The Colorado River’s unsure future is the main target of the brand new nature documentary “The American Southwest.”
Stunningly captured by director Ben Masters with narration from mannequin and local weather justice advocate Quannah ChasingHorse, the movie debuted in theaters on Sept. 5 and hits main streaming platforms Friday.
“The American Southwest” highlights the abundance of life within the 1,450-mile-long waterway — together with elk, trout, salmon, condors, Mojave rattlesnakes and jaguars — whereas revealing what stands to be misplaced if the river isn’t protected.
The Colorado River, which serves as a lifeline for over 40 million folks, has misplaced trillions of gallons over the previous 20 years from drought, local weather change and overuse. Human makes an attempt to manage the river with reservoirs and dams allowed cities to blossom, but in addition erased ecosystems and hastened the river’s long-term decline.
For ChasingHorse, the urgency of the disaster is simple.
“In my Lakota culture, mní wičhóni means ‘water is life.’ And I think every single culture that I have experienced has their own version of that,” she advised HuffPost.
Ben Masters/The American Southwest
As a part of Alaska’s Han Gwich’in folks and a member of the Lakota’s Sicangu and Oglala nations, ChasingHorse was taught that folks must be the stewards — and never masters — of the land and water round them.
“We’re the ones that have experienced these things for generations and generations and generations,” she mentioned. “We’re the ones who know these lands like the back of our hand.”
That perspective might be key to the river’s survival, but Indigenous folks have lengthy been excluded from selections about how it’s managed.
When the Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922, the seven basin states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) divvied up the river’s circulate with out consulting tribal governments.
That exclusion allowed for the prioritization of city and agricultural progress over ecological well being and Native water rights. Worse, it relied on defective knowledge from unusually moist years, granting states water that didn’t exist — a mistake that may have been averted if tribal leaders, with their generational information of drought cycles, had been included within the discussions.
A century later, ChasingHorse mentioned, little has modified.
Ben Masters/The American Southwest
Ben Masters/The American Southwest
“In the work that I’ve done, I’ve noticed that any time Indigenous people offer their knowledge, it isn’t really taken seriously or believed in the same way a Western scientist is immediately believed and trusted in their work,” ChasingHorse advised HuffPost.
“But a lot of the time, they’re just now figuring out things that we’ve known for years,” she continued, including how she hopes “The American Southwest” will “help people understand that our knowledge is just as needed as Western science.”
ChasingHorse believes Indigenous experience and the priorities of Native communities should be entrance and middle as states, tribes and different stakeholders negotiate the river’s future forward of the expiration of present pointers in 2026.
For her, debates about who will get what from the river overlook a easy reality.
“I grew up being taught, don’t take more than you need,” she mentioned. “And if you take more than you need, something will be taken from you.”
“The American Southwest” is now enjoying in theaters and accessible to stream on Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango At Dwelling and different main platforms. For extra details about how one can assist save the Colorado River, go to TheAmericanSouthwest.movie.
