TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The chairman of the Kickapoo Indian tribe in northeast Kansas wants Gov. Sam Brownback to intervene in its fight for a reservoir.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Steve Cadue was in Topeka on Friday to receive a proclamation honoring Kansas tribes.
While there, Cadue handed out a letter addressed to Brownback asking for help in the tribe’s long-running battle with the Nemaha Brown Watershed Board for a reservoir. The Kickapoo have sought to build the Plum Creek Dam for decades to ease water shortages on their reservation.
The Kickapoo and the water board came to an agreement in 1998 to build the dam, but landowners won’t sell their property to make way for the project and board members have declined to use eminent domain to enforce the agreement.