Although the rights of Indian reservations to water were specified by the Supreme Court as early as 1908, the settlement of Native American claims has become a crucial matter in recent years as economic and demographic growth in the West places extreme demands on this limited resource.

Brings together the views of engineers, lawyers, ecologists, economists, professional mediators, federal officials, an anthropologist, and a Native American tribal leader--all either students of these processes or protagonists in them--to discuss how the legitimate claims of both Indians and non-Indians to scarce water in the West are being settled.

Although the rights of Indian reservations to water were specified by the Supreme Court as early as 1908, the settlement of Native American claims has become a crucial matter in recent years as economic and demographic growth in the West places extreme demands on this limited resource. This collection of essays on Indian water rights seeks to assess these ongoing processes of conflict and accommodation among competing claimants. It brings together the views of engineers, lawyers, ecologists, economists, professional mediators, federal officials, an anthropologist, and a Native American tribal leader - all either students of these processes or protagonists in them - to discuss how the legitimate claims of both Indians and non-Indians to scarce water in the West are being settled. Because the number of cases settled to date is but a small fraction of those pending, this volume offers an invaluable perspective on an active issue and points to the need for negotiation rather than litigation. It complements the existing literature on water law with a divergence of outlooks on an issue of vast complexity.

NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRODUCT- OVERSTOCK SALE Significantly reduced list price The second volume of the history of the Bureau of Reclamation offers a discussion and examination of the eventful years in the latter part ofthe twentieth century. Volume two covers from the end of World War II through year 2000 and is the last volume in this project. "

These essays represent a reinterpretation of the American West in terms of the issues and subjects of late 20th century America. The emphasis is on younger scholars. The result is a basic book on the state and direction of Western history.

Since the beginning of the reservation era, the bitter conflict between Indians and non-Indians over water rights was largely confined to the courtroom. But in the 1980s the federal government began to emphasize negotiated settlements over lawsuits, and the settlements are changing water rights in fundamental waysÑnot only for tribes but also for non-Indian communities that share scarce water resources with Indians. In Native Waters, Daniel McCool describes the dramatic impact these settlements are having both on Indian country and on the American West as a whole. Viewing the settlements as a second treaty era, he considers whether they will guarantee the water future of reservationsÑor, like treaties of old, will require tribes to surrender vast resources in order to retain a small part of their traditional homelands. As one tribal official observed, "It's like your neighbors have been stealing your horses for many years, and now we have to sit down and decide how many of those horses they get to keep." Unlike technical studies of water policy, McCool's book is a readable account that shows us real people attempting to end real disputes that have been going on for decades. He discusses specific water settlements using a combination of approachesÑfrom personal testimony to traditional social science methodologyÑto capture the richness, complexity, and human texture of the water rights conflict. By explaining the processes and outcomes in plain language and grounding his presentation in relevant explanations of Indian culture, he conveys the complexity of the settlements for readers from a wide range of disciplines. Native Waters illustrates how America is coming to grips with an issue that has long been characterized by injustice and conflict, seeking to enhance our understanding of the settlements in the hope that this understanding will lead to better settlements for all parties. As one of the first assessments of a policy that will have a pervasive impact for centuries to come, it shows that how we resolve Indian water claims tells us a great deal about who we are as a nation and how we confront difficult issues involving race, culture, and the environment.