Wampum

Being an Atlantic Coast Indian and all (one of my ancestors was the first Indian at Cape Porpoise to own a "sloop") I really don't understand the significance of water to those in the West. But my spouse, being a fifth generation Californian and all, has no problem reminding me...all the time. Being so well trained educated on the subject now, one can only imagine the warning bells which went off in my head when I ran across this piece of new proposed legislation this morning:

Calendar No. 355

109TH CONGRESS

A BILL TO AUTHORIZE CERTAIN TRIBES IN THE STATE OF MONTANA TO ENTER INTO A LEASE OR OTHER TEMPORARY CONVEYANCE OF WATER RIGHTS TO MEET THE WATER NEEDS OF THE DRY PRAIRIE RURAL WATER ASSOCIATION, INC.

January 24, 2006- Ordered to be printed

Filed, under authority of the order of the Senate of January 18, 2006

Mr. MCCAIN, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following

R E P O R T

[To accompany S. 1219]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 1219) to authorize certain tribes in the State of Montana to enter into a lease or other temporary conveyance of water rights to meet the water needs of the Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Inc., having considered the same reports favorably thereon without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

PURPOSE

The purpose of S. 1219 is to authorize the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to enter into a lease or other temporary conveyance of water rights recognized under the Fort Peck-Montana Compact with the Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Incorporated (or any successor non-federal entity) for the purpose of meeting the Association's water needs.

BACKGROUND

The Fort Peck Reservation Rural Water System Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-382) was enacted in October 2000. The two components of the water system project include the Fort Peck Reservation Water System and the Dry Prairie Rural Water Authority, an off-Reservation water system, which are located in northeastern Montana. The Reservation has a population of approximately 10,700 people, of which approximately 5,800 are members of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. The Fort Peck water system will serve Reservation populations and the Dry Prairie Rural Water Association will serve off-Reservation populations. The project is authorized to provide municipal, rural, and industrial water to the Reservation and surrounding areas.

The Fort Peck Indian Tribes Agreement with Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Inc. would provide authority for the Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana to enter into a lease or otherwise make a temporary conveyance to Dry Prairie, without monetary compensation to the Tribes, of a portion of the Tribes' current right to use water under a compact with the State of Montana to meet off-Reservation water supply needs. The Dry Prairie allocation would be approximately 2,300 acre feet of water. The bill further provides that the life of the lease or conveyance shall not exceed 100 years, and that the Secretary is not liable for any claim relating to any lease or transfer terms.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

S. 1219 was introduced June 9, 2005, by Senator Burns and was referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and to the Committee on Indian Affairs. On September 28, 2005, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources convened a business meeting to consider S. 1219 and other measures that had been referred to it, and on that date the Committee favorably reported the bill. At a business meeting held on October 27, 2005, the Committee on Indian Affairs considered S. 1219 and on that date favorably reported the bill without amendment.

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION AND TABULATION OF VOTE

On October 27, 2005, the Committee on Indian Affairs, in an open session, adopted S. 1219 by voice vote and ordered the bill reported favorably to the Senate.

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF S. 1219

Section 1. Temporary conveyance of water rights to Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Inc.

Section 1 provides the short title of the Act as the Temporary Conveyance of Water Rights to Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Inc.

Subsection (a) In general

Subsection (a) authorizes the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, with the approval of the Secretary, to enter into a lease or other temporary conveyance of water rights with the Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Incorporated, in accordance with section 5 of the Fort Peck Reservation Rural Water System Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-382). The Fort Peck water rights were recognized under the Fort Peck-Montana Compact (Montana Code Annotated 85-20-201) agreed to by the State and the Tribes, approved by the Secretary of Interior, ratified by the State of Montana on May 15, 1985.

Subsection (b) Conditions of lease

With respect to lease of water rights subsection (b) states that (1) the lease or conveyance shall not exceed 100 years; (2) the lease or conveyance may be approved by the Secretary without monetary compensation to the Tribes; and (3) the Secretary shall not be subject to liability for any claim relating to the compensation or consideration received by the Tribes under this lease or conveyance. (my emphasis)

Subsection (c) No permanent alienation of water

Subsection (c) states that nothing in this section authorizes a permanent alienation of any water rights by the Tribes.

So the Fort Peck Indians are having thousands of acre feet of water transferred from their reservation, to the surrounding towns, without compensation.

Funny, when I first read this, I interpreted it to mean that the Fort Peck water system would serve Indians on the rez, and the Dry Prairie Rural Water District would serve Indians off the rez. Then I went and checked out the US census data: Glascow has a population of 3,253, 114 of which are Indian; Scobey has 1,082 residents, 8 of whom are Indian; Plentywood has a pop of 2,161, 20 of whom are Indians; and Culbertson is a little more diverse, with 716 residents, 43 of whom are Indians. In all toll, 185 Indians live in these communities of a little over 7,000 residents.

Okay, so Indians get screwed all the time, and there might be Indians support behind this. And a quick freeing of the Googling monkeys did in fact show that DPWA (the A actually stands for Authority, not Association as in the legislation's title) was formed with cooperation of local Indians. But a reading of the project's history should leave us a little concerned:

In 1992, the Fort Peck Tribes decided that the water problems on the reservation had to be addressed and began work on a water supply system for the southern half of the reservation. It was soon realized that if all the people on the reservation couldn't benefit from the system, federal funding would be difficult to secure.

In 1994, the system was redesigned to include the whole reservation with a one-phase construction plan to cut costs. It was then presented to Senator Conrad Burns who after study suggested it become a regional water system because areas outside of the reservation were experiencing similar water quality problems.

So essentially, Conrad Burns held much needed reservation improvements hostage so that his local rancher and farming buds could get their hands on clean, treated Indian water - free of charge.

Here's a pic of DPRWA's board of directors:

Look at all those Indians with shovels.

But to be honest, it wasn't the details of the legislation which first caught my eye. See, I'm quite familiar with the name Dry Prairie Rural Water Authority, as I saw it time and time again as I trudged through Greenberg Traurig's lobbying disclosure forms. According to a May, 2005 Great Falls Tribune article:

The Dry Prairie Rural Water System in northeastern Montana spent $510,000 in taxpayer money over five years on a team of Washington, D.C., lobbyists that included Jack Abramoff, who is being investigated for allegations he cheated Native American tribes out of millions of dollars.

The Dry Prairie Rural Water System in Culbertson spent more lobbying for federal money than any other rural water system in Montana or the Dakotas, where most federally funded and managed rural water systems are located, federal lobbyist disclosure forms show.

Jacobs and a spokesman for Abramoff, Andy Blum, said Abramoff never actually worked on the Dry Prairie account.

Another team member, Kevin Ring, said he took the lead and continues to handle the account to this day along with another former Abramoff team member, Neil Volz.

Both Ring and Volz are listed, along with Abramoff, as lobbyists for some of the tribes that now claim they were overcharged.

So not only did Abramoff NOT (wink wink) work on DPRWA with Ring at Greenberg Traurig, despited both being their registered lobbyists, he must NOT (wink wink) have worked on the account while he was at Preston Gates, where he was also listed as their lobbyist, along with Ring. (Ring was one of a group of Abramoff associates at Preston Gates who left with him to join Greenberg Traurig in 2001.) And shouldn't we be asking Senator John "I don't Know Jack" McCain why, when Ring provided the Senate Indian Affairs committee with crappy testimony last June on his relationship with gaming tribes, he didn't question him on DPRWA, particularly before authoring a bill providing his client with FREE Indian water?

From the Billings Gazette:

The Montanans who have hired Ring all praised his work, saying the lobbyist was influential in helping them secure the first major federal funding they ever received. But Ring's lobbying has come under scrutiny in the past. As a onetime associate of Abramoff, Ring is in the middle of an expanding lobbying scandal. Ring and former Burns staffer Shawn Vassell, another Abramoff associate, invoked their right not to incriminate themselves when questioned this summer about what they did and what they got paid when working for Abramoff.

At a hearing in June of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Ring refused to tell Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., what, if anything, he did to earn $125,000 paid by the Sandia Pueblo tribe in New Mexico. The tribe gave the money to Abramoff's lobbying partner, Michael Scanlon. Scanlon, in turn, gave the money to a consulting firm registered to Ring's Maryland home address.

"In fact, you didn't provide any services (to the tribe) according to the information that we have," McCain said at the hearing. Ring did not respond.

Ring also refused to tell McCain why his club dues at Washington's upscale University Club were charged to the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of Abramoff's clients.

McCain read an e-mail that Ring sent to Abramoff in which he asked whether there was any way to "bury" his club dues in the tribe's lobbying bill.

Shawn Vassell was also registered as a lobbyist for Dry Prairie Rural Water Authority. Didn't that make McCain go "hmmmm" before resubmitting Burn's legislation as his own?

More on Ring from the Tribune article:

Ring was critical in persuading the House Resources Committee to approve legislation authorizing the Dry Prairie system in 2000, Tubbs said.

At the time, Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., chairman of the Water and Power Subcommittee, was refusing to deal with a handful of bills authorizing rural water projects, including the proposed Dry Prairie and Lewis & Clark projects, Tubbs said.

Ring had just left Doolittle's staff when Dry Prairie hired him and, soon after, the water system's bill got out of committee and passed both houses of Congress, Tubbs said.

"The hiring of Ring was critical," he said. "He knew the pressure cap was about to blow off (the committee) and that the projects would pass. He made sure ours was one of them."

As Eric reminded me just this morning, in some parts of the West, water is more valuable than gold... or oil. As I've been saying regarding Abramoff - follow the money.