Manifest Destiny In Your Tap Water: Settler water theft, Indigenous genocide, & ecological destruction

Mormon water management is often praised for reclaiming the Arid West.

In the mid-1800's when John Wesley Powell surveyed the so-called Colorado River, he told D.C. that, because the water is mostly in canyons and the Peoples Indigenous to those lands were already living well with their water systems, settlers should not move into that area. 

Nuwu (Southern Paiute) Chief Tau Gu & John Wesley Powell near the so-called Virgin River

My mom lives on Tonaquint Drive, about a block from a petroglyph-covered boulder which is surrounded by a mostly white, affluent neighborhood with streets named Geronimo Road., Inca Circle, & Navajo Drive.

Tonaquint People had been living in this valley for millenia, descended from ancient Pueblo People, whose physical history was mostly erased as my People developed this land for themselves. This Boulder is a small remnant of what's been destroyed, unearthed, and built over. 

Mormons diverted Nuwu waters for their crops and even though their leaders told them not to, they stole water directly from the Tonaquint People. Through  this, Mormons committed genocide against Tonaquint People and then named streets and parks after them (no information is offered about the Tonaquint People at Tonaquint park or it's website) and they refuse to teach this history in public schools. I’d never heard of the People whose land I lived because of until I started this work. 

–––––––––––––––

“By direction of Brigham Young in 1869-70,” settlers built a fort over Pipe Spring “for handling the church tithing herds and as frontier refuge from Indians.” These cattle fed the laborers who built the St. George temple.

Cattle are not native to this continent, and large ungulates didn’t live in this area at all.
​

Mormons politicians worked to convince the Diné to allow the Glen Canyon Dam / Lake Powell to be constructed. (Part of their ongoing  Indigenous assimilation project). Through the dam and its lake, we destroyed miles of river ecosystem and ~250 Indigenous sacred sites and objects. 

Back home, the county’s sole water source is the Virgin River watershed. This water body is home to the Indigenous and endangered: Western Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, Virgin Chub, Woundfin, and Virgin Spinedace and was on the 2012  “top 10 most endangered river systems in the U.S” list. 

In 2015, St. Georgians used 317 gallons of water per person per day. Here in ABQ, we used 129 gallons. 

ABQ’s low use is because of a campaign the city ran, which itself is because of a lawsuit won by the Isleta Pueblo. ABQ has some of the highest clean waste water standards because of Indigenous resistance.  

Washington County, Utah wants a $2.4 billion pipeline (through Diné and Nuwu lands) to bring water from the Colorado River via Lake Powell to water their expanding suburban lawns and 14(+) golf courses. 

​How many Indigenous histories were erased as my people built their suburbs, golf courses, churches, and roads?​

Lake Powell, at 42% capacity is experiencing a historic 20-year drought (last 10 years at “extreme drought”) that is projected to get worse. 

Does a belief in a world-ending Second-Coming discourage care for the land and all its earthlings? Has our mythicultural “dominion over all the earth” led us to destroy it?

For more on Mormons and Water (ab)Use see:
- Neung'we Tuvip - Homeland of the Kaibab People (Kai'vi'vits), & Pipe Spring National Park
- LAND & WATER BACK: A brief & partial history of Mormon water (ab)use