WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — The Navajo Nation Council has signed off on a proposed water rights settlement that carries a price tag larger than any such agreement enacted by Congress would ensure water for two other Native American tribes in a state that has been forced to cut back on water use. The Navajo Nation has one of the largest single outstanding claims in the basin.
Delegates acknowledged the gravity of their vote Thursday, with many noting that securing water deliveries to tribal communities has been an effort that has spanned generations. “Thank you for helping make history today,” Navajo Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley told her fellow delegates as they stood and clapped after casting a unanimous vote. The Hopi tribe approved the settlement earlier this week, and the San Juan Southern Paiute Council was expected to take up the measure during a meeting Thursday.
Congress will have the final say. Congress has enacted nearly three dozen tribal water rights settlements across the U.S.
over the last four decades and federal negotiation teams are working on another 22 agreements involving dozens of tribes. In this case, the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes are seeking more than $5 billion as part of their settlement. About $1.
75 billion of that would fund a pipeline from Lake Powell, one of the two largest reservoirs in the Colorado River system, on the Arizona-Utah border. The settlement would require the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation to complete the .