Travis Armstrong: Newspaper unfairly targets Morongo Band

Southern California's Morongo people, like the other bands of the Cahuilla near Palm Springs, have had much of their ancestral land taken from them.

The Morongo people were left with land that at the time was remote and unwanted. Today, they are a model of tribal self-determination and are building better lives for generations to come through economic ventures on the little bit of land they have left.

The real story is that tribal people are being made into new bogeymen once again. Records show that the state and the various water agencies over the past decade have done little to cut usage, increase conservation and reduce waste in agricultural operations, which are a huge drain on the state’s water resources. Yet somehow the Morongo band, which is bottling water for people actually to drink, is being demonized.

Further complicating this matter is the misunderstanding that tribes are governmental entities with their own set of laws, regulations and rules. Federal environmental protections often also apply. Headlines that blast there’s “little oversight,” as a recent story did in the Desert Sun, do a disservice.