Native Waters on Arid Lands: Enhancing Climate Resilience on Tribal Lands

The Native Waters on Arid Lands (NWAL) Project is addressing the challenge of enhancing the sustainability of Native American agriculture through integrated research and extension outreach with tribal communities in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico and engagement of faculty and students from the 1994 Tribal Colleges & Universities (TCUs). This paper will discuss research on the projected impacts of climate change on Native American reservation lands and how this information has been shared with tribal students, leaders, and resource managers to develop a mutual understanding of the challenges and opportunities for managing water for agriculture on reservation lands. It will also discuss the role traditional practices have had in increasing the drought resiliency of food and ceremonial crops, and the economic risks and opportunities for current and future crop and livestock production. American Indian farmers and ranchers have been integrally connected to the land, water and natural resources of the Great Basin Desert and American Southwest for thousands of years - hunting, fishing, gathering plants, raising livestock, and producing crops. Sustaining their agricultural practices for traditional ceremonies, food production, and economic trade is becoming more challenging due to the increasing scarcity of, and limited access to, water resources, rapid changes in ecosystem composition and health, and historic Indian land tenure policy arrangements. Climatic change exacerbates the situation by reducing the availability of water in rivers fed by spring runoff from snowpack in the mountains, increased water loss by plants, soils, and reservoirs due to increased temperatures, and changes the onset and duration of growing seasons for food and ceremonial crops. Urban expansion in the Southwest puts additional stresses on Native American communities due to increased demands for decreasing water supplies from rivers and underground aquifers. Close cultural ties to natural resources, geographic remoteness, and economic challenges have led some to characterize American Indian agriculturalists as some of the most vulnerable to climate change.