Above photo: Colorado Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores (L) and US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (R) sign CRIT water rights agreement in April, 2024. Megan Mendoza/The Republic.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes took a key step in Indigenous environmental law by designating the Colorado River — the life source for millions across the Southwest — as a “living being” with legal rights under tribal law. The move, approved by the tribal council late last year, reflects both a cultural worldview and a strategic tool to protect dwindling water supplies amid prolonged drought and growing demand.
The resolution describes the river as an entity with inherent value and rights comparable to those of a person, a legal concept known as the rights of nature. Tribal leaders said the designation gives them a stronger foundation to steward and defend the river for future generations.
“There is no greater expression of sovereignty than protecting, stewarding, and securing for future generations what our Ancestors handed down to us,” the tribes wrote in the resolution. “That personhood status is a reflection of our values as a people and our spiritual, cultural, and religious connection to the Colorado River from the beginning of time through the end of time.”
Cultural and Legal Context
For the Colorado River Indian Tribes — a confederation of the Mojave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajo peoples — the river is both sacred and essential for life, cultural practices and agriculture. Chairwoman Amelia Flores noted in a recent commentary that the tribe holds senior water rights in Arizona and faces frequent proposals to lease water allocations. By recognizing the river’s rights to restoration, habitat protection and sustained flow, the tribes aim to ensure that future transactions align with ecological health. “We must think beyond terms of what it can provide to us; we must think of what we can provide to it,” Flores wrote.
The designation places the river within a broader rights-of-nature movement that recognizes ecosystems and natural entities as holders of rights, including the right to exist, flourish and regenerate.
While the approach is growing globally, its practical application in court systems within the U.S. remains largely untested. A 2020 federal ruling struck down a rights-of-nature law for Lake Erie adopted by voters in Toledo, Ohio, as unconstitutional under state law, underscoring legal uncertainties outside tribal jurisdictions.
Tribal Precedents in Rights of Nature Laws
The Colorado River designation comes amid a series of tribal initiatives that have woven Indigenous stewardship principles into contemporary legal rights frameworks. Legal scholars and rights-of-nature advocates note that Indigenous nations have been at the forefront of this movement in North America. Several tribes have adopted laws or resolutions recognizing nature’s inherent rights, including:
- The Ho-Chunk Nation, one of the earliest adopters, passed a resolution in 2016 recognizing ecosystems’ rights to exist and thrive.
- The Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma enacted customary law in 2018 affirming the rights of nature, including clean air and water.
- The White Earth Band of Ojibwe passed 2018 legislation recognizing rights of manoomin (wild rice) to regenerate and evolve.
- The Yurok Tribe declared in 2019 that the Klamath River possesses inherent rights to exist, flourish and naturally evolve.
- The Nez Perce Tribe adopted a 2020 resolution recognizing fundamental rights for the Snake River, including the right to flow and regenerate.
- The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin passed a resolution in 2020 recognizing the rights of the Menominee River to exist and function as a healthy ecosystem.
- The Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians legally recognized the Longperson, an interconnected water system as a living relative with the right to exist, flourish, regenerate, and flow freely.
- The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in northern Michigan passed a resolution in 2024 in defense of the tribe’s first family: its natural resources.
- The Rappahannock Tribe in Virginia in 2024 adopted a Tribal Constitution that recognizes the constitutional rights of nature.
Supporters of the Colorado River designation say it enhances tribal sovereignty and fills gaps in state and federal water law, which critics argue have failed to stem environmental degradation and crisis conditions in the Southwest. Skeptics, however, raise questions about how rights-of-nature designations will withstand legal challenges or influence broader water management regimes that involve multiple states and federal interests.
As tensions over Western water rights intensify, the move underscores how Indigenous legal innovation continues to shape environmental policy dialogues across the United States.
