Tribal Sovereignty Under Threat on the Little Colorado River

 by Sarana Riggs, Grand Canyon Manager

We pull up to the Salt Trail trailhead and step out of our air-conditioned vehicle into a warm 90-degree environment. We glance around, and in this sparse, dry desert landscape with no trees in sight, nothing but small, determined shrubs and cacti grow. We can see the lack of water. I notice some horses below the ridge we are standing on and wonder how they can survive way out here when there are no nearby water sources except the Little Colorado River below, separated from us by several thousand feet of sheer cliffs. I know these horses are not the only livestock out here. There are many, along with wildlife, impacted by the severe drought we are in. It is hard to imagine how people, domesticated animals, wildlife, and plants can live and sustain themselves in this remote part of the Western Navajo Nation.

During our short visit, our clan relatives tell us about the history of this place, called “Bodaway,” which means “water scarce” in the Navajo language. We listen to cultural knowledge of the distant past and of shared cultural spaces from those who call the Grand Canyon home. That these places have names that predate colonial settlers is one indicator of how long Native peoples have been tied to the land. Our sovereignty and our authority to decide how it is used is under threat, as it has been for generations.    

The legacy of the Bennett Freeze

Our relatives also spoke about federal policies and injustices such as the Bennett Freeze. The policy was put in place in 1966 to settle a dispute between the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe. It prohibited repairing and building homes, and creating infrastructure like water lines, power lines, and roads in large areas of the two nations. Without these necessities, the needs of communities such as schools, hospitals, stores, opportunities for employment, and other things we take for granted in our own towns were not developed. So, for generations, many of us from this area attended schools and worked off the reservation, stayed in border towns, or returned home to form multigenerational households. The Bennett Freeze was finally lifted in 2009, after more than 40 years, giving communities a chance to catch up with the world and start anew with hopes of growth, building, and bringing families home.

Fending off the proposed Escalade tramway resort

With the freeze lifted, outside developers from Phoenix, Arizona saw an opportunity. One proposal, the so-called “Grand Canyon Escalade,” was a 420-acre resort to be built on the east rim of the Grand Canyon with a gondola tramway. This attraction was projected to take up to 10,000 visitors a day down to the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers, inside the Grand Canyon. The project failed to get the permission of the local landowners, grazing permittees, communities, and affiliated tribes of the Grand Canyon, as the developers did not understand the cultural, historical, and environmental significance of the area. For eight years, the developers pushed this project out of the hands of those who would be impacted and divided a community. Ultimately, it was defeated in a Navajo Nation Council vote on October 31, 2017.

Dam developers target the Little Colorado River

ADAM HAYDOCK

While the Western Navajo Nation community of Bodaway was recovering, healing, and renewing and repairing relationships among friends and families, another developer from Phoenix applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for preliminary permits for several hydroelectric dams in the canyon that the Little Colorado River runs through, as well as in a tributary canyon. These proposals came as a surprise to many in the Navajo Nation government and, once again, to the families, grazing permittees, and communities surrounding the Little Colorado River, as well as many neighboring tribes who have cultural ties to this fragile landscape.

The Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and the Hualapai Tribe, with the support of many others, strongly opposed the dam projects. Recently, the developer asked FERC to surrender the permits for two of its three proposals, citing strong community opposition and investment risks.

One proposal — the Big Canyon project — remains, and it threatens to undermine tribal sovereignty.

What is tribal sovereignty?

Tribal sovereignty is the authority of a tribal nation to self-govern. Treaties, laws, and executive orders have cemented formal government-to-government relationships between the U.S. government and tribes. Yet these laws are written and interpreted by non-Native people. For example, FERC, through the Federal Power Act, allows the prospective developers to apply for preliminary permits to build dams on Navajo Nation land, without notifying the Navajo Nation, let alone seeking consent. As Indigenous people, our traditional and customary laws instruct us to live in harmony with all that surrounds us in nature and within our communities. These inherent rights passed down through our language system and through generations give us instructions to take care of the land, water, plants, air, animals, and those with no voice to ensure that the balance of life stays whole and intact. Outside developments on Indigenous lands, like the Grand Canyon Escalade and Little Colorado River dam proposals, infringe on the laws of tribal sovereignty. And most importantly, they disregard the original inhabitants who would be impacted by these developments. 

Respecting tribal sovereignty around the confluence

Save the Confluence, a coalition of local Navajo families, began to assert sovereignty over land sought for commercial development by boosters of the Escalade tramway resort at a time when several prominent leaders of the Navajo Nation supported the proposal. It took seven years for local residents to convince their elected representatives to respect their rights by voting down the project. 

The region’s scarce and sacred waters are under threat again, this time from the proposed Big Canyon dam project. But citizens and the Navajo and Hopi tribal governments are now aligned in opposing the proposed hydroelectric dams. And the Save the Confluence families are working to protect the Little Colorado River Gorge as a sacred area under Navajo law, to wrest their sovereignty from those who would desecrate it.