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3 NU Forum 1 (1998)
Native American Sovereignty and the Clean Water Act: The Historic Judicial Treatment of Tribal Sovereign Powers and Recent Statutory Reforms

handle is hein.journals/nuf3 and id is 5 raw text is: NATIVE AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY AND THE CLEAN WATER ACT: The Historic Judicial Treatment of Tribal Sovereign Powers and Recent Statutory Reforms Stephen Greetham* When I was a kid in geography class, I was taught that water always flows downhill. What I've learned since is that water flows to money and power, wherever they may be. -Former Navajo Tribal Chairman, Peterson Zah' The unsettled issue of tribal sovereignty... cannot be separated from the interactions of three entities that typically exhibit competing interests: the federal government, the state, and the tribe. -Robert Sitkowski2 I. INTRODUCTION It is not a new argument that the United States has treated Native Americans unfairly. For simple yet powerful evidence, one need do little more than reach for a reporter of federal decisions. For the past century and a half, federal courts have whittled away at an operable definition of inherent tribal sovereignty,3 leaving it a weakened and often difficult to define legal concept. This hemming-in of tribal powers originally grew from the perceived necessities and prerogatives of Euro- *Law Clerk for the Honorable Christina Armijo, New Mexico Court of Appeals - Santa Fe; J.D. Northeastern University School of Law, 1998; B.A. Boston University, 1991. 'LLOYD BURTON, AMERICAN INDIAN WATER RIGHTS AND THE LIMITS OF LAW ix (1991). 2Robert Sitkowski, Commercial Hazardous Waste Projects in Indian Country: An Opportunity for Tribal Economic Development through Land-Use Planning, 10 J. LAND USE & ENvTL. L. 239, 246 (1995). 3The term inherent tribal sovereignty is used as distinct from delegated or statutorily expanded regulatory authority. See infra notes 120 and 121. The difference is the former flows from the prerogative of nationhood and natural law while the latter is premised upon a positive legislative act. This distinction is key to this article's exposition of tribal sovereignty.

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