Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Hundreds of water leaders gathered recently in Tucson, Ariz., for the One Water Summit.

The goal was to discuss ways to conserve water.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau talked with some Indigenous leaders about tackling it.

The Indigenous Resilience Center was created at the University of Arizona in 2021 to work with tribes on environmental solutions.

The center puts tribes first by giving them control over the water data it collects and only steps into a project when invited. 

They’ve worked on projects like setting up solar water systems that do not rely on electricity, or providing an off-grid water filtration system. 

Vicky Karanikola has been part of some projects.

She says their goal is to not just make a technology and walk away.

“If it’s not being used after we are gone or the communities don’t want it, then we need to go back to the drawing table and figure out what it is that was not working.”

The center received a $2 million grant this month to expand on the projects.

This story was supported by The Water Desk, an initiative from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

A panel discussed solutions to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Crisis at the recent Western Governors Association meeting in Jackson, Wyo.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann has more.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Native American women are murdered at a rate ten times higher than the national average.

How can state, federal, and tribal groups work together to address this crisis?

That’s what a panel at a conference in Jackson hoped to explore.

It was led by the governors of Nevada and Arizona.

Lynn Trujillo was one of the guest speakers and works for the Department of Interior.

She says one solution rises above the rest.

“I think most importantly, all of us agree, one of the most important factors is funding.”

Trujillo says more funding is needed for law enforcement and for resources for impacted families and communities.

She also highlighted the newly-released 212-page report from the Not Invisible Act Commission, which shares additional recommendations for solving the crisis.

The Colville Confederated Tribes have received a unique gift from the Kalispel Tribe.

Steve Jackson reports.

The two tribes have been trading goods for many years.

The Colvilles would often send the Kalispels salmon and the Kailspels would return the favor with bison meat.

Now the Kalispels have upped their annual gift by sending a herd of 30 pure-bred bison.

Colville tribal chairman Jarred Michael Erickson says there are historic records of the tribe hunting bison in the Northwest, including in the Columbia Basin.

He says having a living herd on the reservation now is a big deal.

“The cultural and spiritual ties we have to the animals is important to us and it’s great to start to re-establish them back on the landscape hopefully for generations to come for our people.”

The single bull and 29 females will free range as a wild herd in an area near Buffalo Lake on the reservation.

Erickson says the tribal fish and wildlife department will come up with a management plan that will include a decision whether to offer a public hunt of the creatures.

He says the tribe is likely to apply for a $5 million grant from the Department of the Interior.

It will support tribal efforts to be used for bison conservation and expansion.