WRRC Recognizes Native American Heritage Month
Hopi Rain (WRRC 2017 Photo Contest Entry)
Bruce Russell
November is Native American Heritage Month, and in honor of this observance, the WRRC sponsored two events that featured Native priorities and is pleased to offer recordings for online viewing.
On Wednesday, November 12, a WRRC Water Webinar featured a student research presentation co-sponsored by the U of A Indigenous Resilience Center. WRRC alumna Aminta Menjivar Maldonado, now a Human Rights Consultant with the International Indian Treaty Council and a recent PhD graduate in American Indian Studies with a minor in law, shared insights from her dissertation project, Indian Water Settlements in Arizona: An Analysis of Their History and Potential Future. Supported by a Water Resources Research Act, Section 104(b) grant, Menjivar’s project examined the evolution of Indian water settlements in the United States since 1978, when Congress approved the first of what are now 35 settlements. Her work approached water sovereignty and self-determination through the lens of Tribal Nations’ long-standing struggles to access the water needed to sustain their communities.
Menjivar discussed the complicated legal foundations of Tribal water rights, including the trust doctrine, prior appropriation, and the landmark Winters v. United States (1908) Supreme Court decision, which affirmed that reservations hold reserved water rights sufficient to fulfill their purpose. As of 2025, these rights have not yet been fully realized. Of Arizona’s 22 federally recognized Tribes, only 10 have partially or fully settled their water rights. Menjivar also highlighted the challenges of modern settlements, which have become more flexible but also more complex, as Tribes explore water leasing, selling, and diverse use options. The webinar recording is now available on the WRRC website.
On the same day, November 12, the Native Voices in STEM (NVIS) program hosted a seminar as part of their WRRC co-sponsored fall seminar series. This NVIS seminar, titled “Community-Based Participatory Research on Food-Energy-Water Projects,” was presented by U of A Associate Professor Vicky Karanikola. She highlighted collaborative methods to co-design sustainable food-energy-water solutions within Tribal and Indigenous settings, emphasizing equity, cultural context, and local capacity-building in historically underserved communities. The recording of this event is also available online.