Historical Struggles for Water: Westwater (Navajo) and the Uinta Reservation (Ute) - Join us @ the Annual History Conference: "Water at the Confluence Past and Present" (S5 E3)

**Brad Westwood** (0:03)
Welcome to the podcast Speak Your Piece. This is a podcast about Utah's history produced by the Utah Department of Culture and Community Engagement. I'm Brad Westwood, Senior Public Historian. It's my job to make the very best, the most interesting, the most accurate history of Utah accessible to the widest audience. We hope that there's one place, one podcast you get your Utah history fix. This is the place. If you subscribe to this podcast, or if this is your very first time listening, we hope you'll go back and listen to the dozens of other prior episodes. Please also rate and review Speak Your Piece.
Finally, if you have an idea or you know someone who we should interview on Speak Your Piece, write to us at askahistorian at utah.gov. Today's episode is co-produced by James Toledo from the Utah Division of Indian Affairs. Our guests today are Dustin Jansen, Director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs and Ethnohistorian Sondra Jones. On October 26, 2022, the Utah Division of State History will be holding an annual State History Conference.
Dustin Jansen, who is the Director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs, is originally from Coyote Canyon, New Mexico. He was born and raised on the Navajo Reservation and is an enrolled member. Dustin attended school at Utah Valley University, Brigham Young University, and he holds a Juris Doctorate for the University of Utah's SJ. Quinney School of Law. Dustin practices as an attorney and a judge, and since 2015, he has served as a Program Coordinator for the American Indian Studies Program at Utah Valley University.
Our other guest, Sandra G. Jones, has a Ph.D. in History from the University of Utah in American and Native American History.
Sandra is an Adjunct Instructor at Brigham Young University, and she is the author of an epic book on the history of the Utes across the Intermountain West. It's called Being and Becoming Ute, a Story of an American Indian. She is also author of numerous other books and articles. Once again, welcome, welcome, Sandra and Dustin. So glad to have you.

**Dustin Jansen** (2:12)
Good to be here.

**Brad Westwood** (2:13)
I'm going to turn the time over now to James Toledo, my co-producer. And here we go.

**James Toledo** (2:20)
Thank you, Brad. Good morning, everyone. We'll begin with Dustin. So there is a small community in southeastern Utah called Westwater, and it's located in San Juan County.
And so we just wanted to kind of begin today's conversation and hope you could set a broader context for us of describing this community and its challenges with accessing water.

**Dustin Jansen** (2:45)
Well, yeah, absolutely. Westwater is actually located just on the east side of Blanding City in San Juan County.
They're separated by a pretty large ravine. I wouldn't go far to say it's a canyon, and but it's a pretty large gap. And this gap has has been more than just, I think, separate two communities from utility. You know, it separated people that probably could have a better chance, that get to know each other better, and developing stronger relationships.
And what we wanted to do was to make sure that the Westwater community had all the utility, the utility they needed to carry out just everyday functions.

**James Toledo** (3:30)
And this story goes back decades. So to your knowledge, do you know when was the issue of electricity and water first approached or brought to the attention of state leaders or community leaders?

**Dustin Jansen** (3:43)
Well, I think it's been something in the in talks for quite a while, like you said, from the conversations that I've had and listened into with Westwater residents speaking with the Lieutenant Governor, there have been people living in Westwater since the 1940s.
And when Lieutenant Governor came in to speak with the residents there, one resident told her, politicians come in all the time. They come in all the time to ask for votes and they promise water, they promise electricity, but nothing ever happens. And so I think this has been happening for quite a bit. Lieutenant Governor Henderson just really didn't want to be a part of that cycle, and she wanted to look at what could be done right now to ensure that these residents, these Utah citizens, could have access to water and electricity.

**James Toledo** (4:38)
Thank you for that, Dustin. Another, I guess, aspect to this, which maybe has created some complexity to the issue, is the land where the community is located, is owned by the Navajo Nation, but it's not in trust.
And so, can you speak to or help us understand perhaps the community perception that they have with the Westwater community being part of Navajo Nation or owned by Navajo Nation, the land, and work to get utility services there?