September 8, 1999
The Honorable Trent Lott
Majority Leader
United States Senate
487 Senate Russell Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2403

Dear Senator Lott:

The Western States Water Council, an organization of sixteen western states, and adjunct to the Western Governors’ Association, has for years actively supported the negotiated settlement of the water claims of Native Americans. The Council believes that the settlement of Native American water claims, and land claims, is one of the most important aspects of the United States’ trust obligation to Native Americans and is of vital importance to the country as a whole. The Council adopted a policy advocating the settlement of water claims in 1986 and has maintained this policy consistently since that date.

We commend the Administration for recognizing that settlement of the land and water claims of Native Americans is an obligation of the United States government and for adopting the policy that these claims should be settled. The Interior Department has devoted enormous effort towards effecting this policy, particularly in the last three years. However, unless current budgetary processes as applied to land and water settlements are changed, the Administration’s settlement policy will become a nullity.

Under current budgetary policy, funding of land and water settlements is considered to be discretionary, with the result that no settlement can be funded without a corresponding reduction in some other discretionary component of the Interior Department’s budget. The practical effect of this budgetary policy is to preclude the funding of land or water settlements. It is virtually impossible for the Administration, the States or the Tribes to negotiate settlements knowing that they will not be funded because funding can only occur only at the expense of some other Tribe or essential Interior Department program.

We believe that the funding of land and water settlements should be a mandatory obligation of the United States government. The obligation is analogous to, and no less serious than, the obligation of the United States to pay judgments which are rendered against it. We urge that steps be taken to change current budgetary policy to ensure that any land or water settlement, once authorized by the Congress and approved by the President, will be funded. If such a change is not made, all of these claims will be relegated to litigation, an outcome which ought not to be acceptable to the Administration, the Congress, the Tribes or the States.

We enclose herewith draft legislative language which, if enacted, would make mandatory the funding of any land or water settlement authorized by Congress and approved by the President. We acknowledge that there may also be other approaches to achieving the desired result and look forward to exploring these approaches as we move forward in resolving this vital issue.

Sincerely,

Francis Schwindt
Western States Water Council, Chair