American Indian History on Trial by Hart E. Richard

Author:Hart, E. Richard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781607815969
Publisher: University of Utah Press

The adjudication of Zuni water rights has been going on in courts for nearly thirty-five years. Court actions have taken place in federal courts and in state courts. The reservation’s water rights are currently being adjudicated (in federal court) and negotiated (partly under state administration). Some tribal water rights have already been established.

Zuni believe that after death they go to reside at Kolhu/wala:wa (called “Zuni Heaven” in English). This village of supernatural beings exists under the surface of a small lake about seventy kilometers to the southwest of their main village. The water creatures (frogs, tadpoles, fish, and so forth) that live in the lake are sacred. The Tribe reached a settlement with the Salt River Project (public utility) and others, which Congress approved. This has allowed that small lake to be replenished and the sacred area saved for Zuni religious use.2

Adjudication of the water rights associated with the Zuni Reservation began in the early 1980s and is still ongoing. As mentioned above, the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico require specialized legal claims because of the large amount of land they were already cultivating when Europeans arrived, because of the centuries of water use subject to laws of Spain and Mexico, and because of particular decisions of the United States courts, particularly Aamodt.3

Since historic documentation shows Zuni cultivation of some 20,000 acres (nearly 8,100 hectares), a very large claim for actual historic use can be made by the Pueblo. The Tribe can also make a claim under the Practicably Irrigable Acreage (PIA) standard, which treats the Zuni reservation (the heart of their aboriginal territory) as a permanent homeland. Thus the Tribe’s final water right may be based on a combination of historic claims, claims under the PIA standard and claims under a Homeland standard. Claims under the PIA standard are complicated by arguments as to what definition should be used as to what constitutes “irrigation.”

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