Power over water to Native American tribes: they will manage hydroelectric plants

NEW YORK – Native Americans don’t just have gas stations or casinos. After four years of tough negotiations, the native tribes have won another battle: they will have clean water, the guarantee that their sacred rivers will be preserved from pollution and salmon depopulation, and will be able to manage new hydroelectric plants.

The compromise, reached between the tribes of the Washington stateenvironmentalists and the hydroelectric industry, has now brought to Congress a package of laws to save the ecosystem and speed up the procedures for obtaining licenses in the management of plants.