Opinion

Students: Water rights settlement won't benefit Navajo people

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

"This April hundreds of Navajo citizens gathered at chapter houses across the reservation to express their concern and opposition to the Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Settlement and its companion Senate Bill 2109. The passionate activism expressed at town hall meetings and protests- echoed in countless posts, photographs, and links that have erupted on the Internet -reveals Navajos' long-held dissatisfaction with how tribal government has managed their resources.

Controversy surrounding water is not new for Diné; current events recall earlier eras when the Navajo Nation made long-term sacrifices for the benefit of outside development in the Southwest.

During the 1930s, silt carried by the Little Colorado River into the Lower Colorado River threatened to build up behind the Hoover Dam, which was constructed to supply water and electricity for development in southern California and the greater Southwest. The U.S. Geological Survey argued that overgrazing and erosion from the Navajo Reservation was the primary cause of the silt problem. In its words, the Navajo Reservation became "Public Enemy No.1.""

Get the Story:
Melanie Yazzie, Teresa Montoya, Khalil A. Johnson and Lloyd Lee: Proposed water settlement contradicts the language of 'unlimited' water rights (The Navajo-Hopi Observer 5/22)