In Nevada, the nation’s driest state, a five-year drought has emptied lakes and stalled rivers. Reservoir levels have plummeted and Lake Mead, the primary water source for Las Vegas, is at its lowest point since the Hoover Dam was constructed in the 1930s — just 1,073 feet above sea level. But while the entire state is struggling with the lack of water, perhaps those suffering the most are Native American tribes, says National Geographic.
“Normally these horses would drink out of the river and have plenty of grass. Now there’s no grass, no water in the river, and this plot can’t even reseed itself because it has been so overgrazed,” says biologist Susan Jameson of the Yomba Native American reservation in south Central Nevada. Yomba is about five times the size of New York’s Central Park and has a population of 60, says National Geographic. Yomba residents are part of the wider Western Shoshone Nation, whose territory once included much of the Nevada.
“The tribe is so small it can barely field a government, let alone a cohesive response to the drought and the even greater specter of climate change, which may indeed be amplifying the dry spell,” reports National Geographic.
The ecological damage of the drought feeds on itself: Overgrazing by reservation cattle who don’t have enough to eat causes erosion, which leads to sediment piling up in the Reese River. The river water, unable to flow downstream, moves underground, which means less surface water for farmers and ranchers to access. The thin, slow-moving river is a prime target for algae blooms that kill aquatic life.
Historically the Yomba, a nomadic people, would have been able to move to better land to avoid the worst of the drought. These last five years have been a reminder of all that has been lost by their people since they settled on the reservation in the 1930s. Tribal social services worker Josh Lumsden told National Geographic that he had seen higher levels of domestic violence, substance abuse, and child neglect since the start of the drought.
A new project called Native Waters on Arid Lands aims to help Native communities across the U.S. contend with drought by combining traditional knowledge with modern science. The project, a partnership of academic researchers, government agencies, and tribes, is supported by a $4.5 million grant from USDA.