|
|
|
Return of the Water Horse
E. RICHARD HART
Public sector work in history can have major impacts: determining ownership of beds and banks of large navigable lakes and rivers, which in turn may result in hundreds of millions of dollars of judgments; but determining the ultimate disposition of an old Indian dug-out canoe can be the most rewarding of tasks.
|
|
|
|
IF KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and the dissemination of knowledge is democracy, then correcting history in the legal system protects the public's interest in that democracy. So, contrary to popular opinion, the study of history can have a big, contemporaneous impact on large numbers of people, at every level of their lives. A couple of the recent large projects on which I worked had just such outcomes. And that is gratifying. At the same time, it is sometimes the smaller public sector projects, with little or no funding, that I personally find most rewarding. |
1
|
|
My public sector work in history began over thirty-five years ago, at the American West Center at the University of Utah, where, before actually introducing me to tribes and before I could actually work for tribes, Floyd A. O'Neil had me do things like index the entire run of Harper's Weekly for articles on Indians. My experience at the center helped me later become the director of the Institute of the American West in Sun Valley, Idaho, and then executive director of its successor, the Institute of the NorthAmerican West in Seattle. For nearly twenty years, the institute sponsored conferences, publications, and public radio and television programming, focusing on critical issues in the West. Major projects centered on such topics as the future of agriculture in the Rocky Mountains and Indian self-rule, and resulted in some valuable and interesting books.1 My work with tribes began in the late 1960s and has continued to the present. I provided expert testimony in two Zuni land claim trials, as well as in cases about water and about the religious use of traditional trails.2 I have also worked with a number of other tribes, both as an expert witness, and as a facilitator on tribal history projects. I currently run a small business, Hart West & Associates, that provides expert testimony in history and ethnohistory.3 |
2
|
|
Between 1996 and 2001, my company provided expert testimony for the United States Department of Justice on a case dealing with Indian submerged lands. Under the "Equal Footing Doctrine" the law presumes that the beds and banks ("submerged lands") of navigable bodies of water are the property of the state in which they are found, unless the United States reserved them for some other purpose or tribe prior to statehood. In 1981, the Supreme Court, in Montana v. United States, reinforced the "strong presumption" that submerged lands go to states, to insure that each state has entered the union on an equal footing with the original thirteen colonies.4 Don't let your eyes glaze over just yet. It gets interesting. In 1873, the president issued an executive order establishing a reservation for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, a reservation that included within its borders beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene and a portion of the Coeur d'Alene River and the St. Joseph River. The governor of the Territory of Idaho was a member of the commission that negotiated the boundaries of that reservation with the tribe. He reported that the boundaries of the reservation were established in a manner designed to protect tribal fishing rights and a future mill site on the Spokane River bed. In 1887, the tribe reached an agreement with the United States to cede that portion of its aboriginal territory found outside the 1873 reservation in exchange for $150,000 and a guarantee that their reservation would not be taken from them without their consent. In 1889, the tribe reached an agreement to cede the northern portion of the reservation, including roughly the northern two-thirds of Lake Coeur d'Alene in exchange for $500,000. Congress passed an act ratifying both the 1887 and 1889 agreements in 1891. The State of Idaho was established by an act of 3 July 1890. Yes, you noticed, Idaho became a state one year prior to the ratification of the 1887 and 1889 agreements. But Congress made it clear it meant to reserve the submerged lands prior to statehood.5 |
. . . |
There are about 2594 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
