“Trust is not built in big, sweeping moments. It’s built in tiny moments every day,” Brené Brown reminds us.
For Tribal nations, centuries of broken treaties, unfulfilled promises and profound injustices have given ample reason for distrust. Yet the challenges we face together — like water scarcity and a hotter, drier future in the West — demand collaboration, even when trust is understandably hard to come by.
In the Colorado River Basin, where Tribal nations have too often been excluded from decisions about water that is rightfully theirs, we’ve been reminded that building trust requires more than good intentions or financial commitments. It takes humility, a willingness to listen and the patience to earn trust through actions, not words.
The Walton Family Foundation’s Environment Program has long worked on water issues in the Colorado River Basin. It’s a complex ecosystem that spans the United States and Mexico, providing essential drinking water for tens of millions of people, power for the West and irrigation for agriculture. Its rivers, wetlands, forests, deserts and unique landscapes encompass some of the nation’s most iconic national parks and support incredible wildlife.
Thirty Tribal nations are part of the Colorado River Basin. Of those, 22 have federally recognized rights to about a quarter of the river’s water (with others having claims to water rights that are still pending resolution). But, for most of the last century, many of those Tribal nations had little to no say in how the river was managed. Taken together, that’s both a terrible injustice and an extraordinary challenge.
Over the past decade, we have worked to listen, learn and support partnerships with Tribal nations and organizations working alongside them.
Tribal nations have heard plenty of empty promises and experienced too many unfulfilled commitments. A foundation arriving with a strategy and a checkbook is not, by itself, evidence that this time will be different. Over the past decade, we have worked to listen, learn and support partnerships with Tribal nations and organizations working alongside them. We do not have all the answers. What we have are questions that continue to shape our approach and remind us that building trust is ongoing work. From work on the ground in Native communities to collaborative efforts to shift policy at the federal level, the Walton Family Foundation is centering Tribal voices in the initiatives we support.
Are we listening? We began by showing up, listening and seeking to understand Tribal priorities without assuming we knew what was needed. Conversations led to relationships, and eventually to supporting organizations like the Water and Tribes Initiative, alongside other trusted partners. The initiative creates regular opportunities for Tribal leaders to coordinate with one another and engage with states, water users, NGOs and federal agencies. Creating space for these conversations matters, but it is equally important that Tribal perspectives inform decisions and lead to meaningful action.
To start building relationships that actually worked, we tried to follow the Tribes’ agenda for their water priorities.
Are we willing to follow their lead? To start building relationships that actually worked, we tried to follow the Tribes’ agenda for their water priorities. Our work in the region often involves issues like river protection or water conservation. Yet, nearly a third of homes on the Navajo Nation have no running water at all. A community without working taps may not immediately identify watershed health as a priority. Through many conversations, we worked with Tribes to fund efforts that provide universal access to clean water, because that was their top priority. You can’t ask a sovereign nation — or any community — to trust you while keeping control of every dollar. Relationships can’t be built on trust that runs in only one direction.
Are we planning for the long haul? Decisions about how to manage the Colorado River will shape communities and ecosystems for decades to come. As a foundation and partner in this work, we continue to ask what kinds of support can help sustain Tribal leadership, expertise and participation over the long term.
The Native American Rights Fund’s Tribal Water Institute — an organization we also help to fund — trains early-career attorneys in Tribal water law. Tribes that once negotiated separately are joining together alongside the seven Basin states and the federal government. Recently, the Interior Department’s new operating guidelines for the Colorado River established a storage pool intended to help meet Tribal water needs. A decade ago, that provision seemed unimaginable. Today, it’s a start.
Our work in the Colorado River Basin has reinforced an important lesson: “If you know one Tribe, you know one Tribe.” Each Tribal nation has its own priorities, history and culture, and earning trust requires recognizing those differences. As we continue our work, we hope to collaborate with other foundations and organizations like Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP), whose expertise can help us build the trust and partnerships needed to advance solutions where people and nature thrive together.
Trust can’t be granted, budgeted or accelerated — it can only be earned. And perhaps the most important thing we can do is keep listening, learning and letting our actions speak louder than our words.
Editor's note: This piece is part of First Movers, a series from foundation leaders reflecting on moments when the charitable sector backed new and untested ideas, and the people behind them, before anyone else would, and asking where the sector should go first next. #FirstMovers #GenerosityBuilds
