The Supreme Court seems inclined to side with the federal government and a group of states in a dispute with the Navajo Nation over water from the drought-stricken Colorado River
WASHINGTON — — The Supreme Court seems inclined to side with the federal government and a group of states in a dispute with the Navajo Nation over water from theThe high court was hearing arguments Monday in a case that states argue could upend how water is shared in the Western U.S. if the court sides with the tribe.
Water is a critical resource for the Navajo Nation. The mainstream of the Colorado River flows along the northwestern border of the tribe's reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. And two of the river's tributaries, the San Juan River and the Little Colorado River, also pass alongside and through the reservation. Still, a third of the some 175,000 people who live on the reservation, the country's largest, don’t have running water in their homes.
The facts of the case go back to two treaties the tribe and the federal government signed in 1849 and 1868. The second established the reservation as the tribe's “permanent home" — a promise the Navajo Nation says includes a sufficient supply of water. In 2003 the tribe sued the federal government, arguing that it had failed to protect the Navajo Nation's water rights to the mainstream of the Colorado River.
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