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Show # 1044 Page21 before ah - could well just read a few cases and be ready to recognize these things when they come up. We have found ah, Indian water rights problems to be relevant to a whole series of other things. I mean most recently, we're fighting a subdivision in California on the ground that potentially it plans to use Indian water for the - for the lots, and so far that's succeeding. I mean the - the county is not approving the subdivision on that basis. But that's a rather strange example. Now, the key to the Economic Development of many Indian reservations, particularly in the Southwest, but perhaps elsewhere, certainly water rights cases have come up in the Northwest which is water- rich, ah - is the protection and development of these water- rights. They - they can ah - mean economic health or death to ah - dry areas. The basic, the basic legal point is that most west - most states west of the Mississippi are what's called appropriated water rights, and water rights states which means that - basically that means that the guy that gets there first and puts the water to what's called beneficial use, which means hard Chamber of Commerce type uses ah - gets to - the right to that water forever, and if the Indians are - are too poor to put the water to use and too late, were it not for the special rights granted Indians by the courts ah - they would lose out, and |
