View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ASU Digital Repository Water Rights: A Transformative Perspective On Water Rights And Indigenous Peoples by Isaac A. Navajo A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Approved May 2012 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: William Simmons, Chair Monica Casper Suzanne Vaughan ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY August 2012 ABSTRACT Indian water rights and Indian water settlements have emerged as a means for resolving long-standing despites and water rights claims. Working with and understanding water rights demands a genuine knowledge of water issues that are specific to each indigenous community as there are cultural aspects and perspectives towards water that are involved. The Gila River Indian Community is an indigenous community in south central Arizona, whose cultural and historic origins span over two millennia. Their foundation as a people was tied to the presence of the Gila and Salt Rivers, from which they freely diverted its waters through hundreds of miles of hand-dug canals, to transform the Sonoran desert into a desert oasis. There is a historical progression of this Community’s water rights from when water was abundant to the time it was scarce, leading to an outright denial of a livelihood where water and farming was central to their way of life. A water rights settlement was an option that was pursued because it offered a chance for the Community to see the return of their water. The 2004 Gila River Indian Community Water Rights Settlement has been recognized as the largest Indian water rights settlement in United States history and serves as a model for future water settlements. The success of Indian water settlements in the United States has the potential, under the right political and legal conditions, to be replicated in other areas of the world where water resources are under dispute and water rights have come into conflict between indigenous and non-indigenous users. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY HISTORY ...............................................2 The Huhugam...............................................................................................2 The River People..........................................................................................4 Gila River Diversions ..................................................................................8 Diabetes......................................................................................................13 Water Litigation .........................................................................................15 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................18 Historical Development .............................................................................18 Political Autonomy and Nation Building ..................................................20 WATER RIGHTS ..................................................................................................22 Water Rights ..............................................................................................22 Indian Water Settlements ...........................................................................26 CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ...............................................................................34 Research Purpose and Design ....................................................................35 Support for Research..................................................................................37 Interview Sessions .....................................................................................37 Cultural Stories ..........................................................................................42 The Ancestral Landscape .......................................... 43Cultural Perspective 44 Page ii Settlement Satisfaction and the Future ......................................................45 Selected Responses ....................................................................................46 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES .......................................................................48 Postcolonial Theory ...................................................................................48 Indigenous Peoples ....................................................................................50 Human Rights ............................................................................................52 TRANSFORMATIVE PERSPECTIVE ................................................................55 WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................58 APPENDIX A. GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION GR-08-11 ..................................................................63 B. ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVAL FOR HUMAN SUBJECT RESEARCH .....................................................................67 C. INFORMATIONAL LETTER TO INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS ................................................................................69 D. INTERVIEW GUIDE ........................................................................72 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Research Interview Matrix .............................................................................40 iv INTRODUCTION When people hear the term water rights, they immediately think in terms of ownership of actual water. Indeed, I myself was misled by this term. Water rights and its complexity require a background knowledge and history of its development. To narrow this complexity, I have chosen to look at water rights from a legal and political perspective, as well as a cultural and indigenous perspective. This involves investigating the relationship that an indigenous community in South-Central Arizona has with water, which has been the foundation of their identity as a people since time immemorial. Secondly, explaining the development of water rights as a legal and political construction here in the United States will assist in the overall understanding. This thesis should serve to educate scholars, students and people in general about water rights as it pertains to indigenous communities, identity, social justice and human rights. In the broader perspective and real world application, water rights and water settlements can have a profound influence on the experience of indigenous peoples around the globe. 1 GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY HISTORY This thesis is a result of working for and with the people of the Gila River Indian Community, which is located just south of Phoenix, Arizona. To have a more in-depth understanding of the people and the culture, one must know where they come from and where they are going and one must know their past, which is essential and enlightening. Throughout this thesis, I use the term ―Community‖ which refers to the Gila River Indian Community, which is widely used in daily communication. I also use the term Akimel O’odham, also spelled O’otham, Pima and River People, who are the same indigenous people of the Phoenix valley. In reference to the Pee Posh, or Maricopa people, they are also known as the People Who Live Towards the Water. Collectively, the Akimel O’otham and Pee Posh are the People of the River, the Gila River. This river has been the lifeblood that has made the desert green and has provided the very livelihood of two peoples for centuries. Over 150 years ago, the river stopped flowing, the land began to return to the desert and the People of the River no longer had a river. The Huhugam I begin this thesis with an extended history of the Akimel O’otham, starting with their ancestors, the Huhugam. The Huhugam, also spelled Huhukum and Hohokam (among other spellings), is a Pima derived word that is used to describe their ancient ancestors, which is translated to mean ―Those Who Have Gone‖ or ―Those Who Have Vanished.‖ They settled along the Gila River and its tributaries, and later the Salt River in South Central Arizona around 0–300 A.D. and continuing to 1450 A.D. when it is said they simply disappeared (GRIC 1). 2 There is no single theory among historians and archeologists for the disappearance of the Huhugam, but what is known is that the cultural characteristics and the continued use of the hundreds of miles of hand dug irrigation canals continued with the Akimel O’otham (SRP 1). Farming was an essential part of the people who inhabited what is now the Phoenix river valley. Life giving waters from the Gila River and Salt River were diverted through hand-dug canals to irrigate hundreds of fields located in an aboriginal territory of over three million acres. The aboriginal lands, based on archeological evidence, extends to modern day Florence Junction in the east, Picacho Peak in the south, trailing along Interstate 8 to Gila Bend, Turtle Mountain in the west and Deer Valley in the north (GRIN 1). This land base was slowly transformed throughout 2,000 years of occupation by the ancestral Huhugam, and then by their successors, Akimel O’otham (Pima) and later, by the Pee Posh (Maricopa) people in the early 1700’s. The Phoenix river valley was truly an oasis paradise in the Sonoran Desert. This was