UPDATE: Congress Members Introduce the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement!
Rep Juan Ciscomani (R-06) meets with leaders from the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe.
Over the last year, we have kept you up to date on the exciting progress of the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement. If you’re not familiar with the settlement, or the history of water rights claims in the northeastern region of Arizona, click here to see our older posts.
Roughly a third of households on the Hopi and Navajo reservations lack running water, and accessing reliably clean water can be difficult even for homes with updated plumbing. In large part, this is due to the continued disputes over the tribes’ water rights claims, which the state of Arizona has refuted for decades. However, earlier this year, the state of Arizona, several state agencies, city councils, the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, and the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe (who live on Navajo and Hopi land) finally reached a settlement that all parties can agree to! The settlement now must be approved by congress.
Last we updated you, the settlement had just been approved of by the various state and local parties and was on its way to Washington.
In late July, Senators Kelly and Sinema formally introduced the settlement as legislation. Representatives Ciscomani (R-06), Stanton (D-04) Grijalva (D-07), Crane (R-02), and Schweikert (R-01) cosponsored the same legislation in the House, and it has been assigned the number HR8940. Read the press releases from their offices here:
On July 23rd, the House Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries (a part of the Committee on Natural Resources) held a hearing on several different water rights agreements from around the country. Several Arizona lawmakers are on the committee for natural resources— including Grijaliva, who is the ranking Democratic member. Representatives from the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation testified, and several of our Arizona lawmakers spoke to the importance of this bill in our state. In addition to settling several outstanding claims, this settlement also grants the tribes $12 billion in order to construct pipelines and other infrastructure projects to get water to residents. Additionally, the agreement will grants the federally recognized San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe their own sovereign reservation territory. This settlement will affect more people than any other tribal water rights agreement in the country’s history!
This settlement is incredibly important for thousands of Arizonans— both those living on these reservations, and those who share the watersheds in Northern Arizona. While the cost of this specific settlement is high, this funding is necessary. For generations these tribes have been stripped of the right to use the water flowing through, across, and under their own land, and the proposed infrastructure projects will help to address the systemic inequalities that have resulted from this lack of water access.
We are so excited to see that so many of our Arizona lawmakers are already supporting this legislation and attesting to its importance. We encourage you to reach out to our Senators and Representatives and thank them for prioritizing this vital agreement! If your representative has not yet cosponsored HR 8940, consider writing to them and advocating for it!
You can find your lawmakers and their contact information here.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema meets with tribal leaders in May.
