On Monday, two U.S. senators from Arizona and four members of the U.S. Congress introduced legislation to authorize the nation’s largest Indian water rights settlement, which resolves water claims by the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute nations.
The legislation comes on the heels of the Navajo Nation Council’s approval of the water rights agreement on May 23, 2024. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed it the next day.
“For too long, our Navajo people have lived without running water in their homes, and to this day, many of our seniors still haul water more than 30 miles round trip,” said Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren. “More than 30% of homes on the Navajo Nation do not have running water. This is unacceptable.”
Today’s legislation was introduced by Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Representative Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Representative. Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced the Northeast Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, a landmark bill that will make available desperately needed drinking water for thousands of Navajo people for the first time.
“This legislation and the agreement it ratifies represent a historic step in resolving a decades-long dispute over water rights, providing certainty and stability for the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe and the Southern San Juan Paiute Tribe. Securing water rights for these tribes upholds their sovereignty and paves the way for their growth and prosperity through increased investment in water infrastructure,” said Senator Kelly. “Ratification of this agreement honors our commitment to tribes and helps secure our state’s water future, and we will work together as Republicans and Democrats to achieve that.”
The agreement will resolve the most significant outstanding water claims in Arizona. After decades of negotiations, Navajo Nation leaders applaud this milestone and express appreciation and thanks to congressional leaders for introducing the legislation.
Nygren says no one in America should be denied access to water because of where they live.
“The Navajo people deserve to have their right to the water that flows along their border and beneath their lands be fulfilled on par with all others in this country,” said President Nygren.
He called the settlement a path “to ensure equal opportunities for health and prosperity for the three indigenous nations that are part of the settlement.”
The bill authorizes $5 billion in federal funding for water infrastructure in the sovereign territories of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and Southern Paiute Tribe of San Juan. If authorized by Congress, the infrastructure built on the Navajo Nation funded by the legislation will bring substantial, clean, safe, and reliable drinking water to Navajo communities in Arizona. This will make it possible, for the first time, to connect tens of thousands of Navajo people in Arizona to piped water in their homes.
25th Navajo Nation Council President Crystalyne Curley said “the Navajo Nation recognizes that the costs of the settlement are significant.”
“But so are our nation’s water and infrastructure development needs,” she said. “Water is life, and as Diné, we do not put a price on life. As we have seen in recent years, our people are disproportionately affected by health disparities due to limited access to water in our homes and communities.”
The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act quantifies the Navajo Nation’s water rights in the Upper Colorado River Basin, the Lower Colorado River Basin, and the Little Colorado River Basin. It provides safety to all water users in these basins.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Navajo Nation will be entitled to substantial quantities of Colorado River water from the State of Arizona’s Upper Colorado River Basin allocation and some from the Lower Colorado River Basin allocation. This will provide the water needed for the Nation’s future.
The agreement provides that the Nation will have rights to all groundwater underlying the Navajo Nation and all of the Little Colorado River and washwaters reaching the Navajo Nation (with the shared tribal resources subject to an intertribal agreement with the Hopi Tribe). .
Once approved, she said, “the agreement sets a direction for stronger cooperation and coordination for a stable future for all basin communities – both tribal and non-tribal.”
On May 23, 2024, the 25th Council of the Navajo Nation unanimously approved the agreement. The agreement represents a historic achievement for the nation’s largest tribe, with a land base larger than 10 states and roughly equivalent to the size of West Virginia.
The agreement was unanimously approved by the Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribal councils in May.
The next step in the legislative process is for the bills to be considered in legislative hearings held by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.
Projects in the settlement include the iiná bá – paa tuwaqat’si pipeline – formerly known as the Western Navajo Pipeline, the Four Corners Project, the Southwest Regional Groundwater Project, the Ganado Regional Groundwater Project, the Black Mesa Underground, the Lupton Area Project, Kayenta Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project, and Code Talker Lateral Extension.
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