This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Students working at the Kiamichi Technology Center in Talihina , Oklahoma, produced this video, a segment featured in a larger story map that explored the history and contemporary water issues surrounding Lake Sardis, a man-made reservoir in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (00:00): Was you there before or when Sardis was being built?
Speaker 2 (00:03): It was country. In fact, I used to drive over the dirt roads over there and look at old cars and stuff before they built it. So, it started in the 1920s. Sardis and Tuskahoma Reservoir, which was never was built and Pine Creek and some of the other reservoirs. And so we fast forward into the '90s and Oklahoma owed a debt on Sardis of $26 million to pay the Corps of Engineers for building lake. And the state decided to work with Oklahoma City rather than southeast Oklahoma to pay off that debt. And so what the governor did, Governor Henry, he apparently approached Oklahoma City and says, "Hey, if you'll pay us the 26 million, we'll give you Sardis lake."
Speaker 2 (00:48): And so that was June the 10th, 2010. And it was at the water resources meeting in Oklahoma City. And Chief Pyle was there at the time offering the state of Oklahoma a 4 million check to pay on Sardis Lake, no questions asked, and we'll sit down and discuss the future of Sardis Lake. State of Oklahoma ignored the tribes and said, "We're going to let Oklahoma City have it," and sold the lake to Oklahoma City for $26 million.
Speaker 2 (01:13): Now what's wrong with that is the state cannot sell an asset that belongs to the people for less than market value. And Sardis lake would be valued at a half a billion dollars. State sold it for 26 million. So, there was 11 citizens that decided we're going to sue the state under the qui tam provision of the state constitution to recoup the cost that they cost the taxpayers in not getting what they should have gotten for the lake. And the legislature changed the law on qui tam, where the 11 couldn't do anymore. It took over a thousand people to sign the petition to sue in order to file the qui tam lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (01:44): And that's when the tribe decided to file their lawsuit, the Choctaws and Chickasaws against the state of Oklahoma over the Sardis Lake, selling the water of Sardis Lake. Now what people don't realize, because it's after that, the state of Oklahoma filed a suit against the citizens of southeast Oklahoma to prove they have rights to their water. It's called adjudication. Oklahoma is not an adjudication state, per se, but there's provision in the constitution that the state can sue an individual to determine if they have the rights to their water. In Oklahoma, we're a hybrid water law state.
Asset ID: 2022.17.01
Find a complete transcript, and see the companion story map: www.museumonmainstreet.org
