And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 11:07:07 EDT http://proxy-mail.mailcity.lycos.com/bin/redirector.cgi?http://www.lawnewsnet. com/stories/A2025-1999Jun4.html A $39M End to Tribal Troubles P. Kennedy Page The National Law Journal June 7, 1999 A major electric utility has agreed to pay $39 million over the next 44 years to an Indian tribe whose ancestors bartered with the Lewis and Clark expedition, as compensation for damage to the salmon and steelhead fishery caused by the construction and operation of hydroelectric dams, according to an attorney for the tribe. Avista Corp., formerly the Washington Water Power Co., represented by Paine, Hamblen, Coffin, Brooke, Miller, of Spokane, Wash., and the Nez Perce tribe of Boise, Idaho, which was represented by the Tribal Council's Office of Legal Counsel and Denver's Holland & Hart L.L.P., both credited a patient, two-year mediation process for a settlement that both described as fair. The settlement concludes a 1991 case, Nez Perce Tribe v. Washington Water Co., CV-91-00518-5-BLW, brought in the U.S. District Court of the District of Idaho by the Nez Perce against Washington Water Power, claiming damage to the salmon and steelhead fishery on the Clearwater River in northern Idaho. The tribe claimed that the fishery is guaranteed by a treaty from 1855. Peter C. Houtsma, who worked on the case for eight years out of the Holland & Hart office in Denver, described the mediation as a painstaking but ultimately satisfying process of bridging cultural gaps as well as resolving legal differences. The mediation process was overseen by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The mediator was Alice Shorett, of Triangle Associates of Seattle, Wash. "The tribe is very poor," Mr. Houtsma said. "They have no taxing base, and they didn't know if they could even front the costs of mediation. But WWP, to their credit, agreed to front the costs. "What was unique is, we had two parties from entirely different cultures, a large business that gets involved in litigation and a sovereign nation, the Nez Perce tribe, that does not often get involved in litigation," Mr. Houtsma noted. "The Nez Perce have their own court system and their own way of resolving disputes. The mediation process forced both sides to go outside the forums they would usually rely on to settle disputes." Avista Chairman and CEO Tom Matthews said in a statement that the "agreement provides a foundation for a long-term positive, mutually beneficial relationship between the Company and the Nez Perce tribe." Samuel N. Penney, chairman of the Tribal Executive Committee, said that the settlement gives financial stability to the tribe of 3,000, without compromising its cultural links to the salmon and steelhead in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest. This article will appear in the June 14, 1999 issue of The National Law Journal. Copyright ©1999 NLP IP Company -- American Lawyer Media. All rights reserved. Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
