Yavapai-Apache Nation reaches water settlement after change in state policy

Another tribe in Arizona has secured its water supply, this time after a 50-year-long struggle.

The Yavapai-Apache Nation approved its water rights settlement June 26 , which will bring new water supplies to the Verde Valley and settle the tribe's decades-long water rights claims. The settlement is the latest after Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs reversed a state policy that complicated tribes' efforts to claim their rights to water.

Yavapai-Apache Chairwoman Tanya Lewis said the agreement, which was negotiated with local communities, the Salt River Project, and state and federal officials will bring real "wet" water to her tribe.

At the center of the settlement: constructing a pipeline from the C.C. Cragin Reservoir on the Mogollon Rim along Forest Service roads to the Verde Valley. SRP manages the reservoir and the water it holds.

In the deal, the pipeline will deliver dedicated sources of water from the Cragin Reservoir to the Yavapai-Apache Nation. It will also allow the tribe to exchange 1,200 acre-feet of its Central Arizona Project water with SRP for an additional delivery of water from C.C. Cragin in the same amount.

The settlement will also confirm the Yavapai-Apache Nation's historic irrigation rights as well as certain rights to pump groundwater, including when C.C. Cragin Reservoir levels are low. The tribe also has the right to acquire future water rights under the settlement.

The Yavapai-Apache Nation will also waive, among other things, claims for damages to water rights against existing water users in the Verde River watershed and against the United States.

“We congratulate the Yavapai-Apache Nation on approving the nation's settlement and look forward to recommending it to the SRP Board for approval in the near future," says Leslie Meyers, SRP's associate general manager who also heads water resources and services.

She said the settlement would bring water certainty to the community and facilitate renewable water supplies and cooperative water stewardship in the Verde Valley.

The 2,700-member tribe will also be able to sustainably reuse effluent water thanks to an upcoming wastewater treatment facility funded by a loan from the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona . The $16.3 million loan, of which $1.65 million is forgivable, will fund replacing an outdated sewage lagoon system that serves 176 customers, including the Cliff Castle Casino and Hotel, the Yavapai-Apache Nation Cultural Center and tribal homes after the project is completed in 2026.

The new plant will enable the tribe to use high-quality reclaimed water in its farming operations, which will reduce groundwater pumping to help protect Verde River flows.

The tribe said preserving the river also helps preserve cultural resources, maintain the character of the valley and drive tourism and economic development in the region.

A secure water supply also means that the tribe can continue to rebuild its land base, lost when its original reservation was closed and handed off to new settlers.

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Rebuilding a nation with land, water

The ancestral lands of the Yavapai and Apache peoples are in what is now central and western Arizona. Two bands, the Wipuhk’a’bah Yavapai and the Dil’zhe’e Apache lived in the Verde Valley along the river and surrounding lands.

After non-Indians arrived and the U.S. took possession of the Southwest, the Yavapais and Apaches were allotted a 575,000-acre reservation straddling the Verde River in 1871. It stretched along 45 miles of the Verde, encompassing 10 miles on each side of the river.

After pressure by settlers anxious for riverfront lands, that reservation was dissolved by presidential order. In February 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant instead ordered the U.S. Army to round up all the Yavapai and Apaches they could find and take them to the San Carlos Reservation. They were marched over the mountains in winter weather about 200 miles to San Carlos.

More than 30 years later, after their lands had been settled by non-Indians, the two bands of Yavapai and Apache slowly returned to their ancestral lands to help build dams on the Verde and Salt rivers. They found no place to call home since all their lands had been portioned out.

In 1909, the U.S. acquired 18 acres in Camp Verde for the tribe. More than 100 years later, the Yavapai-Apache Nation added to that tiny land base, assembling a small non-contiguous land base of 1,800 acres spread out across the communities of Middle Verde, Lower Verde, Tunlii, Rimrock and Clarkdale to serve the tribe.

Further land expansion for the Yavapai-Apache Nation and other tribes in Arizona had been stymied by a state policy tying water settlements, also needed by growing tribal populations, to acquiring new lands.

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State reverses course for tribal water settlements

The Yavapai-Apache water settlement is the latest in a flurry of tribal water settlements after the governor quietly reversed a longstanding state policy that restricted tribal water settlements .

In 2022, Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke told The Arizona Republic that tribes wanting to settle their water rights should go to Congress to request adding land to their reservations, a process known as taking land into trust. The Congressional route is far more expensive and time-consuming than an existing administrative process within the Interior Department.

"The Department of Interior are not elected officials, but appointed officials," he said. "Going through Congress allows state and local entities to work directly with their elected representatives in Washington, D.C., to have a voice in the outcome of that issue."

That stance often hampered tribes' efforts to grow or restore their lands. "We have checkerboard lands," Lewis said. Yavapai-Apache has been working to purchase land and incorporate those lands into their trust lands, but the policy made that much more difficult. That, she said, is why the Yavapai-Apache Nation told the governor that it was important for the tribe to be able to add their lands into trust as well as ensure a long-term water supply.

“Gov. Hobbs is proud to have swiftly ended the 'lands-into-trust' policy which had restricted tribes from restoring and enhancing their homelands for decades," said Liliana Soto, Hobbs' press secretary.

"This policy is contrary to Arizona values of respecting tribal sovereignty and well-being.”

Soto also said Hobbs is proud to see how ending the "lands-into-trust" policy has helped to push tribal water settlements over the finish line and how these long-delayed agreements provide water security for every Arizonan.

Just six of the 22 Arizona tribes have yet to completely or partially settle their water claims after Yavapai-Apache concluded negotiations. The Kaibab-Paiute, Havasupai, Pascua Yaqui and Tonto Apache tribes still have outstanding claims, while the Tohono O'odham Nation and the San Carlos Apache Tribe only have partial settlements in place.

Lewis said the new state policy will enable her tribe to grow its land and water. "We're a young tribe," she said. "We have 150 families waiting for housing."

The tribe is one of the largest employers in the Verde Valley, including the casino, an RV park, a farm and ranch operation and other smaller businesses. Securing a long-term source of water will enable Yavapai-Apache to continue building and diversifying its business base.

And, she said, "it was a positive step forward for tribes."

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Next stop: Congress

Lewis had just returned from a whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C., where she and other tribal officials met with Arizona's congressional delegation to build support. Arizona Rep. David Schweikert, a Republican, agreed to introduce legislation to ratify the water settlement in July.

Lewis said she was pleased with how the negotiations went.

"This was a truly honest process," she said, a testament to the power of collaboration. Also, she said, everybody agreed to the timeline needed to make the settlement's "paper" water into "wet" water.

She said she was also impressed with how federal officials are working with the tribe to make the settlement into reality. "We had boots on the ground walking where the pipeline will be," she said. "They are committed to getting this done."

Lewis said she and other tribal leaders search for solutions to benefit their peoples over the long run and ensuring water and land to grow on is part of their work.

"I believe in the Yavapai-Apache Nation, our people, our leaders, our leadership," she said. "It's an honor and a tribute to all those people who worked on this over the years to get to where we're at today."

Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation .

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Yavapai-Apache Nation reaches water settlement after change in state policy