A tractor is driven on Ramona Farms in the Gila River Indian Community./ Oskar Agredano/Cronkite News
As Arizona moves into Tier 1 shortage status next year due to the megadrought, regional water rights will become a prominent issue, including among tribal territories.
The University of Arizona’s latest conference on water resources, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, focused on tribal water resiliency, and the three-day series was dedicated to Rodney “Rod” Lewis, a tribal attorney whose legacy was fighting to protect the primacy of water rights on tribal lands.
“Rod was an icon in the Indigenous and non-Indigenous water world,” said Water Resources Research Center Director Sharon Megdal. “He was a great leader.”
Lewis, who was the first tribal leader to practice law in Arizona, was integral to securing water rights for tribes such as the Gila River Indian Community and Tohono O’odham Nation, beginning in the 1970s. Lewis died in 2018 at age 77.
During the conference, family members, including GRIC Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis, who is Rod Lewis’ son, honored Lewis with recollections and praise.
According to the speakers, Lewis was key, not just to preserving senior water rights, but to mentoring and inspiring the next generation of Native American leaders and the legal community.
