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.
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........