Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 102 Part 3.djvu/597

 PUBLIC LAW 100-512—OCT. 20, 1988

102 STAT. 2549

Public Law 100-512 100th Congress An Act To provide for the settlement of the water rights claims of the Salt River PimaMaricopa Indian Community in Maricopa County, Arizona, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the "Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988". SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

(a) The Congress finds and declares that— (1) it is the policy of the United States, in fulfillment of its trust responsibility to Indian tribes, to promote Indian selfdetermination and economic self-sufficiency, and to settle, wherever possible, the water rights claims of Indian tribes without lengthy and costly litigation; (2) meaningful Indian self-determination and economic selfsufficiency largely depend on development of viable Indian reservation economies; (3) quantification of rights to water and development of facilities needed to utilize tribal water supplies effectively is essential to the development of viable Indian reservation economies, particularly in arid western States; (4) on June 14, 1879, the United States Government established a reservation for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Maricopa County, Arizona, at the confluence of the Salt and Verde Rivers tributary to the Gila River; (5) the United States, as trustee for the Community, obtained water entitlements for the Community pursuant to the Kent Decree of 1910 and the Bartlett Dam Agreement of 1935; however, continued uncertainty as to the full extent of the Community's entitlement to water has severely limited the Community's access to the water and financial resources necessary to develop its valuable agricultural lands and frustrated its efforts to reduce its dependence on Federal program funding and achieve meaningful self-determination and economic selfsufficiency; (6) litigation to determine the full extent and nature of the Community's water rights and those of its allotted land owners, and damages thereto, is currently pending before the United States District Court in Arizona and in the United States Claims Court. The United States, as trustee for the Community, also has filed claims for the Community's water rights in the General Adjudication of the Gila River System and Source currently pending in the Superior Court of the State of Arizona in and for the County of Maricopa;

Oct. 20, 1988 [H.R. 4102]

Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988. Public lands.

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