAS, the Indian Nations of the Missouri River Basin possess extensive reserved water rights to the Missouri River main stem, its tributaries and the Missouri Basin groundwater, based on Treaties and other agreements with the United States, pursuant to the principles enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908); and
WHEREAS, the surplus water determinations by the Army Corps of Engineers for the Missouri River main stem reservoirs confer no consideration of the reserved water rights of the Missouri River Indian Nations, jeopardizing the present and future water uses on the Indian Reservations of the Missouri River Basin; and
WHEREAS, Chairman Charles W. Murphy of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and President Bryan Brewer of the Oglala Sioux Tribe have requested that the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works conduct an oversight hearing on the impacts of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Pick-Sloan Program and surplus water reports.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the NCAI supports the call for an oversight hearing by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on the impacts of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Pick-Sloan Program and surplus water reports on the Indian Tribes of the Missouri River Basin; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of NCAI until it is withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution.