Indian Water Rights Settlements and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
PANEL DESCRIPTION
Indian water rights settlements play a critical role in resolving long-standing disputes over water access, sovereignty, and resource management. This panel will examine the legal foundations and contemporary implementation of Indian water rights settlements, including their interaction with federal, state, and tribal law. Panelists will also explore how Traditional Ecological Knowledge informs sustainable water management practices and enhances the effectiveness of settlement agreements and co-management agreements.
Moderated by Mariah Fitch-Hernandez.
MICHAEL DAUGHERTY, SOMACH SIMMONS & DUNN
Michael Daugherty is a Shareholder at Somach Simmons & Dunn based in Boulder, Colorado. Michael provides legal representation and strategic counsel on water rights, water quality, and water-related legislation to municipalities, water and wastewater providers, Indian tribes, universities, ditch companies, developers, and private ranches, resorts, and landowners. He brings a blend of private practice and public interest experience to a dynamic practice that spans representation of both large and small entities in water rights matters across the country.
Michael advises municipal water suppliers with complex integrated systems on protecting and expanding their water rights portfolios, helps regulated entities navigate complicated water quality regulations, assists landowners in understanding their decreed and undecreed water rights, negotiates comprehensive agreements for ditch companies and developers, and defends water users’ rights in court. He regularly appears before state and federal courts, agencies, and commissions and counsels clients on federal, state, and local water-related regulation and administration.
Michael’s years living and working in Indian County inform his approach to matters involving tribal interests. Before joining the firm, he worked in the Navajo Nation’s attorney general office, where he provided legal representation and counsel to the tribal departments of land, environmental protection, fish and wildlife, and historic preservation. His first position after law school graduation was with DNA-People’s Legal Services, where he worked as a felony public defender for the Hopi Tribe.
Outside of the office, Michael enjoys exploring the outdoors in Colorado and around the world—on foot, boat, bike, and skis.
LISA YELLOW EAGLE, SOUTHERN UTE INDIAN TRIBE
Lisa Yellow Eagle is Diné and Sicangu Lakota (enrolled with the Navajo Nation). Lisa is the Tribal Water Attorney for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, where she represents the Tribe on water issues, including representing the Tribe’s interests with the Animas-La Plata Project, the San Juan River Recovery Implementation Program, the Ten Tribes Partnership, and all Colorado River Basin discussions. Additionally, it is common to be pulled into plenty of other water issues as they pop up.
Prior to joining Southern Ute’s Legal Department as its sole tribal water attorney, Lisa worked for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice’s Water Rights Unit, where she was assigned to two water settlement negotiation teams and the implementation team for the Navajo Nation’s San Juan River Basin in New Mexico Water Rights Settlement Agreement. Lisa also has experience working for an Indian law firm and a national Native non-profit.
Lisa received her B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School. Lisa serves as a Commissioner for the Navajo Nation Bar Association Board of Bar Commissioners and as a Board member for the Colorado Water Congress. Lisa was also appointed to the Colorado River Water Users Association Board of Trustee and Resolutions Committee.