'Water is the key': New Mexico Pueblo leaders urge senators to back tribal water rights bills

KUNR Public Radio | By Kaleb Roedel
Published November 18, 2022 at 3:32 PM PST



Dicklyon
/Wikimedia Commons

The Pueblo of Laguna in the Rio San Jose Basin, pictured here, is one of the Indigenous communities in northern New Mexico working to resolve water rights settlements.



The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing on Nov. 16 on a variety of tribal water rights settlement bills, including two that would impact Indigenous communities in the Mountain West.

For nearly 40 years, four Pueblos in northern New Mexico – the Pueblos of Jemez, Zia, Acoma and Laguna – have been working to access the water they’re owed by the federal government.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., introduced two bills in September that would finally resolve that. “The settlements will provide critically needed funding for water infrastructure to develop and distribute new water to Pueblo homes and businesses,” Heinrich said at the hearing.

The Pueblo of Jemez and Pueblo of Zia are located in the Rio Jemez Basin, where the Jemez River flows south into the Rio Grande. The Pueblo of Acoma and Pueblo of Laguna are in the Rio San Jose Basin, where the Rio San Jose flows south into the Rio Puerco, which is a tributary of the Rio Grande.

More:
https://www.kunr.org/politics-and-policy/2022-11-18/new-mexico-pueblo-leaders-senators-tribal-water-rights-bills-mountain-west