Water rights in Navajo Nation have historically been a contentious issue, and emotions continue to run high. The issue has fostered a sense of distrust toward white lawyers and officials (including those seemingly fighting for Navajo claims), but has also proved divisive among the tribe itself. Navajos are split between realists and idealists; the former is often accused of "selling out", and the latter(many of whom claim a divine right to every drop of the Colorado River lying within the Navajo Holy Land, an area twice the size of the current reservation) follow a messianic vision promoted by their vehement leader-in-exile, the convicted-of-corruption former tribal chairman Peter MacDonald. Two loopholes in the Colorado River Compact make it possible for Navajos to claim some of the water currently feeding burgeoning urban centers, but the inconsistencies of these laws fuel the growing divide between the adamant all-or-nothing advocates and the compromising realists. One clause entitles Native Americans to an amount of water sufficient to establish a "permanant homeland", while the other calls for appropriation to fulfill all "practicably irrigable acres". These claims can vary wildly, and the PIA is calculated by some (idealist-supported) studies to be all but infinite. This is a fascinating story of betrayal, libel, uproar, rumor, and turbulence, and its future is as murky as the legal battles it has spawned. Check it out at
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17573.
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