How Native Nations Are Leading the Way in Saving Water for the American Southwest

12.19.2023

Through careful water use and wise conservation efforts, Indigenous Tribes are saving the Colorado River’s life from climate change, writes Atmos columnist Ruth H. Burns. After all, water, of its own accord, has a right to exist—and we cannot live without it.

While the American southwest is historically known for being hot and dry, it may be perilously close to becoming a barren, desiccated wasteland in coming years, according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment. What’s worse, the cause is climate change driven by human activity.

The current ongoing drought gripping the American southwest is the most severe on record since 1895, and scientists who conducted the study warn that it’s not a passing trend. The process is termed “aridification” and refers to the permanent resetting of the baseline for how little water the area will see going forward. In recent years the territory has experienced the third highest daily average temperatures on record in documented history. Higher temperatures throughout the year translate to less snowmelt—and yet snowmelt was responsible for replenishing life-sustaining bodies of water around the region, like the Colorado River.

The Colorado River, which meanders over 1,400 miles from the Rocky Mountains to Mexico, supplies freshwater to seven states and 30 Native Nations, as well as some of America’s fastest growing cities. It nourishes critical farmland, and it’s thanks to the Colorado River that humans were able to build the Glen Canyon Dam that in turn created Lake Powell as well as the Hoover Dam that created Lake Mead. Its mere existence generates more than $1.4 trillion dollars in economic activity annually—but now it’s on life support. The government has declared that the Colorado River has become unsustainable. It hasn’t been this dry in more than a millennia, and there is no water to replace it. Levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead are so low that the aforementioned dams are losing their ability to generate electricity used by at least 40 million consumers.

Aridification is already well underway. While we lack the ability to stop it from occurring, if we want to survive, humanity must adapt, so there’s no doubt that tough choices are ahead.

Water law in the United States is based on the legal doctrine of “first in time, first in right,” which means that whoever puts freshwater to what the government deems a “beneficial use” claims the right to use it perpetually by doing so. As a result, Tribes who conserved water were not considered to have primary rights to the water bodies they had used for thousands of years. Moreover, when water law was being established, there was a pervading societal notion that Tribes were going extinct, so acknowledging them was not essential.

[The Colorado River] hasn’t been this dry in more than a millennia, and there is no water to replace it.

The Colorado River, which meanders over 1,400 miles from the Rocky Mountains to Mexico, supplies freshwater to seven states and 30 Native Nations, as well as some of America’s fastest growing cities. It nourishes critical farmland, and it’s thanks to the Colorado that humans were able to build the Glen Canyon Dam that in turn created Lake Powell as well as the Hoover Dam that created Lake Mead. Its mere existence generates more than $1.4 trillion dollars in economic activity annually—but now it’s on life support. The government has declared that the Colorado River has become unsustainable. It hasn’t been this dry in more than a millennia, and there is no water to replace it. Levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead are so low that the aforementioned dams are losing their ability to generate electricity used by at least 40 million consumers.

Aridification is already well underway. While we lack the ability to stop it from occurring, if we want to survive, humanity must adapt, so there’s no doubt that tough choices are ahead.

If states and non-Native communities fail to follow the example of Tribes and learn how to conserve water, there will be no more freshwater.

In due course, Tribes will control an estimated 46% of Colorado River water delivered through Arizona in the Central Arizona Project’s 336-mile canal from Lake Havasu to Tucson. Tribes throughout the southwest have worked with non-Native communities to allow them to use some of their water through various leases and marketing devices.

Within the past year the water rights of other Tribes have been ratified by Congress and the Biden administration, in part due to promises by those Tribes to conserve the Colorado River and the realization by those in power that Native Nations are proven masters of water and land management. The Colorado River Indian Tribes Water Resiliency Act, the Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act made the water rights of Mojave, Chemehuevi, Hualapai, and White Mountain Apache, who are members of CRIT (The Colorado River Indian Tribes), federal law.

CRIT Chairwoman Amelia Flores said the most important aspect of the passage of these new laws is that it will save the Colorado river’s life. “The river’s the person. The river can’t speak for itself. And we as stewards need to step up and protect the river.”

Chairwoman Flores’ powerful statement about the Colorado River alludes to the crux of the problem the western world now faces with respect to water conservation. While the colonial mindset defines water rights in terms of who is the primary holder of an unlimited claim to consume water, the Indigenous perspective first considers the rights of water itself, who we understand to be its own living entity. Water, of its own accord, has a right to exist, and we cannot live without it. This connection defines who we are.

Sustainability is more than a buzzword. It is key to our survival. You’ve heard this refrain before, but it’s never been truer than it is today: “Water Is Life.” Without water, we will cease to exist. Water is the life blood of every organism in existence on planet Earth. If states and non-Native communities fail to follow the example of Tribes and learn how to conserve water, there will be no more freshwater. Whether water wars are waged over what remains, the result will be the same. Conserve, or die.