Arizona tribe leaders sign historic $5 billion water rights agreement

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Leaders from three Arizona tribes gathered in downtown Phoenix on Wednesday morning to sign a historic water rights agreement, ensuring clean water will be provided to residents on Native American land.

Leaders from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, and San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe met at the Heard Museum of American Indian Art in downtown Phoenix to sign the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Settlement Agreement.

Along with providing clean water, the order will provide sustainable management of water resources on the land.

The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Settlement Agreement is the largest Indian water settlement to date, according to the Hopi Tribe.

The tribes will be granted over 56,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water, along with surface and groundwater from the Little Colorado River watershed.

It also establishes a homeland for the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe.

The legislation carries a price tag of $5 billion — larger than any such agreement enacted by Congress.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly said the legislation marks a historic step forward in resolving what has been a decades-long dispute with the Navajo Nation as well as the Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes.

Hopi leaders say the settlement promises reliable, safe drinking water for Hopi currently living on the reservation and for future generations.

“Although our communities are the oldest in Arizona, they lack basic access to clean, reliable water,” Hopi Tribe Vice Chairman Craig Andrews said in a statement. “Our current infrastructure is a patchwork of aging and inadequate systems, which has long jeopardized the well-being of our people and forced many to leave their ancestral lands.

The Hopi Tribe says the settlement also expressed a cultural significance, describing it as a way for Hopi to protect ancestral lands “by protecting our sacred springs and the water that gives life to our cultural sites.”

Dr. Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, also spoke about the momentous legislation.

“It definitely is historic, not only for the Navajo Nation, the Hopi and the San Juan Southern Paiute, but it’s also in terms of Arizona because the Navajo Nation represents one-third of all of Arizona. Now with this settlement and into the future, we’re going to be able to plan for the next 100 years, whether it’s water infrastructure projects, whether it’s economic development, whether it’s ‘how do we continue to build out our communities,” said Dr. Nygren.

San Juan Southern Paiute tribal President Robbin Preston Jr. previously told the Associated Press the agreement will be life-changing for his people.

“With reliable electricity, water and housing, our people will have opportunities that have never been available to us before,” he said in a statement. “This legislation is more than a settlement of water rights, it is the establishment of an exclusive reservation for a tribe that will no longer be forced to live like strangers in our own land.”

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