Legal Foundations
This 1972 Act was passed over a presidential veto gave a certain native tribe the authority to implement its own water testing standards in a portion of the Rio Grande river
Clean Water Act
This Michigan city became the face of modern water injustice after lead contaminated its supply in 2014
Flint
The most important water source in the Southwestern U.S., supplying around 40 million people.
Colorado River Basin
This river is the primary water source at the heart of the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy
Missouri River
This doctrine establishing that the first person to take water for "beneficial use" has the right to keep using it
"Mni Wiconi," a Lakota phrase which became the slogan for the resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline, translates to this in English
Water is Life
This North Carolina town is considered the birthplace of environmental justice in the U.S.
Warren County
The landmark 1832 case that called tribes "distinct, independent political communities."
Worcester v. Georgia
This 1908 doctrine says reservations have an implied right to water within their boundaries
Winters Doctrine
In the 1950s, many Black neighborhoods were denied water services through this discriminatory housing practice.
Redlining/Exclusionary Zoning
This international instrument was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, and it acts as a framework for setting global standards for the rights, dignity and well-being of Indigenous peoples
UNDRIP (The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)
This federal agency is legally obligated to act as a "trustee" for tribal water rights, though it is often sued by tribes for failing to protect those resources from corporate interests
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (The Department of the Interior)
This legal doctrine allows landowners to pump as much groundwater as they want from beneath their property regardless of the effect on neighbors
The Rule of Capture
Coined by Naomi Klein, this doctrine describes how authorities use large-scale crises to push through unpopular water privatization and deregulation while the public is in a state of disaster-induced panic
The Shock Doctrine
Over the course of Colorado River Basin negotiations, several native tribes have articulated principles which call for, among others, clean water for all people, honoring sacred sites and the religious beliefs of all and using science to improve our understanding of water.
Bluff Principles
This well was claimed by a American ranch in 1870 despite being used by native populations for generations
Montezuma Well
Section 518 of the Clean Water act allows tribes to be granted "TAS" status, which stands for this.
Treatment as a State
This specific federal agency is responsible for enforcing the "Environmental Justice" mandates that protect marginalized groups from water pollution
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
In 2023, a debate over "water sovereignty" was reignited after this specific disaster on Maui, where centuries of diverting water away from Indigenous wetlands to colonial sugar plantations left the landscape dry and prone to a fast-moving inferno
Lahaina Fires
The first tribe to successfully use the Clean Water Act to enforce its testing standards on a section of the Rio Grande River
Isleta Pueblo