Environmental Justice Clinic students partner with Navajo Nation communities on water settlement agreement – S.J. Quinney College of Law
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3Ls Claire Munsell,
Isaac Santos
, and
Kyle Lowe
, along with
Associate Professor and Clinic Director Ruhan Nagra
, spent four days interviewing community members and presenting information at the Navajo Nation chapters of Aneth, Mexican Water, Navajo Mountain, and Red Mesa. The purpose of the fieldwork was to help communities understand the water settlement agreement and identify ways to shape what comes next.
“Interacting directly with community members was a fantastic experience unlike anything I have ever done in law school,” Lowe says. “Working with real people on a real-world issue has been incredibly rewarding.”
Munsell notes that after she and her classmates presented information about the agreement and explained the purpose of the interviews and educational presentations, community members honestly expressed their concerns about how the water settlement agreement will be implemented.
“Sometimes, our role as outsiders seemed to help people to trust us, since we don’t personally gain from our clinic work,” she explains. “It was an honor to talk to people about what they want their water future to look like, and I’m looking forward to synthesizing the information we collected into a form that will be useful for chapter leaders.”
The Environmental Justice Clinic plays a unique role in partnering with local communities to amplify their concerns and advance their goals, Munsell says.
“We tailor our work to what local leaders and community members want, but we also gain perspective on where there is common ground versus disagreement on different issues,” she expresses. “The most meaningful part of my Environmental Justice Clinic work within the Navajo Nation has been being able to hear from community members about the impact that ongoing drought has had on their livelihoods and to talk with them about what changes they want the water settlement agreement to bring to their chapters.”
For Santos, the experience with community partners on the Navajo Nation emphasized what the Environmental Justice Clinic has taught him: that attorneys don’t need to limit themselves strictly to legal strategies when advocating for communities.
“The law is powerful, but it is only one of many tools that advocates can use to support community partners. Facing significant issues regarding water scarcity and quality, our community partners—nonprofits and local governmental leaders on the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation—asked us not to litigate, but to provide and gather information that could help them advocate for their community,” he explains.
Presentations about water governance and interviews with community members about their challenges accessing water allowed the students to serve a need that the Clinic’s community partners identified, Santos recalls.
“By participating in this relational and objective-driven work, the Clinic has taught me that being an attorney and an advocate can encompass so much more than going to court and drafting legal documents,” he says.
Learn more about the Environmental Justice Clinic
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