Doctoral Dissertation Research: Indigenous Rights, Government Authority, and Stakeholder Alliances in Rural-Urban Water Conflicts

这个博士论文项目将研究在大规模的农村到城市的水转移之后，如何考虑和协调公共、私人和部落的利益。博士生将通过评估一个多世纪以来的社会、监管和环境变化来评估具有象征意义的调水决策过程。在这段时间里，决策者所考虑的公共、私人和部落利益本身也发生了变化，因为联邦印第安人政策发生了巨大变化，公众对环境保护的兴趣不断扩大，以及意想不到的联盟的出现。为了说明自然资源政策在实践中是如何与联邦印第安人政策交叉的，研究结果将总结为政府机构在制定土地和水管理决策时导航交叉的政策简报。将开发教育和外联工具，以提高人们对在水政策辩论中经常被忽视和边缘化的土著历史和观点的认识。研究成果将通过在大众媒体出版和分发教学资源的方式传播给更广泛的受众。本项目将支持培养一名女博士生。综合定性方法（人种学、法律和档案）将用于捕捉影响大型水转移决策的多方面过程：法律和政策研究，以建立书本上的相关法律和政策；档案研究和机构访谈，以阐明根据这些政策指导决策的理由；以及参与者观察和利益相关者访谈，以检查这些决定是如何在实地实施、接受和重塑的。本研究聚焦于20世纪初从欧文斯谷到加州洛杉矶的水转移决策，将研究(1)城市对农村土地和水资源的控制如何随着时间的推移而被主张、维持和证明；(2)联邦政府代表公共利益的行为如何与联邦政府作为部落利益受托人的义务相交叉；(3)土著居民对水、土地和主权的争夺如何与其他农村行动者挑战城市资源控制及其影响的努力相结合。除了说明在大型调水决策中如何权衡利益和义务的冲突外，该项目还将深入了解土著和农村社区如何努力重塑支撑这些决策的框架、价值观和目标。这项研究将推动法律地理学和公共政策的理论工作。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation project will examine how public, private, and tribal interests are considered and reconciled in the wake of large rural-to-urban water transfers. The doctoral student will evaluate the decision-making process about an emblematic water transfer by evaluating more than a century of social, regulatory, and environmental change. During this time-period, the public, private, and tribal interests considered by decision-makers have themselves changed amid drastic shifts in federal Indian policy, expanding public interest in environmental protection, and emerging coalitions of unlikely allies. Illustrating how natural resources policy intersects with federal Indian policy in practice, the research results will be summarized in policy briefs for government agencies that navigate that intersection when making decisions about land and water management. Educational and outreach tools will be developed to raise awareness about indigenous histories and perspectives that have often been overlooked and marginalized in water policy debates. Research findings will be disseminated to broader audiences through publication in popular media outlets and distribution of teaching resources. This project will support the training of a female doctoral student. Integrated qualitative methods (ethnography, legal, and archival) will be used to capture the multifaceted processes that shape decision-making about large water transfers: legal and policy research to establish the relevant laws and policies on the books; archival research and agency interviews to elucidate the rationales guiding decisions in light of those policies; and participant observation and stakeholder interviews to examine how those decisions are implemented, received, and reshaped on the ground. Focused on decision-making about the transfer of water from Owens Valley to Los Angeles, California dating back to the early 1900s, this research will examine (1) how urban control over rural land and water resources is asserted, maintained, and justified over time; (2) how federal actions on behalf of the public interest intersect with the federal government's obligations as trustee for tribal interests; and (3) how indigenous struggles for water, land, and sovereignty articulate with the efforts of other rural actors challenging urban resource control and its impacts. In addition to illustrating how conflicting interests and obligations are weighed in decision-making about large water transfers, this project will offer insight into how indigenous and rural communities are working to reshape the frameworks, values, and objectives underpinning those decisions. The research will advance theoretical work in legal geography and public policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.