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Show USU speaker addresses Ute Indian water compact Lawyer Steven Boyden said that in lite of eight years of negotiation and the jvelopment of a water compact by presentatives of the Ute Indian Tribe, ate of Utah and federal government, ie compact is still not signed. The attorney was the first speaker in ie Utah State University Conservation 'eek Symposium Thursday. Boyden noted that when he, as the gal representatives for the Ute Tribe, ent into the sessions at the beginning the negotiations, he asked that hunting id fishing rights be included. These are aluable recreational and cultural spects of life to the Native Americans 'the Uintah Basin, he noted. They were not a part of the compact. After eight years of investigations and iscussions which included definition of pes of water uses, and how much water ould be diverted, off reservation leases nd use of water, prior appropriations ersus reserved appropriations, the Ute ribal chairman simply said she did not iMt to sign the compact, unless the tribe ould establish its hunting and fishing ights. Wat would entice her to sign? Boyden iked. "Nothing," came the response. With the impact in limbo, the attorney sited that several possibilities for get-agoff get-agoff dead center existed. The head of the tribe's leaving office las the first. She was reelected. A referendum was called. Not enough votes were cast to make a referendum legal. The Conservation Week speaker said at with a change of administration, the e would be well advised to aegotiate and move along. If they don't, there is the possibility of Ration, which will probably end in the sme situation, but down the road some tars. We final possibility is that the com-ct com-ct be sent to congress, ratified, and the Ganges made. a response to the talk, F. Ross Person, head of the USU Department 'History and Geography, said that who live in the West know that is sacred, and the issues of water rights have never been easy. "When you interject the Native American and reservation dimensions to an already complex situation, it is almost impossible to find a resolution. "The refusal to sign the compact," the historian said, "comes from experiences of the past, and the government's breaking break-ing treaties," Peterson noted that we think of the Native American as operating in our own ways, with referendums and elected officials, of-ficials, but, he pointed out, Indians still think individually. One point that is important regarding the Ute Compact, the USU historian said, is that there is a feeling in the Uintah Basin that Anglos don't really need the water; they are more interested in urbanization ur-banization where the Native Americans in the Uintah Basin feel that the Wasatch Front should face up to reality should face up to restricting population growth," the historian said. |