Final ‘Nations’ talk to focus on water

Water rights in the Bighorn Basin have long been a contentious issue for the many stakeholders. Nobody is more acutely aware of that than the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes living on the Wind River Indian Reservation, which have been locked in litigation for decades over how the basin’s water should be distributed. It is anticipated that issues surrounding water and natural resources will only become more contentious as environmental conditions becomes increasingly erratic and extreme. On Wednesday members of the tribes will discuss water and environmental challenges facing the reservation during the third and final event of the “Nations Within a Nation” series launched this fall by Central Wyoming College and several partners...Spoonhunter recounted a history of court battles and cases won without compensation in Wyoming. “We are winning cases,” she said, “but so far we are not being awarded any of the money to help put in infrastructure to manage the water.” As a result, Spoonhunter said, the tribes are unable to properly manage and store the water from the basin as it flows unimpeded to surrounding ranchers...MORE