June 22 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the U.S. government is not obligated to provide the Navajo Nation with water.
Amidst dwindling access to water resources in the Colorado River Basin, the Navajo Nation argued that the 1868 Treaty that created the Navajo reservation requires the U.S. government to provide water for the agricultural needs of the nation.
The court ruled 5-4 that the government is not obligated to take "affirmative steps" to provide water.
The decision was in response to an appeal by the Biden administration and states that draw water from the Colorado River Basin against a lower court decision that granted the tribe the right to sue for the affirmative duty to provide water.
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The Navajo Nation's legal representatives argued that the Winters Doctrine, which is derived from the 1908 Winters v. United States case that established a precedent that Indian American Nations have a right to necessary water for their reservations.
The states argued that the request from the Navajo nation could hamper the management of the Colorado River Basin.
"In the tribe's view, the 1868 treaty imposed a duty on the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajo. With respect, the tribe is incorrect," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion.
"And it is not the judiciary's role to rewrite and update this 155-year-old treaty," Kavanaugh said.
The only conservative justice to join the dissenting opinion was Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch.
In his dissenting opinion, Gorsuch wrote, "Where does the Navajo Nation go from here?"
"To date, their efforts to find out what water rights the United States hold for them have produced an experience familiar to any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Navajo have waited patiently for someone, anyone, to help them, only to be told (repeatedly) that they have been standing in the wrong line must try another," Gorsuch wrote.
The Navajo Nation expressed disappointment in the decision.
"My job as the president of the Navajo Nation is to represent and protect the Navajo people, our land, and our future. The only way to do that is with secure, qualified water rights to the Lower Basin of the Colorado River," Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in a statement.
