{"id":27154,"date":"2016-08-18T12:43:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T17:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=27154"},"modified":"2016-08-18T12:43:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T17:43:18","slug":"with-water-settlement-inked-tribes-now-selling-the-details-back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/08\/18\/with-water-settlement-inked-tribes-now-selling-the-details-back-home\/","title":{"rendered":"With Water Settlement Inked, Tribes Now Selling The Details Back Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27165\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27165\" alt=\"Members of the Choctaw Nation gather at the Hugo Community Center to hear details on the new water deal from attorney Michael Burrage.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/PHOTO-8-18-Pic1.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/PHOTO-8-18-Pic1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/PHOTO-8-18-Pic1-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/PHOTO-8-18-Pic1-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/PHOTO-8-18-Pic1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Choctaw Nation gather at the Hugo Community Center to hear details on the new water deal from attorney Michael Burrage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/tag\/tribal-water-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\">After five years of confidential negotiations<\/a>, the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations have <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/08\/12\/inside-the-landmark-state-and-tribal-agreement-that-ends-standoff-over-water-in-southeast-oklahoma\/\" target=\"_blank\">reached an agreement with the State of Oklahoma<\/a> over water in southeast Oklahoma. The deal has been praised by state leaders as a historic accord that ends the tribes\u2019 lawsuit that blocked Oklahoma City\u2019s plan to pump water out of the region. But the deal still has to be sold to tribe members in that part of the state.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/278834207&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">A different tone<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">At last week\u2019s announcement of the water deal in Oklahoma City, Gov. Mary Fallin took the stage with the chief and governor of two of the state\u2019s largest tribal nations. <a title=\"WaterUnityLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.waterunityok.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The theme was \u201cunity\u201d<\/a> and the atmosphere was celebratory.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The tone was more sober a few days later at a small gathering in Hugo. Choctaw Chief Gary Batton told his members the agreement was the best the tribe could hope for.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAm I joyous about this? Maybe not, but is it something I can live with and support? Yes it is,\u201d Batton said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Choctaw Nations is holding community meetings across southeast Oklahoma this month to explain the complicated water deal that\u2019s been negotiated in secret over the last five years.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The settlement ends a 2011 lawsuit brought by the Choctaws and Chickasaws to block Oklahoma City from pumping water out of Sardis Lake through a 100-mile-long pipeline. The tribes argued a <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/09\/19\/the-fight-for-southeast-oklahoma-water-has-19th-century-roots\/\" target=\"_blank\">19th-century treaty gave Native Americans control of the water.<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThey were wanting to take our water from southeastern Oklahoma,\u201d Batton said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16462\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16462\" alt=\"Sardis Lake is at the heart of the dispute over who controls water across southeast Oklahoma.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/09\/SardisByClayton.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/09\/SardisByClayton.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/09\/SardisByClayton-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/09\/SardisByClayton-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/09\/SardisByClayton-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Granger Meador \/ Flickr\/CC BY-NC 2.0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sardis Lake was at the heart of the dispute over who controls water across southeast Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">All parties involved agreed to a gag order that kept settlement negotiations confidential. These community meetings are giving the public its first peek into deliberations. Michael Burrage, the tribes\u2019 attorney and a former federal judge, said the state pushed hard to keep oversight in its own hands or court system.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe tribes, I don\u2019t want to say they distrust those people [the state], but we sort of do,\u201d Burrage told the Hugo audience. \u201cWe wanted the settlement agreement enacted into federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">New deal, past worries<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Under the agreement, a new commission of tribal and state representatives will evaluate any future plans to sell southeastern Oklahoma water to an out-of-state interest. It also establishes rules that govern the quantity of water that can be moved in-state, and under what conditions those transfers would be permissible. The rules were designed to protect Sardis Lake tourism, a major economic driver in southeast Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Oklahoma City already taps into nearby Atoka Lake, and the city has fewer restrictions for pumping its water. Burrage compared Atoka to \u201ca mud hole\u201d and said the water settlement will prevent the same thing from happening to Sardis Lake.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Some of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribe members at the Hugo meeting pointed to broken promises of the past, and wondered if the state would live up to its end of the deal. Chief Batton said federal recognition of the agreement will force the state to comply.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIf we get this passed into legislation, then as soon as we can show that they\u2019re watering their lawns while our lake is being dropped, then we can file a suit and get immediate relief so that they can\u2019t get any more water,\u201d Batton said. \u201cAnd I keep saying the thing that makes me feel a little bit better in my gut is that even though we\u2019ve gotten just a portion of it, it\u2019s better than nothing, and Oklahoma City did not take all of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_27134\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27134\" alt=\"Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby at a news conference announcing the water deal.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/20160811-water-agreement101_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/20160811-water-agreement101_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/20160811-water-agreement101_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/20160811-water-agreement101_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/08\/20160811-water-agreement101_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby at a news conference announcing the water deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In fact, attorney Burrage said Oklahoma City still hasn\u2019t received a permit for water from Sardis.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe tribes are not agreeing that Oklahoma City gets a permit for this water,\u201d Burrage said. \u201cAll we\u2019re agreeing to is that any permit that\u2019s issued has to meet these standards in regard to conservation, lake levels, in-stream flows. But we\u2019re not agreeing that they get it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">An acceptable compromise<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Tribe members filing out of the Hugo Community Center generally seemed pleased with what they heard about the historic water agreement. Linda Duggan said Choctaw leaders fought hard.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhen a compromise comes nobody gets everything they want,\u201d Duggan said. \u201cAnd the concern of the Choctaw Nation and a lot of Indians is to preserve our rights, and I think they\u2019re doing a good job at looking at that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Duggan and other tribe members are eager to resolve Oklahoma\u2019s long-standing water dispute, but they\u2019re still a little uneasy, because the U.S. Congress gets the final word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After five years of confidential negotiations, the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations have reached an agreement with the State of Oklahoma over water in southeast Oklahoma. The deal has been praised by state leaders as a historic accord that ends the tribes\u2019 lawsuit that blocked Oklahoma City\u2019s plan to pump water out of the region. But the deal still has to be sold to tribe members in that part of the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[364,351,163,538,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27154"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27173,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27154\/revisions\/27173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}