Supreme Court To Hear Navajo Nation Colorado River Rights Claim

Above, the Colorado River flows though the Grand Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Good! The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case involving water rights to the Colorado River by the Navajo Nation.

This issue has been festering for years. I hope the Navajos prevail.

According to The Hill:

The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will weigh in on a dispute between the Navajo Nation and state and federal governments over the tribe’s claim on Colorado River waters.

The tribe has argued the U.S. is failing to fulfill its obligations regarding the river under the terms of an 1849 treaty.

In a filing, lawyers for the tribe wrote that “[w]hen the government creates an Indian reservation, it reserves then-unappropriated water sufficient to fulfill the reservation’s purposes.” The Navajo Nation, which first sued over access to the river in 2003, has asked for access to the main branch of the river, rather than to the San Juan River, the tributary where it gets most of its water. 

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