The Supreme Court wrestles with questions over the Navajo Nation's water rights
Almost a third of the reservation's 170,000 residents lack access to clean, reliable drinking water. The tribe wants to be able to represent itself in litigation over the Colorado River.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could alter the already intense battle over water rights in the parched American Southwest.
For more than 20 years, the Navajo Nation has fought for access to water from the lower Colorado River, which flows directly alongside the reservation's northwestern border.
The Navajo Nation reservation stretches across 27,000 square miles in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Almost a third of the 170,000 people who live there do not.
