‘Baby steps’: 5 Colorado River tribes sign critical water agreements

Having access to clean, reliable water has never been a given on tribal lands that rely on the Colorado River.

“Community members turn on their faucets every day to have black, manganese-filled water come out,” said KeAloha Douma, attorney general of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona. “That should not be happening in America, but it’s happening within our own communities.”

Douma’s tribe is one of five that may see improvements in their water supply thanks to agreements signed Wednesday in Las Vegas at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference, an annual gathering of officials to discuss the most pressing issues facing the basin. It may be one of the final actions Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton takes in the role as Donald Trump reassumes the presidency.

Several tribal leaders who spoke to the media noted that it’s uncommon for a sitting Reclamation commissioner to make time to visit sovereign nations.

The Biden administration’s Interior Department has placed an emphasis on tribal water issues, appointing the country’s first Native American Interior secretary and leveraging millions in federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to improve water systems on reservations.

In brief remarks, Touton said she was grateful that Native leaders took time to meet with her federal agency and work on solutions.

“I’ve had the privilege to visit over half of your homelands, some several times,” Touton said. “Thank you for continuing to welcome us.”

Tribes say agreements are ‘baby steps’

For Douma’s tribe, $21.5 million in federal funds will establish the tribe’s water system and benefit over 15,000 people, Touton said.

The San Carlos Apache Tribe and the Quechan Tribe, both in Arizona, extended water conservation agreements in which the tribes are compensated for keeping 43,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead between them.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, which has ancestral ties to the headwaters of the river, signed an agreement to fund the Animas-La Plata Project, which leaders said has been 14 years in the making. It allows them 38,000 acre-feet of water storage in Lake Nighthorse, a reservoir in Colorado.

Another contract signed Wednesday was a letter of intent for the Bureau of Reclamation to fund a “re-regulation reservoir” for the Colorado River Indian Tribes, whose reservation is south of Bullhead City. Chairwoman Amelia Flores said the reservoir would help keep 35,000 acre-feet of water that the tribe has claim to from returning back to the river.

While these strides represent progress, tribal leaders stressed that there’s still plenty of work to be done.

“We should be taking giant steps right now in this era, but we’re still taking baby steps,” Flores said. “But these steps are still good.”

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.