A Tug-of-War for the Colorado River

Across the United States’s history, Native Americans are not only scattered within the country’s legislative acts, but our school history textbooks as well. Over the years, however, with the cultural evolution that instigated America’s reputable diversity, the Indigenous tribes have been pushed to the side—neglected. What once used to be a thriving 60 million population has now decreased to 9.7 million. The Water Settlement issue between the government and the Hualapai tribe in Arizona is no different. The reservation desperately fights to gain water security from its neighboring Colorado River. 

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The Hualapai reservation resides on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and it borders the Colorado River. However, while the Valley community has open access to using the water source, the tribe “[doesn’t] get a drop from it” (Jaspers). The Hualapai’s process of obtaining a federal water settlement has been in the works since 2016. The Arizona state’s congressional delegation annually sponsors a settlement bill since the start of the tribe’s journey. According to Arizona Valley’s radio station, KJZZ, in the event that the tribe succeeds in gaining access to the Colorado River, they would receive “4,000 acre-feet” of the river each year. 

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There are a series of bills that have been introduced to the United States House and Senate. One of them includes $134.5 million for a pipeline that would flow river water into the reservation, as well as the Peach Springs community. Another asks for $32 million for operation, maintenance, and other future repairs following the construction of the mentioned pipeline. Quotes like these, however, stir doubt and breeds the question of necessity to individuals like Alan Mikkelsen, senior adviser to Department of Interior (DOI) David Bernhardt. Mikkelsen testified to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that “[constructing] a 70-mile pipeline from the Colorado River” will “greatly exceed the costs currently contemplated”, dismissing the tribe’s plea for use of their neighboring river. It is safe to say that the DOI remains static on the issue. 

Representative Tom O’Halleran, lead sponsor of the settlement, noted that despite the “sticking point [of the] dollar amount”, “[the tribe and sponsors] are going to be able to work [the water rights settlement] out” (O’Halleran House). He wishes to “send a clear signal to other tribes” fighting for settlements similar to the Hualapai that “this type of process can work.” In 2019, the O’Halleran passed the Hualapai Water Rights Settlement Act of 2019 to address the benefits of waiving water rights to the tribe. Fellow sponsor Senator Martha McSally stated, “The Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act codifies the agreement made between tribe and government to sustain high levels of tourism and employment in the area.” O’Halleran believes that granting the tribe water security will “drive economic growth” and “create good-paying jobs.”

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The Hualapai tribe’s fight for water security is one of the many settlements other reservations have been advocating for. The amount of work that Indigenous individuals are required to go through, simply to gain access to natural resources that originally belonged to them, reflects how low of a priority tribes are to the “greater” Americans. Native American tribes are not foreign. They are not strangers. Their name entails that they are fellow Americans, and if the United States is as patriotic as it advertises, shouldn’t the same attention be directed to Native Americans tribes, as well?

 

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Sources

 

Jaspers, Bret. “Hualapai Tribe Hopes Water Settlement Finally Happens This Congress”. KJZZ. 9 May 2019. https://kjzz.org/content/932426/hualapai-tribe-hopes-water-settlement-finally-happens-congress 

 

“With New Bill, O’Halleran, McSally Work to Ratify Hualapai Tribe’s Water Settlement”. United States Congressman Tom O’Halleran. 1 May 2019. https://ohalleran.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/new-bill-ohalleran-mcsally-work-ratify-hualapai-tribes-water-settlement