Matt Jenkins’ article on Navajo water claims seemed
to exhibit a subtle bias against the grassroots Dine folks on the
outside of the tribal bureaucracy (HCN,
3/17/08). And maybe the activists are a little unfair to
the white lawyer – after all, there are also Indian lawyers,
elected officials, water consultants and bureaucrats who are
equally ready to cut deals.
In these water deals, the
devil tends to be in the details. Former Chairman MacDonald’s
inflated claim probably does not pass the legal laugh test, but
that begs the question: What is a realistic claim for the Navajo
Reservation? The article never approached this issue. Too bad.
Nor did it focus on the larger question of what role the
people themselves – including generations to come – should play in
decisions about whether and when to negotiate water rights and what
sort of deals to cut. When one looks closely at tribe-fed-state
water deals across the West, the missing element is the people.
Where are the educational processes designed to empower tribal
members to understand what is at stake, what is proposed and the
alternatives? Where is the consultation with elders (those who
speak for future generations)? And where are the referendums
whereby the people can let their will be known?
If Mr.
Pollack and the tribal leaders for whom he works are at fault it is
because they have not taken the extra step of educating – and
thereby empowering – the people. This is nothing new in Indian
Country.
It is often the case that tribes do not do well
when negotiating with feds, states and water interests behind
closed doors. History will judge whether the (predominantly) white
lawyers and consultants negotiating the current round of Western
water deals for tribes will be seen as heroes of indigenous peoples
or as representatives of a colonial power knowingly or unknowingly
extending the long history of appropriation of indigenous resources
by conquering societies.
Felice Pace
Klamath,
California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Democracy in water decisions.
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