NEWS: Colorado River Indian Tribes Reach Water Rights Settlement
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signs historic water rights agreement on Friday. (Photo/U.S. Dept. of the Interior)
On Friday, April 26th, The Colorado River Indian Tribes were joined by Gov. Hobbs, representatives from the Arizona Department of Water Resources, and the Department of the Interior to officially sign a water rights agreement.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes are a group of four tribes living on one reservation spanning the Arizona-California border. The Mohave and Chemehuevi peoples have lived on this land for centuries, and Hopi and Navajo peoples were relocated to this land by the federal government. The four Tribes on this land share one government.
All 22 of Arizona’s federally recognized Indigenous tribes were left out of the discussions and agreements that decided southwestern water rights— both for water within the state and from the Colorado River. Subsequently, each tribe has had to reach its own individual agreement with the state of Arizona in order to manage their water resources. Some tribes, like the Gila River Indian Community, settle their claims years ago and have begun leasing water back to the state, and others, like the Navajo Nation have been stuck in the negotiation process for decades. This has led to many tribes lacking adequate access to safe water, being banned from pumping from their aquafers, and lacking the infrastructure to bring water into homes.
Thursday’s settlement is a huge win for the people of the Colorado River Indian Tribes! They will now be able to store, lease, and exchange water from its share of the Colorado River. This is a big step towards reclaiming sovereignty over the tribe’s water resources. This will allow tribes to bank water for droughts, which will help stabilize the reservation’s agriculture-based economy.
This agreement was assisted through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which provided $2.5 billion to the Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund. A few years ago, the state paved the way for this agreement with the Colorado River Indian Tribes Water Resiliency Act of 2022.
We give thanks to God for the gifts of precious water and the wisdom to steward it well. We hope to see our neighbors on the Hopi and Navajo reservations see a settlement soon!
