PAGE, AZ — JoAnne Yazzie-Pioche calls the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation near Page home.
She's also the president of the chapter. Throughout the years, she's seen many changes.
"I remember when there was hardly anything here in Page," she says. "There was no Highway 98. It was all dirt roads."
There's even running water in some parts of LeChee that they get from Page and the Colorado River. Throughout much of the Navajo Nation, however, hauling water is still a way of life.
"There's no running water south of here. They have to haul that water."
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Although the Navajo Nation is working on water infrastructure projects for its people, for the past 20 years, it's gone through legal battles with the United States.
In 2003, the Navajo Nation filed a "breach of trust" claim against the Department of Interior in Arizona, basically saying the federal government hasn't abided by a treaty signed more than 150 years ago to do an assessment of the reserved water rights held in trust and to create a plan to meet the water needs of the Navajo Nation, such as infrastructure.
The legal back and forth eventually went to the United States Supreme Court in March of 2023.
Three months later, the highest court in the land sided with the federal government in a 5-4 decision, ruling there's no federal obligation to the Navajo Nation to secure water.
The ruling did not give the Navajo Nation the relief it sought, which it said was a "modest request." However, the decision does not interfere with the Nation's existing water rights.
"The Supreme Court and both opinions did recognize that the Nation does have federal water, reserved water rights," says Michelle Brown-Yazzie. She's the Assistant Attorney General for the Navajo Nation's Department of Justice's Water Rights Unit.
She tells ABC15 that although disappointed with the decision, the Nation will continue its fight pertaining to water rights either by pursuing legislative action for the government to honor its treaties or keep battling in court.
"We are definitely going to continue exploring our options in order to meet the goal of having running water for all of our Navajo citizens, who also happen to be Arizona citizens, as well as US citizens," Brown-Yazzie says.
Yazzie-Pioche says her people will get by with what they have and hope for the best.
"We're going to have to just work with the resources that we have at this time."
