The Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2022 was signed by President Joe Biden last year and this week, tribal members celebrated the Settlement at an event held at Grand Canyon West.
The law approved a settlement agreement that will provide much needed water for the Hualapai reservation, which encompasses about one million acres along 108 miles of the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. The law also established a $312 million trust fund for the Tribe to develop water infrastructure on its reservation.
The total population of the Hualapai Reservation is about 1,600. Most people who reside on the reservation live in the capitol town of Peach Springs.The closest full-service community is Kingman, Arizona located 55 miles west of Peach Springs on historic Route 66.
Hualapai Tribe Joined by Interior Department at Celebration
Department of the Interior Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland joined members of the Hualapai Tribe at the celebration of the historic water rights settlement.
“Across the Western United States, Tribes are navigating an uncertain future as the climate crisis worsens, the arid West grows drier, and precious water resources become scarcer. The Biden-Harris administration is committed to using every tool at our disposal to deliver on our promises to Indigenous communities,” said Deputy Secretary Beaudreau. “Today we celebrate a settlement that was achieved by true collaboration – with Department of the Interior officials, Tribal representatives, stakeholders and other water users – to finally deliver water to the Hualapai Tribe and its future generations.
As a sovereign Indian nation, the Hualapai Tribe is governed by an executive and judicial branch. The executive branch is composed of a nine-member Tribal Council, which includes a chairperson and vice-chairperson. Tribal members elect Council members to serve serve four-year terms. The Council oversees twelve administrative departments. The judicial branch of government consists of a Tribal Court and a Court of Appeals. The Tribal Council appoints judges for two-year terms.
About Water Rights Settlements
Indian water rights are vested property rights and resources for which the United States has a trust responsibility. the United States has fulfilled its trust responsibility to Indian tribes by assisting tribes with their claims to reserved water rights through litigation, negotiations, and/or implementation of settlements.
Typically, Indian water claims arise out of the right of many tribes to water resources dating to the establishment of their reservations. disputes have arisen between non-Indian water users and Indians attempting to assert their water rights, particularly in the western United States. These and other disputes have typically been addressed through litigation or, more recently, resolved by negotiated settlements.
When litigated in the courts, Indian water rights holders who prevail in a case may not see tangible water resources and are awarded only “paper water”—that is, they may be awarded a legal claim to water but lack the financial capital to develop those water resources. As a result, negotiated settlements have recently been the preferred means of resolving many Indian water rights disputes. Negotiated settlements afford tribes and other interested stakeholders an opportunity to discuss and agree on terms for quantification of and access to tribal water allocations, among other things.
First Water Settlement Act of the Biden Administration
The At the Interior Department, the Secretary’s Indian Water Rights Office manages, negotiates and oversees implementation of Indian water rights claims.
This is the first Indian water rights settlement enacted during the Biden-Harris administration. To date the administration has allocated more than $3.1 billion to fund Indian water rights settlements, more than any other administration in history. This includes more than $2 billion through the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to implement the Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund, which is helping deliver long-promised water resources to Tribes like the Hualapai, certainty to surrounding communities, and a solid foundation for future economic development for entire communities dependent on common water resources.
