As I’ve followed the long-running negotiations over the Colorado River the last couple of years, very little progress has been made in transforming the century-old system of managing the river’s dwindling water. The Colorado’s giant reservoirs have dropped because of heavy water use and a quarter-century of drought, worsened by climate change, yet seven Western states have remained deadlocked on how to take less water and live within the river’s limits.

In the last month, though, leaders of a tribal nation on the California-Arizona border offered a concept that might help transform the discussions — or at least ensure that the health of the river itself isn’t completely ignored.

The Tribal Council of the Colorado River Indian Tribes decided to recognize the river as a legal perso

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