Supreme Court Rules the US Is Not Required To Ensure Access To Water for the Navajo Nation

[douglas9]

The Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the U.S., covers 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) in the Southwest – an area larger than 10 states. Today it is home to more than 250,000 people – roughly comparable to the population of St. Petersburg, Florida, or Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Unlike those cities, however, 30% of households on the Navajo Reservation lack running water. Hauling water can cost 20 times what it does in neighboring off-reservation communities. While the average American uses between 80 and 100 gallons (300-375 liters) of water per day, Navajo Nation members use approximately seven.

Since the 1950s, the Navajo Nation has pressed the U.S. government to define the water rights reserved for them under the 1868 treaty that created their reservation.

These efforts culminated in a U.S. Supreme Court case, Arizona v. Navajo Nation, which posed this question: Does the treaty between the Navajo Nation and the United States obligate the federal government to “assess” the water needs of the Navajo and “make a plan” for securing water to meet those needs? On June 22, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the answer was no.

https://www.dcreport.org/2023/06/26/supreme-court-rules-the-us-is-not-required-to-ensure-access-to-water-for-the-navajo-nation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=supreme-court-rules-the-us-is-not-required-to-ensure-access-to-water-for-the-navajo-nation

[SWBTATTReg]

1. A rather strange ruling considering it was the US that drove/forced these reservations to set up

on properties that were usually in deserts or other unpopulated areas of the US.

[2naSalit]

2. But they did that...

Expecting them to die out there. On other reservations, they put too many different tribes and/or enemies together hoping they would kill each other off.

[SWBTATTReg]

9. It's too bad that you have to remind us on DU of these disturbing actions by our forefathers.

What's your point that you are making to us, on DU of these actions that we on DU already know too well?

[2naSalit]

10. It's too bad that you...

Had to remind me of it.

Living in Indian Country as I do, it's not something I normally carry around with me until I go to or by a reservation or talk to one of my Native American friends and family. So I was reminding people that the ongoing genocide of the indigenous peoples of this continent continues even today by OUR society.

If it makes you uncomfortable, sorry about your feelings, not sorry about reminding people everywhere of what is still an issue of life and death for too many people in this country whom we have been subjugating and trying to eliminate for over 5 centuries.

[2naSalit]

3. Semantics!

So what if it does SAY that US gov't isn't required to provide water, the US gov't forced these people to live in a fucking arid desert! It should be required but since these assholes have decided that it isn't, it should be happening anyway because otherwise it could be construed as genocidal.

[mahina]

4. This is a very grave wrong.

[MichMan]

5. The SC ruled in favor of the administration

The Navajo Nation argument was that the treaty required the US Government to provide the pipelines, pumps and wells to ensure that water was abmvailable at point of use. The Federal government disagreed and ultimately prevailed.

[geardaddy]

6. Evil

[marble falls]

7. For the sake of accuracy regarding where the Navaho reservation is and where their traditional ...

... homelands are: The Federal government should absolutely gaurantee access to drinking water, and the same access to agricultural water that non native farmers have, but ...

The Navajo Nation (Navajo: Naabeehó Diné Biyaad), also known as Navajoland,[3] is a Native American reservation of Navajos in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah; at roughly 17,544,500 acres (71,000 km2; 27,413 sq mi), the Navajo Nation is the largest land area held by a Native American tribe in the U.S., exceeding ten U.S. states. In 2010, the reservation was home to 173,667 out of 332,129 Navajo tribal members; the remaining 158,462 tribal members lived outside the reservation, in urban areas (26 percent), border towns (10 percent), and elsewhere in the U.S. (17 percent).[4] The seat of government is located in Window Rock, Arizona.

The United States gained ownership of this territory in 1848 after acquiring it in the Mexican-American War. The reservation was within New Mexico Territory and straddled what became the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1912, when the states were admitted to the union. Unlike many reservations, it has expanded several times since its establishment in 1868 to include most of northeastern Arizona, a sizable portion of northwestern New Mexico, and most of the area south of the San Juan River in southeastern Utah. It is one of a few indigenous nations whose reservation lands overlap its traditional homelands.

The Hopi is another tribe on it it's traditional homeland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Nation

[2naSalit]

11. ++++++++++++++++++!!!

[marble falls]

12. To be honest, I expected some pushback.

[2naSalit]

13. Well...

I would hope anyone with push-back might research their concepts about the issue before responding, that might be why.

Thanks for all the info, people don't really know much about this stuff, even people who live on reservations that are not tribal members.

[marble falls]

14. I lived in Az for years and my folks and sybs have been there since 1970. I worked up in ...

...Wauweap by Page on Lake Powell. The Navajo are a major player in AZ politics and the other reservation are too, contributing millions to AZ's economy in agricultural products, especially cotton.

I also lived on the Omaha Indian Reservation in Nebraska. And they are finally buying up towns and agricultural lands sold to whites when that was allowed. I loved taking my kids onto agricultural fields at night in the summer. The lightening bug displays were amazing. The Sioux farmers did not use insecticides or much fertilizers and still had a good yield.

White owned fields even just across the field wouldn't have a single bug.

My town in Pender, Ne is finally not only on the rez, but now is owned by the rez substantially, if not outright.

The Sioux suffered terribly from the rez system and they are working hard to cure the social effects and create an economic system to fix the harm done by different Washington policies that were just plain criminal in some circumstances and wrong minded even if good intentioned in others.

Casinos mostly do not help, a substantial amount of the profits go off the rez and create a lot of social ills, including crime, domestic violence, addiction.

[2naSalit]

15. It's whole...

Different way of life on nearly every level. Most of my personal dealings with tribes and reservations was dealing with wildlife management issues between the government and three of the major reservations in the interior NW. Went to college with many tribal members and lived just off Fort Hall, ID for years.

But I have family members who are full and half from SW tribes down around the northern Sea of Cortez area. You probably know the area. And took 6cr of Federal Indian Law both undergrad and graduate. I don't claim to know much but I know enough.

[marble falls]

16. I think you got a good education. Now that Native Americans are getting into their own ...

... just a sea change of difference mostly good. I used to go down to Rocky Point through it. What a change. I remember my first trip down in the late 70s at night. I saw these pretty little lit villages in the distance off the two lane down to Punta Penesco, Mexico.

On the trip back in daylight, I looked for those villages and they made of cardboard and plywood.

Those don't exist anymore. There's been tremendous progress and I am glad to know someone who was a part of it through family and from your Wildlife Management.

There is good news, but of course there just hasn't been enough yet.

Bless you, brother.

[Duppers]

8. WtELF!!