Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives Collection Spotlight for June 2018

June 13, 2018

With all of Arizona and a good portion of the southwestern United States currently in drought conditions, discussions are once again taking place regarding the critical need for an adequate water supply to support life in the desert. How much water is enough? Who “owns” the water? Who gets to decide? The Colorado River Basin Project Act expressed the viewpoint taken by the federal government in 1968. At that time, President Lyndon Johnson signed this bill into law bringing water from the Colorado River to central Arizona and forever altering the landscape of the area. Over the past fifty years, different perspectives on water resource management have been articulated by the tribal communities who have long called the area home.

Here are four selections from the Library collection that discuss water issues in the Southwest. These examples highlighting the construction, the conflict, and the conversations are currently on display in the public reading area of the Library. Please feel free to visit the Library to review these or any other items of interest in the Library and Archives collections. For more details or additional collection information, click on the link labeled Library Catalog Search located in the pull-down menu of the Library tab on the Heard website.

McCool, Daniel
Native waters : contemporary Indian water settlements and the second treaty era
Tucson : University of Arizona Press, c2002
Heard call number KF8210.N37 M38 2002

Miller, Char (editor)
Fluid arguments : five centuries of western water conflict
Tucson : University of Arizona Press, c2001
Heard call number TD223.9 .F58 2001

Thorson, John E., Sarah Britton, and Bonnie G. Colby (editors)
Tribal water rights : essays in contemporary law, policy, and economics
Tucson : University of Arizona Press, c2006
Heard call number KF8210.N37 T758 2006

Zarbin, Earl
Let the record show— : Gila River Indian Reservation Water Rights and the Central Arizona Project
Tempe, Ariz. : Earl Zarbin, c2004
Heard call number KFA2905.6.W38 Z38 2004