These tribal leaders are water pioneers — and 2023 Arizonans of the Year

Photo: President Joe Biden talks with Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores (center), August 8, 2023, at the historic Red Butte Airfield near Tusayan, Arizona.

Opinion: Arizona tribal leaders are filling prominent seats at the water negotiation table, and at just the right time for our state.

The Colorado River Indian Tribes and Gila River Indian Community began irrigating farmland thousands of years ago using water from the rivers that are now their namesake.

Water stewardship is an inextricable part of their community fabric and identity, and its leaders carry a deep obligation to care for what the Creator has provided.

The rest of us are relatively new to the water management debate, not the other way around.

“It’s in our blood — our DNA — to be caretakers of the land and water,” Gila River Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said.

Lewis and Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores have become influential water caretakers in Arizona and across the Colorado River basin.

And their leadership comes at a crucial time for us all, as sustained drought and ever-increasing temperatures slash the amount of water flowing through the river on which 40 million people rely.

That makes them The Arizona Republic’s 2023 Arizonans of the Year.

Their vision and drive are paying off

Lewis and Flores were born and raised on their reservations — Lewis just south of metro Phoenix and Flores about 150 miles west of the city.

Lewis grew up with a front-row seat to history as his father, the late Rod Lewis, fought to secure the community’s water rights after upstream dams had decades earlier dried up many of its farms, leading to one of the nation’s largest water settlements.

Gila River secured more than 650,000 acre-feet of water a year — more than twice what the city of Phoenix delivers to taps. The tribe is entitled to more Central Arizona Project water than any other user.

Flores, meanwhile, spent nearly three decades as the tribes’ archivist, where elders mentored her on the community’s history and traditions, many of which revolve around water.

It’s in our blood — our DNA — to be caretakers of the land and water”

Gila River Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis

She was elected the community’s first chairwoman in 2020.

Her community holds one of Arizona’s largest and oldest Colorado River water allocations, laying claim to roughly 720,000 acre-feet of first-priority water.

Both have a clear vision for their communities and a relentless drive to […]

Full article: www.azcentral.com