Go Navajo!

from The LA Times via Yahoo! News

Supreme Court may keep alive Navajo Nation water rights claim in Arizona

by David G. Savage

The Colorado River cuts through Marble Canyon in the Navajo Nation en route to the Grand Canyon. This segment of the river joins two vast reservoirs: Lake Powell in Utah and Lake Mead in Nevada. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

A divided Supreme Court confronted on Monday the question of whether the government must do more to provide water for the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona.

And the answer, by the narrowest majority, appeared to be yes.

Most of the justices said they were wary of even considering plans to take more water from the mainstream of the drought-stricken Colorado River. But five of them, led by Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Elena Kagan, mostly agreed with a lawyer who said there was a 150-year history of broken promises to the Navajo Nation.

A treaty signed in 1868 promised a “permanent home” where Navajo Nation residents could farm and raise animals.

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