At a time when western US drought is in the news, it was heartening to read about the revival of a long-dried-up Arizona riverbed and to learn that it happened because the Gila River Indian Community decided to help solve broader regional water supply problems by working with its neighbours even as it ensures it community members have long-term access to their own water resources.

The small segment of the 649-mile Gila River has served the tribes that make up the Gila River Indian Community — the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and the Pee-Posh (Maricopa) — for roughly 2,000 years. Now it is healing and restoring itself – and the tribes’ cultural and agricultural practices – through a complicated series of water agreements that dates back to 2004 Congressional legislation, the Arizona Water Settlement Act.