After 20 years of fighting for the right to draw water from the Colorado River, Navajo Nation files lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.
Endangered by drought and overuse, the river flows along the Navajo border in northern Arizona. However, this tribe has never had the right to use that water on its reservation.
In Supreme Court on Monday, the Navajo allege that the federal government failed to meet its obligations to provide the tribe with enough water.
“The mainstream debate has been talking about the depletion of the Colorado River, the reservoirs, the water, and how much everyone has to cut back…members of the Navajo tribe. We’ve been logging for over 100 years because we don’t have rights, even though we lived here before the United States was conceived.”
Winter’s Doctrine
In 1908, the Supreme Court Winter’s DoctrineWhen the government creates an Indian reservation, it has made it clear that it will also secure the water needed to live there.
Navajo Nation lawyers won’t speak for the record, they said the government has I didn’t fulfill that responsibility.
The Navajo Nation spans the desert plateaus of northern Arizona, Utah, and parts of New Mexico.up to a third of 165,000 inhabitants With no indoor plumbing, many people have to drive miles over bumpy roads to fill their 55 gallon drums of water.
“The Navajo Nation argues that the United States has a responsibility to do something to ensure that Navajo people have access to safe and secure water sources.” submitted an amicus brief On behalf of the 37 tribes that support the Navajo. “It’s part of the federal fiduciary responsibility.”
That treachery claim is at the center of today’s Supreme Court hearing after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the Tribes case to proceed.
litigation began dating back to 2003.
How States Respond
Tribal lawyers are not seeking a direct allocation of river water. Instead, they want the government to formally assess the water needs of the tribes and take that need into account when managing rivers.
Rita Maguire, speaking out against the tribes on behalf of Arizona, said the legal approach taken by the Navajo Nation “is not really what they want, following this allegation of breach of trust in the government.” , Colorado, Nevada, and some California irrigation districts. “They want rights to the Lower Colorado River.”
Maguire’s defense team does not dispute that the Navajo have the right to drink water. But she says a 1960s Supreme Court case — Arizona v. California — affirmed the tribe’s right to draw water from a tributary rather than the river’s main stream.
That incident established guidelines for managing the river that are still in use today, and Maguire says it’s especially important now.
In times of unprecedented drought, States in the Colorado River Basin are vying for water shares,on the other hand, Ministry of the Interior Without deep cuts, the whole system risks collapsing, he warns.
“The paper is thick with articles on the fact that both Lake Powell and Lake Mead are at record low levels,” Maguire said, arguing that ruling in favor of the Navajo would put more strain on the system. do. ” [Interior] The Commissioner will have to frankly consider the interests of the Navajo before a party that has actually had a vested interest in the river for decades.”
If the tribe wants to review decisions from the 1960s, it will have to take it to the Supreme Court in a separate case, Maguire said. For that part federal claims There is no specific law or treaty requiring them to do what the tribe asks.
what is at stake
According to Daniel Cordalys, the tribe’s water rights attorney and Navajo Nation member, it could undermine the Winters Doctrine of 1908 if a Supreme Court judge ruled broadly against the tribe. “The fear of doing things in court is that you never know where the court will stop. The rights we have left are so important, and being subject to scrutiny is terrifying.”
But narrower rulings can also have an impact. Cordaris said the lawsuit could redefine or weaken the obligations the federal government has to tribes across the country, including how it protects tribal rights to health care, education, or fishing. says.
“Everyone is just on pins and needles in tribal cases that go to the Supreme Court,” says Coradris.
Meanwhile, tribal, state and federal governments are gearing up for another round of difficult negotiations on managing river reservoirs during drought. Some of the existing frameworks will expire at the end of 2026.
Jason Robison, a law professor at the University of Wyoming, said tribal water rights, many of which have not been fully resolved by the courts, should be considered when creating new administrative rules. It’s shortsighted if you don’t,” Robison says. Water and Tribal Initiatives in the Colorado River Basin. “To act as if these water rights do not exist when drafting new regulations is not only foolish, it will perpetuate water colonialism in the Colorado River Basin.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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