They said that in “six decades of litigation, the United States never claimed reserved water rights in the mainstream of the LBCR (lower basin Colorado River) for the Navajo Reservation.” That was echoed in a court filing by Arizona and several other states and water districts siding with the federal government. The mainstem of the Colorado River has never been part of that protection, it said. RELATED STORY: California aims to store more rainwater as it vies with Arizona for flow from Colorado Riverīut the government argues that it has long protected the tribe’s rights to water from Colorado River tributaries on the Navajo Nation, including the Little Colorado and San Juan rivers. “Because the government has breached its duty to provide sufficient water, the Navajo Nation sued the government for breach of trust, seeking an injunction requiring the government to assess the Nation’s water needs and develop a plan to meet them,” the tribe said. The tribe said in court filings that the obligation was part of a “simple proposition” from the 19th century, when the government “promised the Navajos water” to encourage them to take up farming on reservation land. Both involve the tribe’s claim that the federal government’s obligation to protect Navajo water rights includes water in the Colorado River, even though the river is not specifically mentioned in agreements with the tribe and in decades of case law. Navajo Nation and Department of the Interior v. The case actually combines two cases, Arizona v. Navajo Nation, it will be considering fairly technical legal questions, but the answers could have a large impact on water allocation in the Colorado River basin. Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in Arizona v.
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