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Attorney: Steve Moore
Case Update
On March 23, 2005, the Nez Perce Tribal
Committee (NPTEC) accepted the final
terms of the water rights claims in the
State of Idaho's Snake River Basin
Adjudication (SRBA) in an historic 6 to 2
vote. By accepting the proposed
settlement, the Nez Perce Tribe has
agreed to:
- 50,000 acre feet of water decreed to the Tribe for on-reservation uses;
- Instream flows decreed on almost 200 Tribal priority streams to be held by the state of Idaho;
- 600 springs claims decreed on about 6 million acres of Federal land in the Tribe’s 1863 ceded area;
- Over 11,000 acres of on-reservation Bureau of Land Management land transferred to the Tribe in trust;
- 96 million in three separate funds, for Tribal drinking water and sewer projects, water development projects, in addition to various Tribal projects including cultural preservation and fishery habitat improvements.
NARF has represented the Nez Perce
Tribe in Idaho in the SRBA - -both
litigation and settlement phases - - for
over 16 years. Congress enacted the
Snake River Settlement Act of 2004 and
President Bush signed it into law on
December 8, 2004. The Idaho Legislature
approved the agreement and Governor
Kempthorne signed the approval
legislation in March 2005. The approval
by NPTEC represented the final sign-off
by the three sovereigns. The Idaho water
court will now undertake the final
approval of the settlement and the entry
of decrees to the water rights for the
Tribe.
In a March 29, 2005 Press Release Nez
Perce Tribal Chairman Anthony Johnson
was quoted as saying "Unlike the
uncertainty involved in litigating such
water right claims, the Nez Perce Tribe,
by agreeing to the terms of the proposed
settlement, was able to have a voice in
the decision making involved in the final
determination of our water right claims.
Although far from perfect, we felt this
proposed settlement was in the best
interest of the long term future of the
Tribe."
This is a major accomplishment for the
Nez Perce Tribe and its members. This
settlement represents the merging of
traditional Indian water rights settlement
elements with other major environmental
issues confronting all of the people of
Idaho. It could well be looked at by other
states and tribes and federal land
management agencies in the west
seeking to sort out Indian water claims
and other challenges presented by the
federal Endangered Species Act and the
Clean Water Act.
We continue to work with the Tribe to secure final approval of the settlement by the SRBA water court, and on the federal appropriations process. We were successful in securing FY 2009 appropriations for the Tribe, and will begin work anew on the 2010 appropriations.
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