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TESTIMONY 



TO THE HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES SUB-COMMITTEE 



ON NATIVE AMERICAN AFFAIRS 



BY 



FRED DUBRAY 



MEMBER, CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX TRIBE 



PRESIDENT, INTERTRIBAL BISON COOPERATIVE 



The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is grateful for the opportunity to 

 present testimony before your sub-committee on behalf of the Tribe's 

 membership and as a member Tribe of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative. 

 We applaud the formation of this much needed sub-committee and 

 appreciate your concern regarding the management and preservation of our 

 precious fish and wildlife resources. We strongly support he drafting and 

 passage of legislation that will enhance our management capability and 

 ensure protection of tribal jurisdiction over our fish and wildlife resources. 



Throughout the past several decades the management of our trust 

 lands has been focused on livestock production, which is quite common on 

 most reservations throughout the Plains region. Being located in an area 

 where agriculture is the primary economic activity, the Tribe has been 

 influenced by the heavily subsidized agricultural programs that tend to 

 ignore provisions for fish, wildlife and recreational management, 

 consequently putting these resources in serious jeopardy. This lack of 

 support for our fish and wildlife resources has curtailed our efforts and 

 stunted the development of our management capabilities. 



More importantly, the lack of legislative protection for our fish and 

 wildlife resources threatens our sovereign jurisdiction over these resources as 

 illustrated by current litigation with the state in South Dakota vs Bouriand 

 and Rousseau. This case arises fi-om the state of South Dakota's assertion 

 that the tribe lacks the capability to adequately manage the "taken area" 

 lands along the Missouri River within the boundaries of the reservation. 

 This dispute has directly evolved fi-om the lack of legislative 

 acknowledgment of the tribe as a fixll participant in fish, wildlife, and 

 recreation management, and the lack of necessary fiinding. As typical in 

 most disputes between tribes and states, the state's prescribed solution is to 

 assume jurisdiction and management control of the resources in question 

 and consequently diminish Tribal authority and undermine the Tribe's 

 sovereign status. In order to insure our government to government 



