Lower Colorado Region

Native American Affairs Program

The Lower Colorado Basin Region Native American Affairs Program was established in 1990 to assist in engaging in regular and meaningful consultation with tribes, fostering partnership-based relationships, and helping to establish approaches for addressing tribal issues in the Region. Program responsibilities include the following:

• Promoting meaningful federal-tribal relationships and effective communications among tribes and Reclamation
• Providing opportunities for tribal involvement and viewpoints in Reclamation's decision-making process
• Representing Reclamation’s concerns and interests in a fair, honest and unbiased manner
• Participating in tribal water rights settlement negotiation and implementation
• Managing Trust Assets
• Increasing tribal knowledge of and involvement in Reclamation's program activities
• Providing technical assistance to tribes
• Supporting the Indian Self-Governance and Self Determination programs

From the Regional Office in Boulder City, Nevada and Area Offices in Phoenix, Arizona; Yuma, Arizona; and Temecula, California, the Program assists more than 60 federally-recognized tribes in the Lower Colorado Basin.

The Program provides assistance in the form of financial and technical resources to help tribes throughout the Region develop and maintain reliable and sustainable water supplies. Cooperative working relationships enable tribes to benefit from Reclamation's ability to provide technical expertise and data to assess, plan and develop water resources on tribal lands. Reclamation engineers, planners, hydrologists, and other specialists also assist tribes with general project planning, technical support, endangered species compliance or recovery activities, water conservation, constructed wetlands and wastewater re-use, drought relief and contingency planning. More information on the Reclamation-wide program can be found at: www.usbr.gov/native/

For more information about this program contact the experts listed below: