Officials propose historic agreement to permanently include tribes in Colorado River matters

Photo: Manuel Heart, chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, speaks about Colorado River water issues Dec. 13 at the Upper Colorado River Commission in Las Vegas. (Shannon Mullane, The Colorado Sun)

Tribal representatives from across the Colorado River Basin highlighted their main priorities this month. Being treated fairly was a big one.

LAS VEGAS — For tribal nations in the Colorado River Basin, repairing a century of exclusion is a crucial step in planning for the river’s future. A new proposal could grant them a permanent seat at the table.

Collectively, the 30 tribal nations in the basin have rights to about 26% of the Colorado River’s average flow, but states and the federal government have repeatedly left them out of major decisions about how the river’s water is stored, divided up and distributed. This month, tribal representatives from around the Colorado River Basin took the mic at the biggest basin gathering of the year with a focus on correcting historical wrongs and asserting their rights to water.

“We are still not directly engaged in the process that determines (the river’s) future,” Amelia Flores, chairwoman of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, four tribes with land in Arizona and California said at the 2023 Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas.  “… Our livelihoods and our traditions have no voice. We must do better.”

Tribal water concerns have been addressed through legislation, court decisions, contracts and more through the decades. However, tribal leaders say they are informed of decisions about how the river is managed, instead of being included in the decision-making process.

State and federal leaders did not include tribes in the creation of the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which forms the foundation of how the river’s water is managed, despite federal recognition of tribal water rights in years prior. As recently as 2007 and 2019, state and federal partners developed new rules for managing the river in response to prolonged drought, but again, tribes were not included. 

As basin officials plan for the river’s future after 2026, when the current rules expire, tribal representatives say history cannot repeat itself. 

“I’ve heard all the arguments as to why it’s not feasible to have representation of tribes at the negotiation table with the state and federal governments,” Flores said. “I’m not buying it.”

For the first time, six tribal nations are negotiating an agreement with four basin states and the federal government to give them a permanent voice at one important table. 

In 2022, tribes with land in the Upper Basin — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — began meeting with the Upper Colorado River Commission, a governance body made up of federal and Upper Basin state officials. 

“This relationship that we’ve formed is very, very important on how the Upper Basin moves as a collective,” said Lorelei Cloud, acting chairwoman of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, which has land in southwestern Colorado. “We’ve gotten to a point now where we are sharing information with each other, and that’s been monumental.”

The draft agreement would formalize meetings between […]

Full article: coloradosun.com