A Native American Internship Program Prepares a New Generation of Water Experts in the Colorado River Basin. As a hydrologist with the Navajo Nation Water Resources Department, Ryan Barton says his office is facing a big challenge: capacity. “Meaning, not enough people for the positions we have to cover all 27,000 square miles of the Navajo Nation,”. Encompassing an area roughly three times the size of New Jersey within Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, the Navajo Nation is home to an estimated 170,000 people. That’s one reason the Lincoln Institute’s Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy partnered with the Catena Foundation and the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation to create a Native American Water and Land Internship in 2022. Run by the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) at Northern Arizona University, the program aims to encourage more indigenous students to gain experience in land and water management.
A Hearing on Economic Development of Native American Land.
An Interior Department official and tribal leaders testified on economic development of land belonging to Native Americans, before a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs. In particular, the subcommittee considered HR 1246, which would authorize Native American tribes to lease its trust land for a period of up to 99 years, and HR 1532, which would authorize tribes–without consent of the federal government–to lease, sell, convey, warrant, or transfer property not held in trust.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
