NPR: Oklahoma tribes continue talks to settle water rights suit

The Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations sued the state more than two years ago to stop Oklahoma’s City attempt to pipe water northwest from Sardis Lake. On Tuesday, all the parties involved asked for the case to be stayed a sixth time, for 120 more days.

University of Oklahoma law professor and tribal law expert Taiawagi Helton tells StateImpact the tribal governments claim pre-Civil War indian removal treaties gave them ownership of the water within their nations’ boundaries.

And despite siding with the Confederacy during the Civil War, their land being parceled out to individuals in the late 19th century, and eventual statehood, the tribes say their right to the water was never specifically taken away.