Full Transcript for Remaining Vigilant for Clean Water

Speaker 1: 0:00 <silence> Speaker 2: 0:06 Welcome to the Radical Imagination Podcast, where we dive into the stories and solutions that are fueling change. I'm your host, Angela Glover Blackwell, living in harmony with the Earth has always been a core practice of the Navajo tribe, but more than 150 years after a treaty with the federal government established the Navajo Nation Reservation and promised to support them with agriculture, the Navajo are still fighting for access to a fundamental human right clean running water. The Navajo Reservation spans over 17 million acres across Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. Yet it's estimated that at least 30% of Navajo households do not have access to running water. A Supreme Court decision in June added another blow to this struggle ruling that the 1868 Treaty did not require the federal government to ensure the Navajo tribe had access to water. The case has been ongoing for 20 years. The Navajo Nation first sued the federal government in 2003, arguing that they failed to protect Navajo water rights to the Colorado River. Today, ongoing droughts worsened by the climate crisis have made access to the Colorado River system even more difficult. In today's episode, we'll hear from Cindy Howell, the director of the Navajo Water Project at Dig Deep, an organization that has been working to increase water access for underserved communities. Cindy has been on the front lines working to close the water gap in her community. Cindy , welcome to Radical Imagination. Speaker 3: 1:50 Thank you. Speaker 2: 1:51 Before we start talking about the issue of water access in Navajo communities and the work you're doing, I'd love to learn more about you and your background and what brought you to this work? Speaker 3: 2:02 When I was younger, well, my parents used to haul water from about seven miles away, so we never had water. When I was younger, they would bring the barrels to a place called Blue Water Lake State Park, where they had a watering point, and that's where we received our water from. So that was done like maybe on the weekends so that we have enough water for us to take a tub bath on Sunday so that we can attend school on Monday. My father used to be a council delegate for the Navajo Nation, so I kind of tagged along every so often to attend his meetings, and I would just sit, you know, there listening to everything. And that kind of pushed me towards getting into a community leadership role. I've learned a lot about people that don't have running water, not only Navajo people, but other communities that surround the Navajo Nation. So that's how I got into working with water, because water is a big need. Everybody has to have water. Speaker 2: 3:13 It's so true. And there was a big Supreme Court decision this year dealing with water access in Navajo communities, Speaker 4: 3:20 A five four decision in which Justice Kavanaugh wrote for the majority, saying that a 155 year old law regarding water access for the Navajo Nation means that the federal government does not have to ensure water access. That's a blow for the Navajo Nation. It's one of their most important issues. Speaker 2: 3:38 The court ruled in June that the federal government was not required to ensure the Navajo tribe had access to water. Can you talk about how this decision impacts Navajo communities and what was the response from your community, Speaker 3: 3:52 Even though it was ruled against us as a person, as a community member, as a Navajo person, it is my responsibility to continue to do what I'm doing right now to help those people that don't have running water. They have been promised years after years, and to this point, a lot of people still have not seen water in their communities or their own homes. So we just have to keep on living, even though the decision was made, not in our favor, we have to continue to do the work that we are doing. Mm-Hmm. Speaker 2: 4:28 <affirmative> people are determined to make sure that they have access and dig deep states that 30% of Navajo families don't have adequate access to water. Can you share some of the on the ground examples of what this looks like in Navajo communities? What do they do to get access to usable water? You talked about your experiences as a child, but is that how it's continued throughout the years? Speaker 3: 4:50 So as Navajo people, you we're used to hauling water for our families, they could be in the 55 gallon drums, and more and more now I see the 275 gallon barrels that they use to retrieve water. So at the first of the month, people get their monthly checks and they go to the shopping, they get their food for the month, and also there's always gonna be a propane cylinder in the back of their truck, and then 2 55 gallon water barrels, and they know they only have maybe 110 gallons of water. So they're gonna have to really be careful how they use the water. And to this day, there's a lot of people that still carry milk jugs, five gallon containers in back of their vehicles. And for myself, I had an aunt when she first got her waterline, she was 72 years old. Now she doesn't have a long period of time to where she's gonna be able to enjoy running water inside her house. Speaker 2: 5:52 Can you talk about the work that the Navajo Water Project of Dig Deep has been doing to implement new water and wastewater systems for Navajo households? Speaker 3: 6:03 So when Dig Deep actually started, we were doing the home water system, meaning that we put a 1200 gallon tank underground, and then we put a pump on the inside under a sink and actually pulls the water from the tank into the house. So that's what we've been doing for years. And this is led by Navajo people. So the , the people that work will dig deep on a Navajo water project, they're fluent in their own language, which makes it easier for us to talk to our clients in the