But Cordalis says tribes usually have to make compromises to get a settlement on the table.ĬORDALIS: To get that money part to develop that water is really important because otherwise then you have a great water right and no real way to put it to use financially. It's a lot of money for the Pueblo, home to about 2,000 people. The pueblo would also get $290 million to spend on water delivery systems. A proposed settlement with the feds would confirm the tribe's rights to enough water for about 10,000 homes. The Jemez are hoping for a resolution soon. ROEDEL: Daniel Cordalis, who's Navajo, is a former Biden administration water attorney. It's another for a court or state engineer to say, oh, yeah, you do, and I'm going to manage for that. But the court didn't quantify exactly how much water.ĭANIEL CORDALIS: It's one thing to say you have water rights. In 1908, the Supreme Court guaranteed tribes nationwide enough water for homes and farms. ![]() ![]() And some of that water others are using legally belongs to the Jemez. ROEDEL: But lately, they haven't been getting enough thanks to the ongoing southwestern drought and the growing population upstream of Jemez gulping up the river. So that's what we're trying to protect here - the water. PETER MADALENA: We all try to share the water because we're all going for the same thing - the crop from the seed up. Peter Madalena is the tribe's first lieutenant governor and a lifelong farmer. ![]() ROEDEL: The tribe has been farming corn, chilies and other crops here for centuries and depends on the river for irrigation. KALEB ROEDEL, BYLINE: At Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, red mesa tops reach for a sky bounded by snow-capped mountains, dotted with green junipers and pines that stretch for miles. Kaleb Roedel of the Mountain West News Bureau has more. The agreements are worth a combined $8.5 billion so far, and they reverberate far beyond reservation boundaries. The Federal government has been signing water rights agreements with Native American tribes.
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