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Damming the Gila: The Gila River Indian Community and the San Carlos Irrigation Project, 1900-1942
Arizona Heritage Center
Saturday, Dec 14, 2024 10:30 AM
Damming the Gila chronicles the history of water rights and farming activities on the Gila River Indian Reservation up to 1942. Centered on the San Carlos Irrigation Project and Coolidge Dam, it details the history and development of the project, including the Gila Decree and the Winters Doctrine. Embedded in the narrative is the underlying tension between tribal growers on the reservation and upstream water users. The story underscores the idea that the Gila River Indian Community believed the San Carlos Irrigation Project was first and foremost for their benefit and how the project and the Gila Decree fell short of restoring their water and agricultural economy. Damming the Gila is the third in a trio of important documentary works, beginning with DeJong’s Stealing the Gila (2009) and followed by Diverting the Gila (2021) that tells the story of the Gila River Indian Community’s fight to regain access to their water.
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Ticket Availability
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David H. DeJong was born in southern Minnesota to Frisian immigrants but grew up in Mesa, Arizona. After graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree, he earned both a masters and doctoral degree in American Indian Law and Policy studies from the University of Arizona. He joined the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project (P-MIP) twenty-four years ago and in May 2006 became the director of the project. As head of the P-MIP, he oversees all facets of the planning, design, and construction of the Gila River Indian Community’s new irrigation delivery system and modernization of the existing system under the Arizona Water Settlements Act of 2004. When completed, the P-MIP system will irrigate upwards of 90,000 acres of tribal land, making this the largest irrigation construction and agricultural development project in North America. Dr. DeJong’s academic work focuses primarily on Indian water rights and agricultural history, Gila River Indian Community water rights and agricultural history in particular. He has written nine books, four of which—Stealing the Gila: The Pima Agricultural Economy and Water Deprivation, 1848-1921 (University of Arizona Press, 2009), Diverting the Gila: The Pima Indians and the Florence-Casa Grande Project, 1916-1924 (University of Arizona Press, 2021), Forced to Abandon Our Fields: The 1914 Clay Southworth Gila River Pima Interviews (University of Utah Press, 2011), and Damming the Gila: The Gila River Indian Community and the San Carlos Irrigation Project, 1900-1942 (University of Arizona Press, 2024) —are focused on Gila River Indian Community water and agricultural history. He has also published more than twenty articles on federal-Indian policy matters, including more than a dozen focused on Gila River.
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