geoff: A little known fact about
the Colorado river is that
American Indian tribes own
rights to about a quarter of the
river.
In reality for most tribes, they
are only paper rights, not
amounting to water they can
actually use.
Now, as a megadrought afflicts
the Colorado and other
watersheds in the west,
Stephanie sy reports on the
opportunities and obstacles
ahead.
Stephanie: In the vast gila
river valley south of Phoenix,
Ramona button and her husband
Terry inspect acres of thriving
crops.
Ramona left her nursing career
decades ago to carry on a tribal
tradition and become a farmer.
Now her heirloom tepary beans
can be found at stores and
restaurants around the region.
>> The people here knew the
white tepary bean, so they were
very grateful that we brought it
back.
Stephanie: The beans came back
when the water came back.
But that took more than a
hundred years.
In the late 19th century,
upstream users had diverted the
river to the point that it no
longer flowed on the
reservation.
Did you feel like the gila river
was stolen from the tribes here?
>> What I was told by my
parents, it was taken cut off by
a dam. And so many people
starved to death.
I guess you would say in the
taking of it all, yes, it was
stolen.
Stephanie: Her late father ,who
she describes as a seer promised
the land would one day be green
again.
And today, it is.
>> I remember my dad's words,
bring back all the foods that
you were raised on.
>> It wasn't overnight.
It was a long process.
It took until just now.
We're within the last three
years of finally finishing the
delivery system to bring these
waters to these lands.
Stephanie: The water and the
canals that deliver it to
growers like Ramona would not
have been possible without a
landmark settlement in 2004 that
gave the gila river Indian
community its water back.
One of the largest Indian water
settlements in American history,
the agreement granted the
community a whopping 653,500
acre feet of water annually.
That is more than a quarter of
the amount all of metropolitan
Phoenix uses in a year.
The community also received
hundreds of millions of dollars
for water infrastructure.
>> All of the construction that
you see here, some 260 miles of
canal having been lined or pipe,
all of that is emanating from
the community's water
settlement.
Stephanie: David Dejong is the
director of the pima-maricopa
irrigation project in the
community, and a historian who
has written on tribal water
issues for decades.
>> The federal government
finally made right by providing
funds for the community to bring
its water home and restore its
agricultural economy.
Stephanie: Rodney Lewis, the
tribal attorney who fought for
the water rights settlement is
the late father of the tribe's
current governor Stephen roe
Lewis.
>> The senior water rights
versus --
Stephanie: Building on his
father's legacy means conserving
the water, so he takes
particular pride in this water
recharge station.
It allows the tribe to bank
water they don't use.
It's the only place where you
can still see a slice of the
gila river on the reservation.
>> We have returned part of the
flow of the gila river through
this area.
And it's become a riparian
wetlands area that we're just so
proud of.
We have over 100 species of
birds.
When we brought the water back,
it was almost like the land
healed itself.
Stephanie: With the gila river
no longer the main water source
on the reservation, the
settlement granted the tribe a
big chunk of Arizona's Colorado
river allocation.
In fact, the tribe of 21,000
members is the largest single
entitlement holder on the
Colorado river in the state.
It is a reversal of fortune that
few other native American tribes
have achieved.
The much larger navajo nation is
far from settling its water
claims.
Never mind farming, many of the
more than 170,000 tribe members
who live on the reservation
still have to haul water to
their homes.
>> Upwards of 40% of people
within the navajo nation don't
have running water.
Stephanie: Crystal Tulley
Cordova is a navajo hydrologist.
>> You think about it, our
sparse population, our rural
living, in addition to that, you
include water quality
challenges, water production
challenges that exist across the
navajo nation.
Stephanie: Water scarcity on the
vast reservation is getting
worse.
>> Primarily the navajo nation
historically has used
groundwater.
And when you think about climate
change impacts on shallow
aquifers, they're vulnerable.
Navajo residents are vulnerable.
We want to be able to have water
rights that are secured, that we
can be able to develop, to be
able to close the clean water
access cap.
Stephanie: With a 17 million
acre reservation that borders
the Colorado, the navajo also
have senior river rights.
But that's not the same as
having access to water says
navajo attorney Daniel cordalis.
>> The odds really have been
stacked up against tribes since
the outset to actually put this
water to use.
Stephanie:e: So you have all these
tribes that have rights, and yet
a third of the navajo nation
doesn't have running water.
>> The existence of these water
rights in itself does not
actually transform into what we
call wet water.
So a tribe can actually retain
the right itself, but not have
the ability to use it or to
develop it and actually get
water to our tribal communities.
Stephanie: In the most recent
blow to the navajo nation, the
supreme court ruled last month
against the nation's claim that
federal treaty law requires the
government to secure water for
the navajos.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh
acknowledged in the opinion that
allocating water in the arid
regions of the American west is
often a zero-sum situation.
Nearly everyone is losing water.
The Colorado is over allocated.
Two countries, seven states, 30
tribes, 40 million people rely
on its precious waters.
For many tribes in the river
basin, water supplies have never
seemed less certain.
>> Our goal is to do everything
we can to start using that water
so we have the capability to
benefit from it on the
reservation.
Stephanie: Steven Escobar is the
tribal administrator of the
chemehuevi Indian tribe on the
California side of lake havasu,
one of the Colorado river's
reservoirs.
They don't have the
infrastructure to divert or
store all the water they are
entitled to, so it just flows
downstream.
California is sort of getting
your unused water and
undeveloped water for free.
>> That's exactly what it is.
They're able to capture it and
use it for free.
So, yeah, they benefit
financially and economically off
of our unused water.
And the tribe does not benefit
in one bit.
Stephanie: Escobar wants to be
able to lease the tribe's unused
allotment.
Governor Lewis is aware of the
special position he is in, the
tribe's large allotment gives
him outsized power in a time of
scarcity, and he says,
responsibility.
How big of a challenge now is
climate change for your whole
vision?
>> Everything we're doing is
critical at a time where we have
to continue to model this good
behavior.
When tribes are at the table and
making decisions, when we're
able to have the resources,
we're able to bring very
innovative solutions.
Stephanie: Modeling good
behavior has also meant allowing
thousands of acres of farmland
to go fallow.
The tribe opted to leave over
100,000 acre feet of its annual
Colorado river entitlement in
lake mead over the next three
years.
In exchange, it is getting $233
million dollars from the federal
government.
>> That's what our elders expect
of us.
That's what we want to teach our
youth, is being caretakers.
Being stewards of the land and
the water.
That is how you live in a very
beautifully harsh place, you
work together and you respect
each other.
Stephanie: Respect for the land
and cultural renewal are also
Terry and Ramona button's
mission.
>> It becomes our responsibility
to carry it on and apply it and
keep the agricultural industry
thriving here.
Stephanie: Do you feel like the
wrong has been corrected?
>> Yes, I do.
And we're very grateful that we
were part of the system in
promoting this, and going after
our water rights.
Stephanie: And they are not
taking them for granted.
For the pbs newshour I am
Stephanie sy at the gila river
Indian community in sacaton,
Arizona.
♪♪