Colorado River wins personhood status from Arizona tribal council

The Colorado River Indian Tribes have formally accorded personhood status to the Colorado River, creating a powerful new mechanism to protect the eponymous river that makes life possible in their arid homelands.

The resolution was approved by the CRIT Tribal Council on Nov. 6 in Parker.

The nearly 4,300-member tribe has long been alarmed at the state of its life-giving waterway, CRIT Chairwoman Amelia Flores wrote in a statement shared with The Arizona Republic.

“The Colorado River is in jeopardy,” she said. The tribe, which holds the largest quantity of senior water rights in the state, regards the river as a living being, so the resolution codifies that belief and the tribe’s commitment to protecting its needs and ability to provide water for future generations.

CRIT’s leadership conducted a rigorous process, including consultations with its membership, to formulate the resolution.

Personhood status opens a door to legal actions

During the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, Earth Elder Coordinator Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Munoz said the state of the natural world is in “such a systemic crisis that we need to rethink our position in the world as human beings.” Munoz also questioned why corporations have more rights than rivers, mountains or oceans.

Granting personhood to natural resources, such as rivers, allows people or parties to take legal action to protect them. For example, forum participants said a person could sue a company or entity that pollutes a river because the river has the right to be pollution-free.

CRIT is now authorized to include the river’s needs in transactions involving its water, Flores said in her statement, supporting the river’s long-term health, restoring habitats, designating flows for the river delta or building new wetlands.

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The Colorado is now the third river with such legal protections in North America. The Yurok Tribe was the first to grant personhood to the Klamath River in 2019, which “establishes the Rights of the Klamath River to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve; to have a clean and healthy environment free from pollutants; to have a stable climate free from human-caused climate change impacts; and to be free from contamination by genetically engineered organisms.”

The Magpie River in Quebec was granted “legal personality” in 2021 by a joint resolution of the Conseil des Innu de Ekuanitshit, a Canadian First Nation and the Minganie Regional County Municipality, the local county government.

Other rivers, most notably the Whanganui River in New Zealand, have received personhood protections, which are enabling local Indigenous communities to begin the long process of restoring natural flows and habitats. Representatives from CRIT and other Southwestern tribes have met with Maori peoples to share ideas and concepts on how best to protect water and waterways.

“The river is a part of who we are and who we will always be,” Flores said. “The Colorado River Indian Tribes.” 

Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at debra.krol@azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @debkrol and on Bluesky at @debkrol.bsky.social‬.

Coverage of tribal water issues in the Colorado River Basin is supported by the Water Desk.