The Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights

In 1993, the Missouri River Basin Indian Tribes in EPA Regions 7 and 8 formed the Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition to create a unified voice for addressing Native American water resource issues. The nonprofit Coalition promotes the health, education, and welfare of its member Tribes; supports their economic growth and development; and provides educational and training opportunities for its members in the development, assertion, enhancement, and protection of their water rights.

CBEP Capacity-Building Goals

The Coalition, in collaboration with the EPA, has established the following CBEP capacity-building goals:

Enhance tribal planning systems;
Identify environmental justice issues on tribal homelands;
Support the establishment of tribal infrastructure created to leverage resources to conduct research and natural resource planning;
Help tribal leaders and natural resource administrators evaluate alternatives in remediating environmental problems;
Provide training and environmental education to tribal natural resource managers and tribal leaders related to priority environmental problems;
Establish a framework for interagency participation with Tribes on environmental activities in the Missouri River Basin;
Assist the Missouri Basin Tribes in conducting environmental assessments.

Recent Project Activities

The Coalition has completed the following projects toward achieving these capacity-building goals:

A "guidebook" identifying federal resources for addressing environmental problems;
Geographical Information System (GIS) and data interpretation training for tribal natural resource staff, and a repository system of GIs data for tribal access and use;
A public information kit that describes how CBEP works to preserve and enhance traditional Native American ways of life and how Tribes use CBEP to solve their environmental problems;
An assessment of the federal government's management of the Missouri River;
Enhancement of the tribal natural resource staff's community outreach capabilities for developing partnerships with local stakeholders, federal agencies, and tribal leaders;
Community profiles for tribal Nations in the Missouri River Basin; and
Negotiations and priority-setting workshops for member Tribes.

The Coalition of Tribes

Mni Sose (Lakota for Missouri River) is currently comprised of 27 of the 28 Indian Tribes located in the Missouri River Drainage Basin. The Tribes are geographically distributed from the headwaters in Montana to the mouth of the Missouri River in Kansas and Missouri.

Region 7

Kickapoo
Omaha
Prairie Band of Potawatomi
Ponca Sac & Fox Nation
Santee Sioux
Winnebago

Region 8

Cheyenne River Sioux
Chippewa Cree
Crow Creek Sioux
Spirit Lake
Fort Belknap
Assiniboine & Sioux
Lower Brule Sioux
Northern Cheyenne
Oglala Sioux
Rosebud Sioux
Yankton Sioux
Flandreau Santee Sioux
Crow
Standing Rock Sioux
Three Affiliated Tribes
Siseton-Wahpeton Sioux
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa
Wind River (E. Shoshone & N. Arapaho)

Mni Sose Promotes

Tribal inclusion into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Master Manual Review Process.
Equitable participation in the benefits of the Missouri River Basin Pick-Sloan program, authorized by Congress December 22, 1944 for flood control, navigation, irrigation, and hydro power, which would be implemented by the construction of the main stem dams on the Missouri River.
Equitable distribution of hydropower benefits derived from the utilization of tribal water resources.
The establishment of a Secretarial advocate who will protect a quantity of water in the Missouri River main stem, its tributaries, and its aquifers for future use by the Tribes of the Missouri River Basin.
The lifting of the Secretary of the Interior's moratorium on the approval of certain tribal water codes.
The development of a national Indian water policy, in close consultation with Tribes.

Mission Statement

The Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition's mission is to protect and defend the Winters Doctrine (reserved water rights) and other water rights of Indian Tribes in the Missouri River Basin, whether based on riparian or prior appropriation principles and/or recognized under treaty, federal law, international law, tribal law, or other local law in coordination and collaboration with member Tribes. The Coalition is organized and operated according to the requirements of the Coalition member Tribes and the United States regarding the existence and operations of non-stock, non-profit corporations.

Mni Sose's Organizational Capabilities

Coordinates communication, including a computerized information network, for the Missouri River Basin Tribes.
Offers technical assistance to address tribal water resource problems and issues.
Provides forums to allow Tribes and agencies to work cooperatively.
Helps Tribes determine their need for governmental agencies' resources.
Interfaces with federal, state, public, and private agencies involved in water resource issues.
Centrally located in an up-to-date office in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Contacts

Talva Hayes
U.S. EPA, Region 7
(913) 551-7416

Kim Olson
U.S. EPA, Region 7
(913) 551-7539

Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition
(605) 343-6054