Hualapai Tribe celebrates a billion gallons worth of water rights

By Mason Carroll

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    GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Arizona (KPHO, KTVK) — The Hualapai Tribe has secured thousands of acre-feet of water a year with an act signed by President Joe Biden in 2022. Hualapai tribe members celebrated Wednesday, at Grand Canyon West, decades’ worth of work to get federally protected water rights for their tribe.

President Biden signed the Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act last year, which was introduced by Arizona’s Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Sen. Mark Kelly. The settlement allocates a little over one billion gallons of water per year to the tribe. “They’ve been working on this for decades,” Kelly said, “to provide them with 4,000 acre-feet per year of water. The next part is actually to get them the water, good first step. The final step is funding.”

Charles Vaughn has been fighting for these rights for decades but he says this is just the beginning. “Well, not necessarily the end but the beginning of a long arduous journey because it isn’t over yet.”

They now need more money to help build a pipeline to get the water from their 108 acres of the Colorado River to where the tribe needs it. This will not only help families but also help the tribe grow economically.

Vaughn said after a long fight, he’s proud to see the impact this will have on generations to come. “To tell you the truth, it nearly moves me to tears,” Vaughn said. “Because I’ve been involved for such a long time in this effort and to finally see it culminate to this. It’s very important.”

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