The Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday, accusing a watershed district in Brown and Nemaha counties of stalling improvements to the tribe’s water supply.

For several years, the Kickapoo reservation near Horton has sought state and federal help in developing an adequate and stable water supply.

The lawsuit accuses the Nemaha-Brown Watershed Joint District No. 7 and several state and federal agencies of “actively developing the water resources of the watershed” while the tribe’s water supply dwindled to “near depletion.”

According to the tribe’s attorney, Damon K. Williams, the development harmed the reservation’s senior water rights. Subsequently, the tribe does not have enough water to run its schools or its fire department.

The tribe is represented by the Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit law firm representing American Indian tribes, organizations and individuals. The firm is based in Boulder, Colo.