Deep Dive: Water for the Navajo Nation

Established by treaty in 1868, the modern boundaries of the Navajo Nation span 27,000 square miles across the deserts of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. While its water rights were guaranteed on paper in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1908 Winters decision, getting actual “wet water” to meet the needs of the nation’s 175,000 residents remains a challenge. This month the Utton Center’s Water Matters speaks with attorney Bidtah Becker, a University of New Mexico School of Law graduate who has been serving the Navajo Nation for two decades. Becker talks about the challenges of making good on the Supreme Court’s 1908 promise of Native American water rights in a legal landscape fractured by state borders that require the Navajo Nation to negotiate a legal and political landscape to deal with Congress and representatives of the seven U.S. Colorado River Basin states. Becker talks about the progress being made in building a water pipeline through the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation – the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. She also talks about the challenges facing the Navajo Nation’s efforts to settle its water rights in Arizona, and bring water to communities in the western Navajo Nation, through the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 2025. Water Matters! is written by Rin Tara and John Fleck of the Utton Transboundary Resource Center, with production and editorial assistance from Francesca Glaspell. Our logo and music were created by Sairis Perez-Gomez.