Tribes want order denying Oklahoma water rights

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Two tribes have asked a federal judge to declare that the state of Oklahoma and its capital city have no jurisdiction over water in southeastern Oklahoma and, therefore, have no right to transport it.

Four days after Attorney General Scott Pruitt asked the state Supreme Court to address a dispute over water rights, the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes were back in U.S. District Court asking that a judge settle part of their federal lawsuit without extended proceedings.

The request for partial summary judgment asks that a judge declare the tribes hold regulatory authority over water in southeastern Oklahoma under an 1830 treaty. The tribes also want an order that says their water rights pre-empt state law, though the state and city say the tribes relinquished their rights in later pacts.

Southeastern Oklahoma waters include Sardis Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers creation that has provided Oklahoma City and other central Oklahoma communities with water for about 50 years.

Pruitt filed papers Friday, Feb. 17 asking that the state Supreme Court take up the matter; the tribes submitted their motion Feb. 14 in a lawsuit filed last August against Gov. Mary Fallin, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and both the city of Oklahoma City and the city’s water trust.

Attorney Michael Burrage, who represents the tribes, said Pruitt’s state lawsuit doesn’t address the issues in the federal court case.

“The issues addressed in the federal court case deal with long-established rights that the tribes have under the treaties and case law that interprets those treaties,” Burrage said.

Pruitt said in a statement that the tribes claim control of all water in 22 counties in the southeastern corner of the state but no longer want to discuss water use.

“They indicated in their original lawsuit that the stream adjudication process was necessary. Since then they have reversed their position,” Pruitt said in a statement relayed by spokeswoman Diane Clay. “They are once again demonstrating they do not want Oklahoma citizens at the table when their water rights are decided.”

The tribes’ federal lawsuit seeks to bar the state and Oklahoma City from transporting water from the region, but Burrage said the tribes “are not seeking to disrupt anyone’s water supply at all.”

The two tribes have refused Fallin’s request to drop their lawsuit.