Law of the Rio Chama
Publication Date
2007
Document Type
Article
Abstract
In the last 30 years, Cochiti Pueblo has been in a fight for their survival culturally, politically, legally, economically, and environmentally. The construction of Cochiti Lake, one of the largest man made lakes in the United States, built by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, devastated nearly all of the available agricultural lands, destroyed the majority of traditional summer homes, drastically changed the ecosystem, and desecrated cherished places of worship. To make matters worse, a few years after closure of the gates that created Cochiti Lake, seepage occurred and put under water the remaining agricultural lands of the Pueblo, creating wetlands and transforming the world of Cochiti overnight. The Cochiti lost their agricultural way of life and have suffered profound consequences as a result.
This article is a summary of a presentation for the Utton Transboundary Resources Center, Rio Grande Reservoir Symposium on April 22, 2006, where firsthand experiences of those challenges faced by the Cochiti Pueblo during the last 30 years were shared. From the lawsuit against the U.S. Corps of Engineers and the U.S. government to hold them liable for the destruction, desecration, and devastation, to congressional oversight hearings, the threat of hydro-electric power developments, and the debates of religious and cultural protection in Congress, the impacts of the ill-advised development of Town of Cochiti Lake and the 99-year master lease creating the community, to the struggles of management of Cochiti Lake, the long struggle to restore lands destroyed, and the ultimate reconciliation of the Cochiti Pueblo and the Corps of Engineers. The past legal battles, policy debates, rights lost, rights regained, a newly defined relationship between the Corps of Engineers and the Pueblo dictate the present and future mitigation, management issues, and decisions pertaining to Cochiti Lake. Just as the Cochiti Pueblo has regained standing, the issues of the silvery minnow and the drought raise new and equally difficult challenges for the future. In many ways, it is like peeling away a scab and it bleeds all over again.
Publisher
Natural Resources Journal
Recommended Citation
Pecos, Regis. "The History of Cochiti Lake from the Pueblo Perspective." (2007). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/uc_rio_chama/15
