Indigenous nations have been an afterthought in U.S. water policy for over a century. That was all part of the plan.
Tribes
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
Tribes along the Colorado River navigate a stacked settlement process to claim their water rights
The gauntlet leaves those nations in an unjust state of limbo.
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
Tribes negotiate for a fairer future along the Colorado River
The Colorado River Interim Guidelines will expire in 2025, and Indigenous officials like Daryl Vigil are pushing to replace them with a more inclusive framework.
Posted inArticles
The first answer for food insecurity: data sovereignty
A new report shows tribal communities have adapted to meet the needs of their people in ways that state and federal governments can’t.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Tribal nations are locked inside the U.S. water regime
Phoebe Suina on the Rio Grande River, Pueblo inclusion and the need for holistic solutions to our man-made disaster.
Posted inArticles
The dizzying scope of abandoned mine hazards on public lands
As many as 500,000 abandoned mine features litter federal land, many posing environmental or physical safety hazards that especially threaten Native communities.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Rekindling connections in the small flame of a qulliq
An Inupiaq writer welcomes the nourishing glow of a seal oil lamp into her home.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Tribes call out Oregon’s reckless gaming regulation
Using horse-racing laws, a shadowy state agency and a billionaire push for a private casino that threatens tribes’ self-sufficiency.
Posted inArticles
‘The clinic, it’s going to be the heart of it all’
Members of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the newest federally recognized tribe, will have guaranteed access to health care when their new medical center opens.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
EPA prohibits White Mesa Mill from receiving Superfund waste
Energy Fuels Resources was found in violation for improper handling of radioactive waste storage.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
‘Cultural resources are not a renewable thing for us.’
The West’s largest green energy storage project would destroy a Yakama sacred site. Now, the nation is fighting back.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
A shellfish company gets into the weeds
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community shows how eelgrass and aquaculture can coexist in Puget Sound.
Posted inArticles
A mural painter helps kids deal with gun violence
Warren Montoya draws from his own trauma to facilitate art projects that help others express theirs.
Posted inArticles
40 years after its closure, the Jackpile Mine’s toxic legacy continues
‘They have to look at it every day and wonder if that’s the reason why they’re dying.’
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
Religious gatekeeping in red-rock country
A resort capitalizes on a nearby Yavapai-Apache religious site despite having no meaningful relationship with the tribe.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
Arizona’s utility commission slashed just transition assistance for tribes
The Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe will receive significantly less funds to assist in economy after the end of coal.
Posted inArticles
A federal drought relief program left southern Oregon parched
For two decades, the Bureau of Reclamation incentivized farmers to pump water faster than the resource could recover, despite warnings from its own scientists.
Posted inArticles
Seeing COP26 through the lens of Ríos to Rivers’ chief storyteller
Paul Robert Wolf Wilson’s photos take you into the streets and behind the scenes of the convention.
Posted inArticles
Judge rejects a Trump-era water contract in a win for tribes in California
A bid to benefit agribusiness has stalled again, leaving the Hoopa Valley Tribe hopeful that the next contract follows the law.
Posted inNovember 1, 2021: The Radioactive Waste Next Door
The nation’s last uranium mill plans to import Estonia’s radioactive waste
Utah says the White Mesa Mill isn’t contaminating groundwater, but its neighbor, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, disagrees.