Learn About Our Mission to Preserve Deschutes Rivers

The Deschutes Basin Prior to the Treaty Between the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the US Government

​The Upper Deschutes River Basin has been home to Indigenous people for thousands of years. Original inhabitants including the Wasco, Warm Springs, and Paiute Tribes, all relied on the waters of the Deschutes and its tributaries for food, water and travel. Today these tribes are represented by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs of Oregon. The map on the right shows the location of the reservation as well as the Tribes’ ceded lands where Tribal members retained the right to hunt and fish for traditional foods, according to the Treaty of 1855. In addition, the treaty also ensures tribal members’ rights to gather traditional foods in usual and accustomed locations on 10 million acres throughout the greater Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California regions.

For the region’s indigenous communities who have lived on these lands since time immemorial, the relationship to water goes far deeper than the idea of using it as a resource. Water is an integral part of Tribal traditions, culture, spirituality and identity. Rivers are part of inter-dependent natural systems for which the Tribes act as stewards reaching forward in time for seven generations.

Westward Expansion and the Homestead Act

In a speech in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln told the nation that it was the purpose of the government to "elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial burdens from all shoulders, and to give everyone an unfettered chance in the race of life." The Homestead Act passed in 1862 was aimed at making good on this promise. Considered by historians as one of the country's most important pieces of legislation, the Homestead Act led to Western resettlement and gave opportunities for land ownership to ​immigrants willing to homestead - including formerly enslaved people, women, and immigrants. What the US Government considered "empty land" was the ancestral land of vast populations of Indigenous peoples, who were forcibly -- often violently -- removed from their homes and sent to designated reservations. As a result of the Homestead Act, 270 million acres in the West were "claimed" and newly resettled. Along with this resettlement, almost all the surface waters of the state were distributed to homesteaders to use on those resettled lands for irrigation purposes, leaving little-to-no water instream to support healthy rivers or the species and communities that depended on them.

Flow Restoration and Leadership in the Basin

In 1987, Oregon's legislature passed the Instream Water Rights Act, officially recognizing water left in-stream to be a "beneficial use" of water. This legislative change meant that the water needs of the river and fish could be considered alongside those of farmers, cities, and industry. Leaders came forth in the Deschutes Basin to spearhead a vision of a consensus-based, collaborative model with water equity in mind. Bob Main, previous Oregon Water Resources Department Water-master for the Deschutes Basin, came together with Warm Springs Tribal members Bobby Brunoe, Jim Manion and Jody Calica (represented by Jim Noteboom ​of Karnopp Petersen LLP) to create a cooperative organization that would focus on the aforementioned goals as well as undertake long-term water management planning for the basin. In 1992, Bob Main initiated the group's first project: leaving 2.5 cubic feet per second (CFS) of water in Tumalo Creek, which was previously diverted for irrigation. This was accomplished through negotiations between the fledgling organization's founding members and senior water right's holders, in order to preserve instream water quality and river function. This was the first success of many for what later became known as the Deschutes River Conservancy.

Founding members of the Deschutes River Conservancy. From left to right: Ron Nelson (Central Oregon Irrigation District), Zach Willey (Environmental Defense Fund), Jim Noteboom (Karnopp Petersen LLP), and Jim Manion (Confederated Tribes of the Warms Springs Reservation).