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Box 2574 :: :: Olympia, Wa Fido Net 1:352/333 :: :: 98507-2574 206-786-9629 :: :: USA The Quarto Mundista BBS :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: NATIONAL COUNCIL OF AMERICAN INDIANS Major Policy Resolution No. 5 NATURAL RESOURCES Adopted October 21, 1976 WHEREAS, the National Congress of American Indians recognizes the following immutable and undisputed principles: 1. Indian rights to their natural resources are private rights for the exclusive use and benefit of Indians and are not public rights to be controlled by the unilateral action of the United States or any of its officials; 2. Indian resource rights are inherent sovereign rights deriving from aboriginal ownership of the entire North American continent; these resource rights may extend beyond reservation boundaries to ceded areas or usual and accustomed places; 3. The United States has undertaken by treaty and by the laws of its and preserve Indian resource rights; 4. Federal trust responsibility requires that the United States and its officials respond to the will of the Indian people in the full enjoyment, development and use of their private natural resources; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the National Congress of American Indians strongly supports all necessary affirmative policies and programs within the Federal government for the following general purposes: 1. Protection of natural resources owned by Indians, by fostering developing that Indians expressly desire and by prohibiting development that Indian oppose. 2. Adequate funding for inventories of natural resources owned by Indians, to the extent that the inventories are desired by Indians involved. 3. Full protection and nondisclosure by the Federal government of all information related to those lands, including amendment of the Federal Freedom of Information Act, if necessary. 4. Enactment of necessary law to require that before any Federal agency takes any action that will in any way affect Indians or their natural environmental resources the involved agency notify the BIA and the affected Indian tribes or Indians and obtain their consent. 5. Immediate appropriation of adequate funds for highly intensified management systems for Indian natural resources, which systems and experts shall be under the sole control of the Indian tribes. 6. Amendment of the National Environmental Policy Act to make the Act inapplicable to Federal approvals of actions taken by tribes or Indians on private Indian trust lands. 7. Adequate financial and full technical support of tribal governments in developing and enforcing tribal laws and regulations governing and raising revenue from the use and protection of Indian natural resources. (Examples of such laws and regulations would be tribal codes for water, land use, environmental protection, mineral development, reclamation, forest practices and taxation of production.) 8. At a tribe's request, immediate cessation of plans for irrigation projects that benefit primarily non- Indians, and that use of water to which Indians have a claim under the Winters Doctrine. 9. Immediate implementation of adequately funded irrigation projects primarily to serve Indians. 10. Enact necessary legislation to exempt Indian water rights from adjudication or administration through state agencies or courts. 11. Immediate approval, if Federal or Tribal law requires approval, of tribal water codes to regulate all surface and ground water arising upon, bordering, flowing through or otherwise occurring on or under Indian reservations, or within the concept of "Indian country" as defined by or recognized under Federal statutes. 12. At a tribe's request, declaring a moratorium on all major agricultural, industrial or other projects using waters to which Indians have a claim under the Winters Doctrine, and cancellation of existing con- tracts relating to such projects until such time as the Indian water rights have been specifically and accurately measured by Indians and allocated to Indian uses. 13. Immediate cessation of,all projects developing Indian resources where the governing bodies of the Indian tribe affected have formally opposed further development, and where there is a violation of law. 14. Adequate funding for tribal land acquisition programs. 15. Return to tribal ownership all lands taken by the United States for various government projects that are now or will become excess to the needs of those projects. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To have a current Center For World Indigenous Studies Publication Catalogue sent to you via e-mail, send a request to jburrows@halcyon.com Center For World Indigenous Studies P.O. Box 2574 Olympia, WA U.S.A. 98507-2574 Fax: 206-956-1087 BBS: 206-786-9629