"When Congress authorized the Central Arizona Project in 1968, one of the projects in the package was Orme Dam. It was to be a flood control and storage dam built at the confluence of the Verde and Salt rivers, near the Fort McDowell Reservation's southern border.

Waterwise, I suppose it wasn't a bad idea. Peoplewise, it was a terrible idea.

Orme Dam would have flooded about 15,000 acres of the Fort McDowell Reservation, roughly half of the Yavapais' land. In return, the tribe was to receive, if memory serves, about 2,500 acres of irrigated land.

It didn't take the people at Fort McDowell long to figure out they were getting the short end of the stick. In a referendum in 1976, the community voted by a margin of about 2-to-1 not to sell the land to the federal government. Other Indian communities, environmentalists and other groups rallied to support Fort McDowell, and the fight was on."

Get the Story:
Clay Thompson: Celebration marks defeat of dam idea (The Arizona Republic 11/10)

Relevant Links:
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation - http://www.ftmcdowell.org

Related Stories:
Arizona tribe celebrates defeat of relocation plan (11/22)