Mni Sose Coalition Presentation - November 1996

On November 7, 1996, NAREEP Director Jim Williams and staffer Tom Starrs addressed the Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition board of directors on the topic of electric utility industry restructuring and its implications for Indian tribes. The Mni Sose Coalition, a consortium of twenty-four Midwestern tribes, invited Williams and Starrs to its quarterly board of directors meeting in Rapid City, South Dakota, to discuss energy issues of concern to its member tribes.

The Mni Sose Coalition was formed in 1993 to assert tribal claims to a fair share of the benefits from federal water development in the Missouri River basin. ("Mni Sose" is the Lakota name for the Missouri River.) Despite historical and legal rights to the water, tribes have received few of the multi-million dollar annual proceeds that flow from large-scale irrigation and hydroelectric schemes that flooded huge areas of tribal land and caused great suffering within reservation communities. Obtaining some of the long-overdue benefits from water developments such as the Pick-Sloan project, according to Mni Sose Coalition Executive Director Richard Bad Moccasin, "will provide a mechanism for Coalition tribes to pursue sustainable economies, cultural well-being, and sovereignty for tribal people in the watershed."

In his presentation to the board, Tom Starrs described the current restructuring of the electric utility industry, likening it to the restructuring of the telecommunications industry in the 1980s. Starrs recommended that Coalition member tribes get involved in negotiations at the state and federal levels in order to protect tribal interests, and suggested ongoing cooperation between the Coalition and NAREEP to track the restructuring process and analyze its implications for tribes. Jim Williams noted that "Mni Sose Coalition concerns with enhancing the technical capacity of tribes, obtaining accurate information regarding tribal resources, and developing sustainable, revenue-producing technologies on reservations dovetail very closely with NAREEP’s research and education mission. NAREEP looks forward to working with the Mni Sose Coalition and its member tribes in developing a path to a sustainable energy future."

Following the NAREEP presentation, the Mni Sose board of directors passed a resolution of support for NAREEP, citing the "benefits to Indian people" of NAREEP’s research. The resolution also praised NAREEP’s work in energy education with tribal colleges. Mni Sose Executive Director Richard Bad Moccasin and board Vice-President Randy Perez attended the NAREEP renewable energy workshop in summer 1996.