The Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.
详细信息
文摘
Approved by Congress in 1962, the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP) brought the Navajo Nation hope of extensive family farming and an agricultural industry. Despite this act of Congress, the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project has not been completed largely as a result of unilateral restructuring and reduction by the Bureau of Reclamation. The Navajo Nation fought continual exclusion, made their desires known before Congress, and vehemently opposed the actions of the Bureau of Reclamation. However, the Navajo Nation eventually acquiesced to the reduction and restructuring of the project. A study of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project illustrates the ways in which the project mirrors the trajectory of water development in the West. Similarly, NIIP offers a case study for the intersection of Native American history, the history of the Southwest, and the larger history of the American West. Additionally, NIIP offers the opportunity to study the Winters Doctrine and its development during the twentieth century. The Navajo Indian Irrigation Project now irrigates 70,000 acres of the 110,000 acres it was designed to. Despite this progress, much of the hope and many of the benefits of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project have been lost.