WTI Releases Policy Brief on Tribal Sovereignty
The Water & Tribes Initiative (WTI) recently published a new policy brief, titled Tribal Sovereignty in the Colorado River Basin and Beyond. It begins by placing Tribal sovereignty in historical context, noting that “Native peoples have existed within self-governing political communities in North America for a very long time—millennia before Europeans arrived on the continent.” The policy brief then goes on to explore foundational principles of Tribal sovereignty in modern times and in practice, including the governmental power to manage land, water, and other natural resources. Government-to-government relationships in the Colorado River Basin involve Tribal nations, the US federal government, and state governments. The policy brief addresses the complex nature of these inter-governmental relationships, acknowledging both the sometimes adversarial approaches to decision-making and the more recent shift toward collaboration.
An article titled “Tripartite Water Cosovereignty,” published this June in The Yale Law Journal, contributes to the literature on this topic. Its author, law professor Jason Robison, was a co-author of the WTI policy brief.