‘Water is life’: Native leaders honor sacred river spaces as courts debate water rights

Photo: A view near the confluence of the Little Colorado River and the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon on Dec. 1, 2021. Joel Angel Juarez/The Republic

Mona Polacca has never seen Sípàapu, a place of emergence on the Little Colorado River according to Hopi creation teachings. But she knows it is a sacred place that deserves protection.

The Sípàapu is a limestone dome that sits on the banks upstream from the confluence of the Little Colorado and the mainstem Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which the Hopi call Ӧng’tupkya.

Last month, the International Committee on Monuments and Sites International Science Committee traveled to Flagstaff to present the Black Mesa Trust, a Hopi grassroots organization, with the Water and Heritage Shield designated for the Sípàapu.

“I showed them a picture of the waterfall that is down in the Grand Canyon, Supai,” said Polacca, who is Havasupai, Hopi and Tewa, and who had worked on gaining recognition for the Sípàapu with the heritage shield. “I said, ‘it’s beautiful, isn’t it? Isn’t it worth saving? How can we get recognition of our sacred waters?’”The presentation was made amid new debate over the future of water in tribal communities and on the Colorado River. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last month in a case that could force the federal government to apportion water […]

Full article: ‘Water is life’: Native leaders honor sacred river spaces as courts debate water rights