PELCYGER, ROBERT S. D2 1995.Wpd

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS Robert (Bob) S. Pelcyger Attorney for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë STATUS OF INTERVIEWS: OPEN FOR RESEARCH Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Interviews Conducted in 1995 Edited by: Donald B. Seney Professor of Government California State University–Sacramento Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Interviews conducted–1995 and 2006 Interviews further edited and desktop published by Brit Allan Storey Senior Historian, Bureau of Reclamation Interviews Published: 2013 Oral History Program Newlands Project Series Bureau of Reclamation Denver, Colorado SUGGESTED CITATION: PELCYGER, ROBERT (BOB) S., ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS. Transcript of tape-recorded Bureau of Reclamation Oral History Interviews conducted by Professor Donald B. Seney for the Bureau of Reclamation, in 1995 and 2006, in Reno, Nevada, and Boulder, Colorado. 1995 interviews edited by Donald B. Seney and all interviews further edited by Brit Allan Storey, senior historian of the Bureau of Reclamation. Repository for the record copy of the transcript is the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland, or in the regional office in the Denver, Colorado, area. Record copies of this transcript are printed on 20 lb., 100% cotton, archival quality paper. All other copies are printed on normal duplicating paper. i Table of Contents Table of Contents.. i Statement of Donation. xxiii Introduction. xxv Oral History Interviews. 1 Family, Early Life and Education. 1 Born in Brooklyn, New York.. 1 Raised in Brooklyn and Valley Stream, Long Island.. 1 Studied Philosophy at the University of Rochester in New York. 1 Attended Yale Law School. 2 Upon Graduation Spent a Year in England on a Fulbright Scholarship. 2 A Call from a Friend Resulted in Him Ending up on the Navajo Reservation for a Few Months on His Return from England.. 2 “. I remember going from . New York to London, England . going from, I don’t know, the twentieth to the nineteenth century, and then going from there to the Navajo Reservation, which was sort of the sixteenth century, and then to Los Angeles, which was the twenty-first . .”. 3 He Felt Comfortable on the Navajo Reservation, but His Wife Wasn’t. 3 “. when I graduated law school I not only had never taken Indian law or water law, which I guess are the two areas that I’ve come to specialize in, but I didn’t even know those areas existed as subjects. .”.. 3 “. I went to Los Angeles, where I basically worked out of UCLA Law School and provided legal services to small Indian tribes in Southern California. I was probably at UCLA I think for about two years, and then set up an office in Escondido, California . .”.. 3 “There are quite a few Indian reservations in Southern California–they are small . .”.. 3 Introduction to Indian Water Law. 4 The Winters Doctrine and Indian Water Rights in the West. 4 “. the time that I began practicing, the late 1960s, was . a period of awakening of Indian tribes to both their sovereignty and also their resources, and especially their water rights . .”.. 4 “. their water rights were predicated on a 1908 Supreme Court decision called Winters v. United States. But although the Supreme Court had decided the case in 1908, it had really been for the most part dormant doctrine, and most of the development that took place in the West was not consistent with the Indian water rights that had been enunciated by the Supreme Court. .”. 4 “. many tribes . were beginning to realize that . they had major claims to a very valuable resource. .”.. 4 The Winters Doctrine in the Context of Western Water Rights. 5 The Winters Doctrine Does Not Follow Traditional Western Water Law. 5 “. the priority attaches from time immemorial, and or the date of the establishment of the reservation . .”.. 5 Oral history of Robert (Bob) S. Pelcyger ii The Quantity of the Reserved Water Rights Is Still a Major Issue. 5 In Arizona vs. California the Supreme Court Declared Reservation Reserved Rights Were for “Practically Irrigable” Acreage on the Reservation.. 6 Ford Foundation Sponsors California Indian Legal Services, His Public Interest Law Firm Devoted to Indian Law. 6 “. California Indian Legal Services initially got a pretty small grant to start a national program. .”. 7 “. a couple of years later we moved to Boulder for a variety of reasons. It was always the intent that we would branch out after a while. But the Pyramid Lake case actually played an important role in the establishment of the Native American Rights Fund . .”. 7 Suing the Federal Government on Behalf of the Rincon and La Jolla Tribes. 7 “. the United States government, from time-to-time, considered what to do about the problem, and wound up doing nothing. So there was a statute that said that the United States Attorney shall represent Indian tribes . one of the things that I did in this case was file a lawsuit on behalf of this tribe, the Rincon Tribe, against the Attorney General of the United States . seeking an order compelling the Attorney General to represent the Rincon Tribe with regard to their water rights claims . I provided documentation to the court about . how many times the government was obviously aware of the situation . But they’d never done anything about it. So the judge issued an order directing the Attorney General to do something. .”. 8 Role of William Veeder in Calling Attention to Indian Law and Rights.. 8 “. he is a very, very strong advocate for Indian tribes. .”. 9 Met Veeder in Washington, D.C., Working on the San Luis Rey Case.. 9 “. I . was really scared . these water rights are extremely valuable. that was one reason why we sued the United States to . represent the tribe, because I knew that the other side would be very well-armed legally, and would have the best possible representation, and I was really frightened that I wasn’t up to the task, being so young and being so inexperienced and without even so much as a course, in law school about it. .”. 9 Bill Veeder Liked the Court Decision Forcing the Attorney General to Represent the Interests of Indians in Water Litigation. 9 “. we pointed out to the Ford Foundation . that water law was a major issue for Indian tribes, and if they were going to do a nonprofit law firm . they really ought to . make that a major priority. .”.. 10 The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, President Nixon’s Message on Indians, and the Federal Government’s Conflict of Interest in Indian Affairs. 10 “. Veeder introduced me to the lawyer at the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation. .” . 10 The Ford Foundation Grant Went to the Native American Rights Fund, and it Stipulated That the Fund Had to Pursue the Pyramid Lake Case. 10 President Nixon’s Presidential Message Highlighted Indian Issues and a Federal Conflict of Interest and He Cited Pyramid Lake as an Example. 11 “. The Orr Ditch case . Federal government . brought in 1913 to establish all the water rights on the Truckee River. the Federal government represented the interests of both the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and the Bureau of Reclamation History Program iii directly-competing interests of the Newlands Reclamation Project, and totally sacrificed and subordinated the rights of the tribe to the rights of the project . it was a very clear, very blatant example of this conflict of interest . .”. 11 Beginning to Work for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe: Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe v. Morton. 12 Moved the Work to Boulder, Colorado, in 1971 and Became the National American Rights Fund. 12 “. I was essentially special counsel to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, in which I did principally litigation . .”.. 12 Pyramid Lake and the Background of the Controversy. 13 “. from 1905 to 1967, about half the flow of the Truckee River was diverted to the Newlands Project. .”.. 14 “. dry years they took everything. And generally, they took every drop that was capable of being diverted. The mentality at the time was that any water that flowed to Pyramid Lake was wasted, and every effort was made to make sure that the minimum amount of water flowed to Pyramid Lake. .”.. 14 “. the result was that the level of Pyramid Lake dropped seventy feet, and that a delta was exposed at the mouth of the river where the Truckee River enters the lake. .”. 14 The Pyramid Lake Paiute Call Themselves Cui-ui Eaters, and the Change in the River Regime Because of Newlands Project Diverisons Adversely Affected Both Cui-ui and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Spawning. 14 “The cui-ui . is unique to Pyramid Lake . And . the cui-ui, were especially important to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indians. .”. 14 “. it was also very important for ceremonial purposes, all of their major celebrations had to do with the spawning of the cui-ui. .”.. 15 The Lahontan Cutthroat Went Extinct about 1940, but the Cui-ui, with a Forty Year Lifespan, Were Able to Survive Because Natural High Flows Allowed Them to Spawn Occasionally. 15 “. Pyramid Lake has an incredibly fertile and productive lake food chain . .” . 15 The Orr Ditch Case, a General Stream Adjudication. 15 The Government only Asserted a Small Water Right for Irrigation on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation. 16 The government did not forward water rights claims for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe because that would be “. inconsistent with the larger interests involved with the reclamation of arid lands in the West, which at that time was the predominant policy. .”.. 16 Secretary Udall Creates a Task Force on Pyramid Lake in 1964.. 17 Alvin Josephy’s Article about Pyramid Lake. ..

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