Unsettled Waters Rights, Law, and Identity in the American West [Paperback]

In the American West, water adjudication lawsuits are adversarial, expensive, and lengthy. Unsettled Waters is the first detailed study of water adjudications in New Mexico. The state envisioned adjudication as a straightforward accounting of water rights as private property. However, adjudication resurfaced tensions and created conflicts among water sovereigns at multiple scales. Based on more than ten years of fieldwork, this book tells a fascinating story of resistance involving communal water cultures, Native rights and cleaved identities, clashing experts, and unintended outcomes. Whether the state can alter adjudications to meet the water demands in the twenty-first century will have serious consequences.

Eric P. Perramond is a geographer and holds a joint appointment in the Environmental and Southwest Studies programs at Colorado College. He is the author of Political Ecologies of Cattle Ranching in Northern Mexico.

"Unsettled Watersdeftly examines the different cultural values of water among Pueblo peoples, Hispanics, and public policy makers. Eric Perramond makes water adjudication a very human process, one that reflects the values, frustrations, and goals of water users and water experts alike. This is a superb and deeply humane piece of scholarship and should be read by everyone interested in Western water issues."—Thomas E. Sheridan, author ofArizona: A History

List of Illustrations, Maps, and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction. The Cultures of Water Sovereignty in New Mexico

part one. unsettled waters: how water adjudication
works, what it does, and what happens when it fails
1. How Local Waters Become State Water
2. Aamodt, Dammit! Big Trouble in a Small Basin
3. Abeyta: Taos Struggles, Then Negotiates
4. Local Settlements Connect What State Adjudication Severedlãô