Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/27/2021
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Categories No Categories
GWC Webinar Series: The Climate Justice Lens Is Here to Stay
The Water & Tribes Initiative: Tribal Water Rights & a Sustainable Vision for the Colorado River Basin
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Noon – 1:30 PM (MDT)
Zoom Webinar Link: https://cu.law/WaterandTribes
The Climate Justice Lens Is Here to Stay Webinar Series is free and open to the public. Please register to receive the Zoom Webinar Link. 2 Colorado CLE available.
The 30 federally recognized tribes in the Colorado River Basin depend on the Colorado and its tributaries for a variety of purposes, including cultural and religious activities, domestic, irrigation, commercial, municipal and industrial, power generation, recreation, instream flows, wildlife, and habitat restoration. Twenty-two of these tribes have recognized rights to use 3.2 million-acre feet of Colorado River system water annually, or approximately 25 percent of the Basin’s average annual water supply. In addition, 12 of the tribes have unresolved water rights claims, which will likely increase the overall volume of tribal water rights in the Basin. With the oldest water rights in the basin, tribes are poised to play a significant role in balancing water demand and supply and otherwise shaping the future of the region. Join leaders of the Water & Tribes Initiative in a conversation about the role of tribes and other sovereigns and stakeholders in advancing a sustainable vision for the Colorado River.
Bidtah Becker, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
Bidtah Becker is a citizen of the Navajo Nation (NN) and is currently serving as an Associate Attorney for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. In July 2019, Governor Lujan Grisham appointed Ms. Becker to serve on the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission. Prior, she had been appointed to serve as the Executive Director of the NN Division of Natural Resources (May 2015 to January 2019) after having served the Nation in the NN Department of Justice (DOJ) (2002 to 2015). While with the NNDOJ, she worked as an attorney across three different units: Human Services and Government, Water Rights, and Natural Resources. The majority of her career was with the Water Rights Unit.
Nora McDowell, Project Manager for the AhaMakav Cultural Society, Ft Mojave Indian Tribe
Nora McDowell is an enrolled member of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. She serves as the Project Manager for the AhaMakav Cultural Society, a division of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. Her primary role is to oversee the Topock Project site, which is a hazardous waste cleanup of Hexavalent Chromium VI along the Colorado River, 13 miles east of Needles, CA, this particular site is within ancestral homelands of the AhaMakav, “People of the River,” and is considered a Sacred site of the Mojave people. Nora was the former Chairperson of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe for over 25+ years, was instrumental in the formation of the 10 Tribes Partnership, Aha Macav Power Services, Fort Mojave Telecommunications Inc., Fort Mojave Tribal Utility Authority, and served as the Chairperson of the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Member of Council of Energy Resource Tribes, Native American Rights Fund, National Tribal Telecom Association and a Founding Member of WEWIN, Women Empowering Women for Indian Nations. Her passion is the protection of all natural resources, cultural, religious, spiritual and environmental sites along the Colorado River and other areas that deserve advocacy and protection.
Daryl Vigil, WTI Co-director; Water Administrator for Jicarilla Apache Nation
Darryl Vigil is the co-director of Water & Tribes in the Colorado River Basin. He is Jicarilla Apache, Jemez Pueblo, Zia Pueblo, and currently serves as the Water Administrator, Jicarilla Apache Nation; Chair, Water is Life a Tribal Partnership; official spokesperson (and past chair) for the Colorado River Ten Tribes Partnership; member of the Coordination Committee of the Next Steps of the Colorado River Basin Supply Demand Study; member of the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project Planning, Construction and Operation Committees; member of the Coordination Committee of the San Juan River Recovery and Restoration Project; past Secretary/Treasurer and Board of Trustees of the Colorado River Water Users Association; past Chair, Board of the Jicarilla Apache Utility Authority; past President/CEO, Apache Nugget Corporation the Jicarilla Apache Nation’s Gaming Enterprise.
Garrit Voggesser, Director, National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Partnerships Program
Garrit Voggesser is the Director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Partnerships Program. Garrit has worked with NWF for fourteen years, engaging tribes nation-wide on a wide array of wildlife and habitat conservation issues, particularly western water issues, bison conservation, protecting tribal resources from energy extraction, ensuring equity for tribes in federal natural resource legislation and appropriations, and providing environmental education and outdoor opportunities for tribal youth. Since 2004, he has partnered with tribes to protect the ecological and cultural values of the Colorado River. Prior to his current tenure, Garrit served as NWF’s bison coordinator and as a tribal conservation consultant. Garrit received a Ph.D. in American Indian and environmental history from the University of Oklahoma in 2004.
Water and Tribes Initiative Policy Briefs:
The Status of Tribal Water Rights in the Colorado River Basin
A Common Vision for the Colorado River System: Toward a Framework for Sustainability
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Noon – 1:30 PM (MDT)
Zoom Webinar Link: https://cu.law/WaterandTribes
The Climate Justice Lens Is Here to Stay Webinar Series is free and open to the public. Please register to receive the Zoom Webinar Link. 2 Colorado CLE available