A Native American tribe in Arizona has reached a deal with the U.S. government not to use some of its Colorado River water rights in return for $150 million and funding for a pipeline project. The pact was announced Thursday in Phoenix with the Gila River Indian Community. It is being hailed as an example of the kind of cooperation needed to rescue the Colorado River. Officials say the river is crucial to a massive agricultural industry and essential to more than 40 million people. The deal is part of a broader effort to get states that rely on the river to substantially lessen their water use amid an ongoing drought.
A Museum Employee Pleads Guilty to Stealing Native American Artifacts from Collection. A worker at the Museum of the Plains Indian on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana was sentenced for stealing a cache of cultural artifacts from the institution as part of a plea deal. Preston Jay Spotted Eagle has received five years-probation and 250 hours of community service, and has been ordered to pay nearly $17,000 in restitution. According to court documents, Spotted Eagle, who worked as an aide at the museum, went on a four-month plundering spree between May and August of 2021 during which he stole a necklace made of grizzly bear claws, a pair of beaded moccasins, and 26 golden eagle feathers from a war bonnet.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
