Grace Napolitano: “We are here today on these three pieces of legislation that would settle the water rights of six Native American nations…”

“We are here today on these three pieces of legislation that would settle the water rights of six Native American nations in New Mexico and Arizona. The people on these reservations inhabit the same sacred lands as their fathers, their grandfathers, and many generations before. These three bills would provide them with the water that their ancestors were entitled to but never received. We often take for granted the most basic of our resources, water. The people of the pueblos and the high country of Arizona never have. They understand the value of water and its importance in their cultures and well-being. Water is the lifeblood of these individuals, and when they were assigned reservations of land, their assumption was that they would also have access to the water they needed to survive. They were not, and hence for the last 140-plus years, these individual Americans have been fighting for the right to this most basic of resources, water. It is time today for us to do something about this for these six native nations.”