{"id":35092,"date":"2023-03-24T00:37:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T06:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/supreme-court-seems-split-in-navajo-nation-water-rights-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:22:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:22:57","slug":"supreme-court-seems-split-in-navajo-nation-water-rights-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/supreme-court-seems-split-in-navajo-nation-water-rights-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court seems split in Navajo Nation water rights case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A sign marks Navajo Drive, as Sentinel Mesa, homes and other structures in Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah, on the Navajo Reservation, stand in the distance, on April 30, 2020. (Carolyn Kaster\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Carolyn Kaster<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2013 The Supreme Court seemed split Monday as it weighed a dispute involving the federal government and the Navajo Nation\u2019s quest for water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.<\/p>\n

States that draw water from the river \u2013 Arizona, Nevada and Colorado \u2013 and water districts in California that are also involved in the case urged the justices to rule against the tribe. Colorado says siding with the Navajo Nation will undermine existing agreements and disrupt the management of the river.<\/p>\n

But, arguing on behalf of the Navajo Nation, attorney Shay Dvoretzky told the justices that the tribe\u2019s current water request is modest. The \u201crelief that we are seeking here is an assessment of the nation\u2019s needs and a plan to meet them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Arguing on behalf of the Biden administration, attorney Frederick Liu said that if the court were to side with the Navajo Nation, the federal government could face lawsuits from many other tribes.<\/p>\n

Four of the court\u2019s justices, including its three liberals, seemed sympathetic to the tribe\u2019s case. But other conservatives including Justice Samuel Alito were skeptical during nearly two hours of arguments at the high court.<\/p>\n

Alito asked about \u201csome of the real world impacts\u201d of the decision and suggested he\u2019d seen figures indicating that \u201cper capita water on the Navajo Nation is greatly in excess of per capita water for residents of Arizona.\u201d He pointed out that the Navajo Nation\u2019s original reservation was hundreds of miles away from the section of the Colorado River it now seeks water from.<\/p>\n

Justice Brett Kavanaugh also asked about the potential consequences of siding with the Navajo Nation, pointing to a brief that said more water for the tribe would necessarily mean less water for Arizona, striking \u201cat the heart of the social and economic livelihood\u201d of the state \u201cwith dire consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s \u201cpermanent home\u201d \u2013 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 consider or protect the Navajo Nation\u2019s water rights to the lower portion of the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

A federal trial court initially dismissed the lawsuit, but an appeals court allowed it to go forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it possible to have a permanent home, farm and raise animals without water?\u201d Justice Neil Gorsuch asked at one point during arguments, suggesting sympathy for the tribe\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, participating in the case via telephone because she wasn\u2019t feeling well, said the government was making the argument that the Navajo Nation can\u2019t do anything to force the government to protect its water rights, something she suggested would have been an \u201codd agreement\u201d for the tribe to make.<\/p>\n

The Colorado River flows along what is now the northwestern border of the tribe\u2019s reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Two of the river\u2019s 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 largest in the country, don\u2019t have running water in their homes.<\/p>\n

The federal government says it has helped the tribe secure water from the Colorado River\u2019s tributaries and provided money for infrastructure including pipelines, pumping plants and water treatment facilities. But it says no law or treaty requires the government to assess and address the tribe\u2019s general water needs. The states involved in the case, meanwhile, argue the Navajo Nation is attempting to make an end run around a Supreme Court decree that divvied up water in the Colorado River\u2019s Lower Basin.<\/p>\n

A decision in the case is expected by the end of June when the Supreme Court typically breaks for its summer recess.<\/p>\n

\"Phillip
Phillip Yazzie waits for a water drum in the back of his pickup truck to be filled in Teesto, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, on Feb. 11, 2021. (Felicia Fonseca\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Felicia Fonseca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Colorado River in the upper River Basin is pictured in Lees Ferry, Arizona, on May 29, 2021. The Supreme Court appears to be split in a dispute between the federal government and the Navajo Nation over water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. (Ross D. Franklin\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Ross D. Franklin<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sign marks Navajo Drive, as Sentinel Mesa, homes and other structures in Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah, on the Navajo Reservation, stand in the distance, on April 30, 2020. (Carolyn Kaster\/The Associated Press)Carolyn Kaster WASHINGTON \u2013 The Supreme Court seemed split Monday as it weighed a dispute involving the federal government and the Navajo Nation\u2019s quest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82863,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35092\/revisions\/82863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35092"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}