man: in the american west, most of the land is public land. it's owned by all of us. lower 48 than in nevada, wherehe close to 90% of the land is owned by the federal government. it's owned by us. chisholm: particularly in nevada, so many people are oriented to spending time out on public lands, whether you hunt, you fish, you just enjoy it casually, you horseback-ride, you're a rancher, you're a miner, you're a farmer. whoever you are, you spend time out on your public lands, and it's an amazing part of our legacy, and it's something that really distinguishes the united states, distinguishes nevada as a great, great place to live. baca: one of the beauties of nevada is that we have these millions and millions of acres of public lands, but sometimes this can lead to conflicts, as you have generations of people who come through and engage with the land in different ways. [applause] nancy pelosi: today we unveil a portrait of one of the greatest leaders the senate has ever known hillary clinton: both a trusted colleague as well as a friend. jobiden: iove you, pal. i know that embarrasses you, but i do. [applause] [camera shutter clicks] harry reid: when i retired from the senate, we had hundreds and hundreds and huneds of boxes of papers. archivists, when they start inventorying this, found out more of a half of thstuff that i did in the senate, well, dealt with the environment. people have asked me on a number of occasions, "how come you became interested in environment?" it was because of piute springs. oh, it was a place of my dreams. for a young boy, it was beautiful. they had great big, tall cottonwood trees. most of all, there was a fort there. it was called fort piute. it was made out of rock. it had been built in 1864 to track the mail routes. you can still see some of the windows where the gunning placements were. there were ponds and you had lily pads, cattails. i mean, unbelievable. i mean, gee whiz, as a little boy ming from searchlight. as i look back, growing up in searchlight, i couldn't believe where i was raised. i was born in my parents' house in searchlight. we didn't have much money, but they left me something better. they taught me that by hard work, in america, you can succeed. my dad was a hard rock miner who--a lot of times, he worked and nobody paid him, and when they paid him, the checks bounced. my mother took in wash. now, you might ask, in a town of a few hundred people, whose wash would she take in? when i grew up in searchlight, it was a town of prostitutes. at one time, we had as many as 13 bordellos in searchlight. searchlight itself had no trees, no grass. it was just a place where there was no water. i'd wanted to go back to piute springs cause as a boy, my youthful mind, it was like paradise. and i went back. somebody had burned the trees, the big cottonwood trees. the fort had been knocked down. the lily pads were gone, the ponds were gone. i felt so bad about that. if we couldn't protect that gem of the desert, then we're in big trouble as a country. christensen: so reid's had a very interesting, "only in nevada" kind of political career. woman: congressman harry reid, the first district, whichsents includes las vegas. man: graduated from utah state and earned his law degree from george washington school of law in washington, d.c. woman 2: and served in the nevada assembly from 1969 to '71. reid: i'm out with a couple of my friends. one of them ju nonchalantly says, "why don't you run for lieutenant governor?" "hmm. never thought of that. ok, i'll run for lieutenant governor." that was my preparation for running for lieutenant governor. woman: he was lieutenant governor of nevada from 1971 to '75. christensen: then, in 1974, he ran for u.s. senate against paul laxalt. reid: i never lost anything. freshman, sophomore class president. christensen: lost by 524 votes. he went back to las vegas, ran for mayor, lost again. reid: nobody knew who i was. o'callhan: i first met harry reid when was teaching high christensen: then mikeada. o'callaghan appointed him to the gaming commission... reid: regular meeting of the nevada gaming commission is called to order. christensen: where he played a mob from the gambling industry. man: the chairman called me a liar. you can dish it out, but you can't take it, can you, harry? christensen: then, in 1982, with nevada's booming population, the state got a second congressional district. reid: we need to get people who appear in the halls of congress who speak for the consumer. christensen: and harry reid ran for that new open seat and won. and that was the beginning of his long congressional career. reid: i will continue to be nsistent... conservation, you know, is not a democratic issue. to be independent... tv announcer: independent like nevada. reid: and to work hard for oustate. this is gridlock in spades. and i'll always do what i think is right for nevada. christensen: when he won that congressional seat in 1982, nevada was still seen by many as a wasteland. [wind howling] tv narrator: the nevada desert, some of the most desolate acres to be found anywhere in the united states. chisholm: the federal government's role in nevada has been one of using it, quite frankly, as a colony. goes back to the mining history, where the mines generated all the wealth for san francisco, but also were important to the union cause. it goes to the cold war, when it was the testing ground and proving ground for the atomic weapons. at the height of the cold wa the u.s. government was testing atomic weapons above ground, underground, just 90 miles from las vegas. tv narrator: the nevada test site. it's sort of a backyard workshop. [explosions] ok, so nevada is important. chisholm: people would watch mushroom clouds from las vegas. cocktails were named after the atomic tests. i mean, it's absurd to think that we were allowing the type of atomic testing that was curring so close to a population center. man: ...minus one minute. chisholm: it was as a result of the cold war, the atomic testing that people really came to see nevada as being a wasteland. narrator: ...in the new world of the atomic age. [poignant music plays] [slide projector clicks] baca: it's interesting. in nevada, where we have these incredible wilderness areas, we have these beautiful night skies, there are so many assets. however, we had no national parks. so few places were really being celebrated for the incredible beauty that they had. christensen: when reid got into congress, he wanted to change that. wanted to put nevada on thmap in a different way. reid: i wanted to do sometng about wilderness. becausnevada was growing so fast, i knew people unintentionally would ruin the environment. i had a press secretary. i'd been out looking around rural nevada, and she called me. she said, "senator, i'm in ely. these people up here think you should forget about this wilderness thing and go for a national park." chisholm: before harry reid was elected to congress, if you were an environmentalist in nevada, you didn't have a friend in congress. in fact, you had people who were working against you. laxalt: the values i have now are very much the values of having been raised in an old-country family, first generation, and also of small-town values. reid: a national park, which i want for nevada, it would behe first park in the united states in almost 15 years... christensen: reid advocatin for a big park of 129,000 acres that would cover the entire wheeler range. laxalt and the other senator, chic hecht, want a smaller park of 44,000 acres to protect the mining and ranching interests. tv reporter: the town of ely could experience the most impactfrom the great basin tional pk. manresidents believe that the park' popularityould spill or into ely and rejuvenate an otherwise dormant economy. christensen: when he heard that there was support for a national park, he saw a solution. reid: i was willing to compromise snificantly. laxalt didn't kill it. i'm sure he could have, but he didn't. because of him, i made it smaller than it should have been, and i also allowed grazing on it. cows and shp could graze there. i got it passed, and so there was talk about the secretary of agriculture at that time. was recommending to president reagan to veto that. ronald reagan: democrats and republicans must join together not to do what's easy, but to do what is right. reid: so i called william penn mott, the rector of park service, and i said, "mr. mott, there's talk about vetoing my park. how do you feel about it?" he said, "i, as a young park ranger, was asked by one of the senators from nevada to go out and find a place in nevada for a park." and he said, "i spent a lot of time, and i found the place at weler peak. no one's going to veto this park." he says, "i have been in favor of this park for over 50 years." mott: congre recognizes that here, we do have natural resources of national significance. now that it's a national park, people will begin to understand that, and as we begin to interpret the natural and cultural values, it'll be clear that this truly is a national park. tv narrator: on october 17, 1986, president reagan signed legislation designating a carefully prescribed area as the great basin national park. senator harry reid, during his tenure in congress, was instrumental in the park's final push through congress. reid: this state is beautiful. we're now going to have a national park. it's a place of intersecting mountain ranges. it's a place of beauty, and we want people to know of nevada as something other than a place to set off bombs and to store nuclear waste. christensen: i think we can see this first big victory as confirmation for reid himself that he can get things done in congress. great basin national park is significant in an interesting other way. when the rk was being inaugurated, he was supposed to fly out there to join the ceremony, but the weather was too bad, and so he ove up eastern nevada. it's a couple hundred miles. reid: and all the way, from alamo up, there were great fields of grain. what are they growing there? they were growing alfalfa, all these huge alfalfa fields. [slide projector clicking] 'cause we have so much sunshine, they get as many as 5 or 6 cuttings each year and bundle up for hay. alfalfa's one of the most water-intensive plants there is, so i thought to myself as i drove up there, "how are they able to grow that?" it's not from rainfall. las vegas has 4 inches a year. it's being irrigated. it's irrigated la. [slide projector clicks] [water sloshing] for lifen the american westal also f agriculre. in tems,ut stern pa of the united states and in the midwest, agriculture can suive on rainfall. in the american west, it's dependent on irrigation. and late in the 19th century and early in the 20th century, settlers realized that to have agriculture at the scale that they envisioned, couldn't just be done with local, small irrigation projects, but required massive federal investments for dams and reservoirs and cans, and leveling fields and valleys to make agriculture possible, to make the desert bloom. this was called reclamation. narrator: parched scrubland was turned into green farms. reid: the idea with reclamation was to find a way to harness particularly rivers in the west to put people and support families out on the ground, to expand agriculture. people weren't really looking at what was the impact on native americans, what was the impact on our rivers, our fish. people didn't thinkbout that. [gavel pounds] from nevada has the floor.r id: fit bureau of reclamation project ever to take place in the united states took place in nevada--the newlands project. [bell dings] the newlands project was funded for one reason: nevada has a shortage of water. christensen: what the newlands project did was to dam the truckee river and divert that water over to the carson river basin to expand agriculture around the farming community of fallon. it also dammed the carson river and set up a network of canals to supply water to farms in what came to be called the truckee-carson irrigation district. ernie schank: i am a native nevadan. i was born in fallon. i live on the same ranch--in fact, i live in a house that my grandfather built in about 1930. i am the youngest who ever ran for the board of directors for the truckee-carson irrigation district. my main occupation, however, is a farmer. this is what i love. our farm is now in the fifth generation. our family came to the fallon area in 1929, and when i asked my grandfather why, he said he wanted to go to a place where reclamation was in its infancy. the mormon pioneers pioneered reclamation as we know it today. they came to what was considered a wasted area because nobody thought that you could grow crops, but when they got here, they determined that if they would dam the streams and build reservoirs, that soil could become very fertile. [water sloshing] baca: however, what they did not take into consideration was the the truckee river itself andn pyramid ke and osome of the on this water system. dependent ater splhing] man: this lake came under a great peril beginning of the last century because water was diverted from here for other uses, primarily truckee-carson irrigation disict in fallon. it silted up the aa, made spawning very bad. it was very difficult for the fish to find places to spawn, the beds were wiped out. not only did the lake go down, but the timing of the water and how it came down and what it came down with, the cleanliness, all of that, was just a big problem. tv announcer: since it is shrinking, the lake is becoming le pure. it's ha to predict how long it may be before fish can no longer survive in it. young el i wouldmagine, by the turn of the century, the fisheries would be eliminated entirely. tv narrator: just 3 fish today, where there once were thousands. man 2: then they murdered the murders what iis.. just a ely: at one point, the lahontan cutthroat trout were extinct in this lake. we were very much afraid that the cui-ui were going to become extinct as well. tv narrator: pyramid lake is the only place they're found in all of the world. ely: we're cui-ui ticutta. we're cui-ui eaters. we fish for them, we eat them, and we want to do that again. when i was a kid, about this time of year, your es would be listening and u'd hear somebody say, "they're running" 'cause we knew the cui-ui were running. and when the cui-ui ran, you'd come to the lakeshore and there were people all up and down the lakeshore, catching cui-ui. so it was just this time of laughter and talk, and it was like a celebration. well, my kids have never experienced that. i'm the last generation to experience that. grandkids haven't experienced it. they don't know at all. [applause] weeeded to fix that. we're out to protect our livelihood. we're out to protect our way of life. those things that we hold near and dear to us, which are part of our identity, part of who we are, we want to protect that and keep that integrity in place, and we are willinto do whatever it takes to do so. mid-part of the century, we decided to take it on ourselves. we were forced into a position of having to use the endangered species act. baca: many people probably don't realize that president nixon signed into law the clean water act and the endangered species act. richard nixon: each of us all across this great land has a stake in maintainingnd improving environmental qualit or never. the environmentaly now agenda now before the congress includes laws to deal with water pollution, ocean dumping, careless land development, and many other environmental problems. these problems will not stand still for politics or for partisanship. [tv clicksff] ely: we went to court and we took it on, and we were litigating it for years and years; decades, in fact. if the cui-ui go, that's a very intrice part of our way of life, and it goes, a big portion of our culture and tradition goes with it. man: well, if you didn't have the water, there'd be no farming. we have the water. presently, we have the water, and everybody else is wanting our water. man: we make a lot better use and more of a multiple use of the water within this irrigation district than i think is possible in pyramid. they should be compensated. tv anchor: the indians here filed suit in federal court to stop the diversion of waters bound for pyramid lake. ely: the supreme court ruled on behalf of the fish... [gavel pounds thrice] because at that time, the lahotan cutthroat trout had been listed as threatened and the cui-ui as endangered. baca: winning that case, for the pyramid lake paiute, was really a landmark moment. it created the ability to actually negotiate and frame things in a different way so that they could come in and leverage a new deal. chisholm: it was a complete shock to the system. the urban areas all of a sudden realized something that they thought they had been counting on wasn't going to be available, and it meant working with the tribe. reid: we have to resolve thi issue. if not, it is going to be a long time before it can be worked out, if, in fact, it ever can be because each year that goes by, more demands are placed on the river systems. woman: a new water report indicates the truckee meadows will not have enough water to meet the demands here 50 years from now without a negotiated settlement or a water pipeline. reid: reno was growing significantly, and the business community, ty knew tha something had to be done or they were goi to not be able to buy any more water. woman on tv: an unforeseen jump in water consumption indicated that the day of reckoning about the water supply situation is rapidly approaching. christensen: so, at the same time that this is happening on the ground in nevada, paul laxalt is in washington, d.c., trying to push through a compact between california and nevada that would have divided the waters of the truckee river. he wanted to settle the water wars, but in the process, he also wanted to extinguish any possibility that the pyramid lake paiute tribe could claim more water on the river. when you have a compact between two states, it has to be approved by congress. that's why it was so important for laxalt to get this compact, so he called a meeting with the tribe. ely: we had to go to washington, d.c., and we had a meeting behind closed doors with our 4 congressional delegation. christensen: so imagine you're joe ely of the pyramid lake paiute tribe, in your 20s. you're called in to a meeting with one of the most powerful men in america, senator paul laxalt. with him, nevada senator chic hecht, congresswoman barbara vucanovich, and harry reid. ely: we knew prior to the meeting where senator reid was on this issue. we had a pretty good idea that he would assist us in this process. reid: yeah, i remember the meeting. i didn't say a word. i just watched. ely: senator laxalt is the one that took charge of the meeting, and it was very short. he called a meeting to inform us that he was going to have the california-nevada interstate compact ratified, that he understood that we didn't like it, but that was too bad. and then he said, "i want you to understand this. i want you to understand that we're going to get this ratified, and we're going to get it passed." and he says, "do you understand me?" i said, "yes." and he got up a little bit. he says, "do you understand me?" i said, "yes," then he says, "do you understand me?!" and he stuck his finger about that far from my face. i walked outside and said, "we're going to kill that compact, a we're going to get this thing settled." christensen: so, over the next weeks and months, they walked the halls of congress, they knocked on every door. they met with the press, they talked to representatives and senators, and they told them what an injustice this compact would be. these representatives and senators had not heard this side of the story,ut as they began to hear what the cost of this compact would be for the pyramid lake paiute tribe, they began to question the compact. re: by theime that i was compt, ilready kw my way around theouse of representives, so i felt that i was in a better position than they were, "they" meaning the laxalt folks. and then i did what i could just to throw a monkey wrench in everything. if i didn't want it done, it wouldn't get done. and the first hearing was in the house, and i didn't know the indians at all, but a number of them came from nevada tribes, and they stood and objected to what he was trying to do. it surprised everybody in nevada 'cause you had paul laxalt and all these big shots, were trying to push this through. and these indians stood up and took them on, and the house members felt it was wrong, they were being, as usual, preyed upon. those indians enlightened me. they stopped it, and i decided after that to try to be some help to them. [applause] man: harry reid is the man. i think he's going to make it. id: thanyou very much. chstensen:he falof 1986... man: i'm kind of leaning toward harry reid. man 2: personally, i think he's a little wishy-washy. woman: i'm going to support harry reid. woman 2: senator paul laxalt will be retiring at the end of this term. laxalt: i've done my political bit, and that's it for me. [lively tune playing] reid: i've never taken mgood fortune for granted. there's one other thing i've never taken for granted, and that's you. [rousing music pys] tom brokaw: there were enough voteto bring about a fundamental shift of power in washington. in nevada, congressman harry reid was a giant killer, winning the senate seat of president reagan's close friend, paul laxalt, now retired. christensen: it's election night, harry reid has won the senate seat. big celebration, lots of reporters around, microphones getting stuck in his face. one reporter asks him, "what's the most important thing you're going to work on?" reid: i said, "water." now, frankly, at that time, i didn't know what i was talking about. man: from a staff perspective, one of the things i really appreciated about him is his sort of decisiveness. he would make a decision, and then you would go do the thing. he decided that he was going to save pyramid lake. he decided he was going to end the water war between california and nevada. there were components of doing that that were wildly politically unpopular, and he didn't care. he knew that it was the right thing to do, and he set about doing it. [tires screech] christensen: but he doesn't craft a top-down solution like laxalt's compact. instead, he sends one of his top aides, wayne mehl, out to nevada to listen to all of the different interests and try to negotiate a settlement. [slide projector clicking] reid: wayne mehl was a craftsman with legislation. his number-one goal was play all the golf he could. he was a good golfer. and so, when we start on this, neither of us knew what to do, but we learned. it was on-the-job training. woman: wayne met with irrigators, environmentalists, and city and county and state people and the tribe. he met with everybody. th he went backo senator reid, and i am told he said, "well, it's going to be nearly impossible, but we might be able to get a deal here." reid: they were all together on what they wanted done.hey just didn'tnderstand how they could work together, and tt's what we were able to do, was kind of t them together. for the first time in the history of this dispute, we were able to have people sit in the same room. initially, they didn't talk much-- [click] [silence] woman: we were pretty much locked in a room for about 4 days running. reid's office was facilitating it with, i remember, cake, and i'm not sure why we had cake, to trd