A little known fact about the Colorado River is that American Indian tribes own rights to about a quarter of the river. In reality, for most tribes, there are only paper rights, not amounting to water they can actually use. Now, as a megadrought afflicts the Colorado and other watersheds in the West, Stephanie Sy reports on the opportunities and obstacles ahead. … The water and the canals that deliver it to growers like Ramona would not have been possible without a landmark settlement in 2004 that gave the Gila River Indian Community its water back. One of the largest Indian water settlements in American history, the agreement granted the community a whopping 653,500 acre feet of water annually. That is more than a quarter of the amount all of metropolitan Phoenix uses in a year. The community also received hundreds of millions of dollars for water infrastructure.

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• The Center Square: Hobbs laments Tribes’ lack of ’seat at the table’ in American politics