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2 The question in this suit concerns “reserved water rights”—a shorthand for the water rights implicitly reserved to accomplish the purpose of the reservation. Cappaert v. United States, 426 U. S. 128, 138 (1976); see also Winters v. United States, 207 U. S. 564, 576–577 (1908). The Navajos’ claim is not that the United States has interfered with their water access. Instead, the Navajos contend that the treaty requires the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajos—for example, by assessing the Tribe’s water needs, developing a plan to secure the needed water, and potentially building pipelines, pumps, wells, or other water infrastructure—either to facilitate better access to water on the reservation or to transport off-reservation water onto the reservation. In light of the treaty’s text and history, we conclude that the treaty does not require the United States to take those affirmative steps. And it is not the Judiciary’s role to rewrite and update this 155-year-old treaty. Rather, Congress and the President may enact—and often have enacted—laws to assist the citizens of the western United States, including the Navajos, with their water needs.

The Navajo Tribe is one of the largest in the United States, with more than 300,000 enrolled members, roughly 170,000 of whom live on the Navajo Reservation. The Navajo Reservation is the geographically largest in the United States, spanning more than 17 million acres across the States of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. To put it in perspective, the Navajo Reservation is about the size of West Virginia.

Two treaties between the United States and the Navajo Tribe led to the establishment of the Navajo Reservation. After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, the United States acquired control over massive new territory throughout what is now the western United