As the result of a Supreme Court Decision, it was decided that three of the tribes of Indian Territory were the owners of a portion of the Arkansas River bed. The Arkansas Riverbed Authority is an entity created jointly by the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee Nations to administer the tribally owned stretch of the Arkansas River between Muskogee Oklahoma, and Ft. Smith, Arkansas. To settle pending damage claims, the Congress passed the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nations Claims Settlement Act,
While the original Supreme Court Decision dealt with mineral rights under the river bed, aspects of the case may impact water rights in the State of Oklahoma.
Read more about this topic: Oklahoma Water Resources Board
Famous quotes containing the words arkansas and/or authority:
“The man who would change the name of Arkansas is the original, iron-jawed, brass-mouthed, copper-bellied corpse-maker from the wilds of the Ozarks! He is the man they call Sudden Death and General Desolation! Sired by a hurricane, dam’d by an earthquake, half-brother to the cholera, nearly related to the smallpox on his mother’s side!”
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who claims authority as a member of an élite which knows the law in some field or other, is an object of distrust and resentment.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)