Lower Colorado River Basin Major Waterways
Shown here are the Colorado River, Little Colorado River, Gila River, Salt River, Verde River, Agua Fria River, Santa Cruz River and San Pedro River. These waterways make up the major river systems in the Lower Colorado River Basin. Before industrial human intervention these water ways created balanced ecosystems for all life they reached. Including, Indigenous nations that inhabited all corners of the Lower Basin since time immemorial. The unimpeded rivers allowed many of these nations to have highly productive agriculture because not only did they have access to water but the rivers carried with them nutrient rich sediments that fertilized the soil.
Dams in the Lower Colorado River Basin
In the span of less than 100 years water cycles, migration patterns, sediment distribution and water access were altered beyond recognition with the construction of over 20 dams in the Lower Colorado River Basin alone. The Colorado River rarely reaches its final destination in the Gulf of California. The Gila, Salt and Agua Fria Rivers are chopped up and rarely flow as they once did.
The Reclamation Act redefined the Lower Colorado River Basin's waterways from the time it was passed in 1902 until the 1960's. Reclamation was the concept that irrigation would "reclaim" arid land for human use. This philosophy would spark the construction of these dams.
Colorado River Dams: Laguna Diversion Dam (1905), Hoover Dam (1936), Parker Dam (1938), Imperial Dam (1938) Headgate Dam (1941), Morelos Dam (1950), Davis Dam (1951), Palo Verde Dam (1958), Glen Canyon (1966 Not shown)
Salt River Dams: Theodore Roosevelt Dam (1911), Mormon Flat Dam (1925), Horse Mesa Dam (1927), Stewart Mountain Dam (1930), Town Lake Dam (1999)
Gila River Dams: Florence Diversion Dam (1922), Coolidge Dam (1930), Painted Rock Dam (1960)
Verde River Dams: Bartlett Dam (1939), Horseshoe Dam (1946)
Agua Fria Dam: New Waddell Dam (1994)
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Ancient Salt River Valley Canal System
The Huhugam, ancestors to the O'otham, engineered and maintained one of the most complex preindustrial canal systems in the world for thousands of years. Crops such as corn, beans, squash, cotton and tobacco were grown in abundance. These canal systems have been the blueprint for modern day infrastructure in the Phoenix Metropolitan area. Although sections of these canals were abandoned by the time non native settlers arrived in the area, the Salt River Valley and Gila River Valley still had O'otham people living in their homelands, using the waterways just as their Huhugam had.
Change in the Salt & Gila River Valleys
​The Gila River was diverted in 1886 with the construction of the Florence Canal and the Salt River's water access was altered beginning in 1911 with the construction the Roosevelt Dam. These two projects mark the shift away from natural water cycles to man made control in the region. For the first time, water no longer ran year round through the valleys it always had, and a man made drought ensued.
Thousands starved to death in the Gila River Indian Community, O'otham and Pee Posh people, as they could no longer grow food without access to the Gila River. Some migrated to the Salt River, but this area was eventually met with the same fate as non natives quest to control and hoard resources continued.
People who had lived with these two rivers for thousands of years were now forced to accept food assistance from the very government that took their ability to grow food away. Canned and processed foods replaced corn, beans and squash, this being the root cause of the diabetes and obesity epidemic still present in the Salt River and Gila River Indian communities today.
The concept of poverty was introduced as men were forced to find was to make money so they could go into Phoenix and buy food to supplement their diets. Income producing jobs did not yet exist on the reservations so men had to go into Phoenix looking for work or sell goods they had. For example, Mesquite trees were cut down by the thousands and sold to settlers as fire wood, this itself left a scar on the environment as the Mesquite holds an important place in the ecosystem. Alcohol became prevalent and all of its trickle down effects, still to this day have a hold on these communities.
From the years 1886 to 1927, entire ecosystems, from the fish that swam in these rivers to the Indigenous communities that depended on them to grow food, were devastated.
All of this happening at the height of the boarding school era in the United States, a government program that took Indigenous children from their families and forced them to forget their language and culture.
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This graphic shows the dams and canals built by settlers up to 1927.
Our ability to exist in the Salt River and Gila River Valleys is solely due to the fact that for millions of years 4 rivers have converged here, the Salt River, Gila River, Verde River and Agua Fria River. The Akimel O’otham, or River People, have both lived with these waterways for thousands of years and have had the waterways cut off from them, understanding how prosperous the rivers can make a people and how devastating it can be when they are gone. With an uncertain outlook on water availability today, the Indigenous narrative has never been more important.
