AL JAZEERA
The United States government does not have a responsibility to “take affirmative steps to secure water” for the Navajo Nation, the US Supreme Court has ruled, dealing a blow to the Indigenous community’s efforts to outline its water rights amid historic drought.
In a 5-4 decision (PDF) on Thursday morning, the top court said an 1868 treaty between the US government and the Navajo tribe that established the Navajo Reservation “reserved necessary water” for the community’s needs.
“But the treaty did not require the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Tribe,” the Supreme Court said.
Water has long been a top concern for members of the Navajo Nation, whose territory spans more than 6.8 million hectares (17 million acres) across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah in the western United States.
It is estimated that approximately 30 percent of the roughly 175,000 residents who live on the reservation – the largest in the country – do not have running water in their homes.
The issue has taken on added importance as the Colorado River watershed where the Navajo Nation is located has been forced to consider significant water cuts amid the worst drought in more than 1,000 years.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said on Thursday that while the Supreme Court’s decision was “disappointing”, he was encouraged that four dissenting justices “understood our case and our arguments”.
“I remain undeterred,” Nygren wrote on Twitter. “As President of the Navajo Nation, I represent and protect the Navajo people, our land, and our future.”
The Navajo Nation’s case relied on its rights under a milestone 1908 Supreme Court ruling. Known as the “Winters doctrine”, the decision safeguarded the rights of Native Americans living on reservations to access sufficient water for their purposes.
The Navajo Nation argued (PDF) that two 19th-century treaties established the Navajo reservation as a “permanent home” where the tribe could “commence farming”, in exchange for their “nomadic life” beyond the reservation’s borders.
