WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday will consider whether to allow the Navajo to pursue claims that the federal government has an obligation to address Water rights of Native American tribes.
The lawsuit touches on a complex series of agreements and court rulings that have determined for decades how the upper and lower Colorado River waters are divided between states. . Further complicating matters is that the Colorado River system has already been depleted by prolonged drought and the long-term threat of climate change is looming in the future.
The tribe is seeking claims to the waters of the Lower Colorado River, which runs along the northwest border of the Navajo Reservation, citing years of abuse. The tribe’s land is the largest Native American reservation, mostly in Arizona, but also straddling New Mexico and Utah.
A judge is hearing two consolidated appeals. federal government and by another state Arizona, Nevada, Coloradoin addition to some California waters.
After the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Navajo tribe in 2021, the Biden administration and three states will appeal, accusing the government of failing to perform its duties on behalf of the tribes. Said I could sue. .
The controversy revolves around whether the government had legal obligations that the tribes could enforce in court. The tribe that first signed the treaty with the United States in 1849 claims: Under an agreement with the federal government that guaranteed access to land, it was assumed that the government would also be obligated to provide the necessary water.
The federal government has said it is resuming an already-determined case of how the tribes will allocate the river’s water.
“The United States has a general relationship of trust with Indian tribes,” Attorney General Elizabeth Preloger wrote in court documents.
The tribe claims that it is not specifically seeking a decision on rights in the Lower Colorado River. Instead, the attorney said, the federal government’s oversight of the entire Colorado River and its obligations to the tribes meant that the Navajo’s water rights could affect the state of the water from the Colorado River. It states that it means that a full evaluation needs to be done. assigned.
A Colorado attorney said in a state brief that the ruling against the tribes would “provide immediate and long-term disruption to the coordinated management of the Colorado River.”
The state notes that it has already implemented the 2007 agreement on water shortages and the drought contingency plan adopted in 2019.
The Navajo can get water from other sources, such as the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado River, but that alone isn’t enough, the tribes say. Many tribe members do not have access to running water and rely on wells or other local water sources.
The tribe originally sued the federal government in 2003 for access to the lower Colorado River main stream, and lawsuits have continued since. In a separate lawsuit in state court, the tribe has fought for access to another tributary of the Colorado River, the Little Colorado River.
A previous attempt to settle the Navajo claim to the lower Colorado River failed about a decade ago.
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