WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – One hundred years since the creation of the Navajo government and one week from Navajo Nation Treaty Day, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren today signed legislation passed unanimously Thursday by the Navajo Nation Council to approve an historic water rights settlement for all Colorado River water.
“A year and a half ago, the team and the Attorney General Ethel Branch sat down and said, ‘Let’s think way outside of the box,’” President Nygren told an audience at the Navajo Nation Veterans Memorial Park. “Way outside means what if we settled our water rights in Arizona? I know it’s been tried for decades and decades. But if everyone came together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.”
That day has arrived, the President said. Even with an agreement among the Navajo, Hopi, San Juan Southern Paiute nations, he said, there remains many of each tribes’ people who leaders need to fight for to receive water through the settlement agreement.
“Some people haul water every single day,” he said. “Some of them don’t have vehicles. They wish they could haul water. Those are the people we fight for every single day.”
President Nygren said it’s been 156 years since the signing of the Navajo Treaty of 1868 when the Navajo people agreed to lay down arms against the U.S. Army.
“In return, make sure you support and help us and we’ll fight together as one,” the President said.
That’s the strong message to the U.S. Congress from today to get its support to authorize the settlement, fund the projects required to deliver water to the three tribes, and deliver legislation to President Biden for his signature.
“We’ve done our part,” he said. “We’ve quantified our own waters. Last year it was a hit to the belly that the (U.S. Supreme Court) was not going to help us. But now we have our own attorneys, water experts, hydrologists, and we can figure out how much water belongs to us.”
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