Aerial view of Lake Powell as water levels have dropped dramatically due to increased water demand and climate change on the Colorado River in Page, Arizona, USA, November 19, 2022. Photo credit: Caitlin Ochs/REUTERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has announced that 15 Native American tribes will receive a total of $580 million in federal funding this year for water rights settlements.
The funds will help implement agreements that define tribes’ rights to water from rivers and other sources, and help pay for pipelines, pumping stations and canals that bring water to the reservation.
“Water rights are essential to ensuring the health, safety and empowerment of tribal communities,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement Thursday, adding that many tribes have waited decades for funding. I acknowledged that
Access to reliable clean water and basic sanitation on tribal lands remains a challenge on many Native American reservations.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1908 that tribes had the right to the amount of water necessary to establish a permanent homeland, and that those rights were traceable, at least so long as certain reservations existed. made a verdict. As a result, in the West, where competition for dwindling resources is often fierce, tribal water rights often take precedence over other countries.
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However, in many cases the details of these water rights were not specified and had to be determined in modern times.
Many tribes chose to settle because litigation over water can be costly and protracted. Negotiations involving states, cities, private water users, local water bodies and others can take years, if not decades.
Of the funding announced Thursday, $460 million came from $2.5 billion set aside for the settlement of Native American water rights in the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill. A federal fund established by Congress in 2009 to pay for water rights settlements will contribute the remaining $120 million to him.
Approximately $157 million will be donated to the Salish and Kootenai tribes of Montana. The federal government signed the Tribal Water Rights Agreement in 2021, pledging over the next decade to fund the rebuilding of irrigation projects on the Flathead Indian Reservation built in the 1900s.
Interiors said Thursday’s funds were part of a $1.9 billion trust created when Harland signed the Tribal Accord.
The Navajo Nation, which spans parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, will receive $137 million for an ongoing project to bring drinking water to members of northwestern New Mexico and the City of Gallup. Scheduled for completion in 2027, the project is a network of pipelines and pump stations that will supply treated water from the San Juan River in the northwestern New Mexico desert.
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About $39 million will go to the Navajo Nation for another settlement that will fund drinking water infrastructure in San Juan County, part of a 27,000-square-mile (71,000-square-kilometer) reservation in Utah.
In a statement, Navajo Nation President Buu Nigren called water the tribe’s “most important resource” and said it was “time to move forward” on both infrastructure projects.
The Gila River Indian community in Arizona will receive $79 million this year. Tribal Gov. Stephen Lewis said it will help water conservation efforts during persistent droughts in the West. The funds will help complete the construction of the reservation’s irrigation system.
Lewis said the funding is also a tribute to “the role that tribal governments… play as good stewards of our water and other natural resources.”
Elsewhere, Montana’s Blackfeet Nation will receive $45 million in a settlement signed by President Barack Obama in 2016 to improve irrigation systems and develop community water systems.
Crow Nation, San Carlos Apache Nation, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ak-Chin Indian Community and San Ildefonso, Nambe, Pojoaque and Tesuque pueblos are among other tribes sharing funds announced Thursday .
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Aerial view of Lake Powell as water levels have dropped dramatically due to increased water demand and climate change on the Colorado River in Page, Arizona, USA, November 19, 2022. Photo credit: Caitlin Ochs/REUTERS
