Navajo water rights must be maximized

To the editor:

We must maximize Navajo water rights now. Our water rights and settlement compensation are covertly being minimized by Department of Justice lawyer Stanley Pollack with the support of the council and the Water Rights Commission.

In 1997, Pollack told a Santa Fe public meeting that Navajo could claim not less than 5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water per year as a starting point for negotiations. That is at least $50 billion worth of water that could make an immediate impact on our ability to economically sustain ourselves as a nation.

Until we recently distributed the publication of Pollack's remarks, the council and Water Commission did not know this. Nevertheless, they still let Pollack claim only 76,000 acre-feet of river water. Pollack also told the council and Water Commission that "use it or lose it" applies to Navajo reserved water rights.

Pollack also told the Council Commission that the waiver of our upper Colorado River water rights in 1969 for 50 years is valid. It is not. Water rights experts agree. The waiver was achieved through documented deceptions, coercion, and falsehoods presented to an uninformed Navajo Council in 1969. That makes the waiver void.

Our coal and water are used to make electricity at the Page power plant, which is then transmitted by power lines to the Colorado River in western Arizona. There, the power is used to pump billions of dollars worth of our water from the Colorado River to Phoenix and Tucson. We are owed billions in compensation. If we Diné let this continue, we will have let our future generations be robbed of self-determination and a sustainable economy.

In 2001-2003, grassroots groups marched to remove Pollack. One way we proposed to end his power was to create an independent Water Rights Commission, free of outside influence. Despite this, Pollack remains.

As leaders and concerned citizens we must look into this travesty against the Navajos. For our very future existence as a Nation we must "maximize all our water rights, at all times, and at all places."

Our words come from the heart. If things do not change, the economic and sovereign futures of our children are minimized. When are the council and Water Commission going to wake up and realize the claim of 76,000 acre-feet is less than 2 percent of what Pollack told non-Navajos we were entitled to start with? Are we the only ones that see this glaring red flag?

Diné Sovereignty Defense Association

Tuba City