Episode 74: Tribal and Transboundary Issues in the Colorado River Basin
“While tribes are not having formalized cuts in these agreements, the unresolved water rights for tribes are natural cuts. And they are natural in the sense that they are part of the river and other users get to use them, even though tribes have claims to the water.”
“In the Colorado River basin, we don’t have a problem of water, we have a problem of priorities. We have water for the 40 million plus the four that I was mentioning in Mexico. And we have water for the tribal nations. We do have that water, but right now our priorities are towards users that are profiting of that priority.”
A conversation with Cora Tso (Senior Research Fellow, Tribal Water Policy, Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University) and Prof. Sam Sandoval (University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, UC Davis, Water Talk podcast co-host) about the complex system of water use agreements with Tribes and Mexico. Released October 17, 2025.
guests on the show
Cora Tso
Cora Tso is a Senior Research Fellow at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy. She researches, analyzes, and develops recommendations on Arizona Tribal water policy, focusing on Tribal Nations’ interests, needs, and opportunities in regulatory and legislative processes. She collaborates with Tribal leadership, government agencies, and stakeholders through the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative, fostering lasting relationships between the Kyl Center and the Tribal water policy and legal community.
Previously, Tso worked with governmental, private, and nonprofit organizations on Indian law, water law, and environmental policy. An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, she is of the Reed People clan and born for the Black Streaked Wood clan. Her maternal grandparents are of the Bitterwater clan, and her paternal grandparents are of the Red House clan. Born and raised on the Navajo reservation, she is originally from Shonto, Arizona. Tso earned her Juris Doctor with a Certificate in Indian Law from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science with a minor in American Indian Studies from Barrett, The Honors College at ASU.
TRANSCRIPT
(coming soon)