Wind River Indians Lose Water Lawsuit : Wyoming: Annual entitlement of Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes is not affected as state high court rules the state engineer has final say over how resource is used.

Water means life in the arid West, and the Wind River Indian Reservation tribes saw the river that courses through their sprawling reservation as the key to a very good life.

But in the wake of a recent Wyoming Supreme Court ruling that gave the state control of that water, the Indians wonder how they will ever escape their poverty. The white man, they believe, has broken yet another promise.

Although the court ruling did not alter the 500,000 acre-feet of Wind River water that the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes are entitled to each year, it said the state engineer had the final say over how that water is used.

“This is a continuing example of the efforts of non-Indians to take or destroy the value of tribal property whenever it is determined that the property has value,” said John Washakie, a leader of the Shoshone tribe.

Added Gary Collins, co-chairman of the Wind River Water Users Resources Control Board:

“It’s another broken promise. Same book, different chapter. It’s a continued effort of an overall suppression of tribal treaty rights and the opportunity of tribes to do something for their people.”

The tribes want the water to build world-class trout fisheries that would attract anglers to the central Wyoming reservation. But the state plans to give priority primarily to ranchers and farmers along the river--mostly non-Indians--who want to irrigate their hay and alfalfa.

“It’s not really agriculture vs. fish. It’s the inherent right of managing the water,” Collins said. “No one else manages our timber, our land, our people.”

In good years, the Wind River gushes out of the snowcapped mountain range that bears its name, feeding fish and cropland for 50 miles. It snakes through 2.2 million acres of badlands and pastures on the reservation, passing antelope and jack rabbits, cottonwoods, cactus and sage.

In dry years--like this one--it is reduced in parts to a trickle. And in previous droughts, tensions have mounted between Indians and non-Indians in the Wind River Basin, each claiming supremacy over the precious resource.

Having just lost a court battle and the power to control the water that represents not only economic profit but sacred ritual, tribal leaders say their lack of self-determination hurts when they’re looking for a better future.

“Do you want me to tell you how to drive your car? Do you want me to run your bathtub in your house anytime I want to? That’s what it’s about,” Collins said. “The tribes need a boost somewhere in terms of encouragement to manage their resources, so tribal members would have self-esteem.”

After years of legal battles, the Wyoming Supreme Court in June narrowly affirmed the state’s right to control reservation water that also runs to the downstream communities of Riverton and Lander.

By a 3-2 vote, the court also ruled that the Indians must use most of their 500,000 acre-feet of water for agricultural projects before fisheries, whether the tribes like it or not.

And State Engineer Jeff Fassett has made it clear that when it came down to crops or fisheries this hot, dry summer, “fishery rights don’t exist.”

The state Supreme Court based its opinion on the 1868 treaty between the tribes and territorial officials. It said that in return for peace, the Indians would stay on the reservation and be farmers, not fishermen.

The court also based its decision on the Wyoming Constitution, which gives the state control of all waters within its borders.

“The Wyoming Constitution recognizes that state control of water is essential to the development and prosperity of Wyoming,” the majority wrote. “To this end, the constitution declares that the waters . . . within the boundaries of Wyoming are property of the state.”

In their dissenting opinion, two justices wrote that the majority ruling is yet another example of Indians being done wrong by the white man.

“If one may mark the turn of the 20th Century by the massive expropriation of Indian lands, then the turn of the 21st Century is the era when the Indian tribes risk the same fate for their water resources,” Justice Michael Golden wrote in his dissent.

While the decision was intended to resolve the water fight, Golden said the majority ruling was complicated and incoherent and would only lead to further legal battles.

“All that is really clear from this narrow opinion is that the parties will continue to litigate their conflicts,” he said.

The Shoshone and Arapaho tribes are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, unless the tribes build about $4 million worth of irrigation ditches and begin new farming operations, existing ranchers and farmers will get the water first.

And tribal leaders say they have spent so much on legal fees in the last 15 years defending their water rights, they have little left for new agricultural projects--especially when they have so many other social and housing demands on the beleaguered reservation.

All sides agree that the solution to the water problem is to build upstream reservoirs for storage. But that takes money. Lots of it.

And even if the state and tribes had the money, the Indians say they have been jaded by their treatment from the state and the judicial system.

“This decision could very well stymie storage projects,” Collins said.