Nikki Cooley’s family were forced to sell off most of the livestock they depended on for both food and income as springs dried up and wells went dry in the heart of the Navajo Nation.
“My parents have to haul water driving 30 miles in each direction,” said Cooley, a Dinè and Navajo Nation citizen. “Instead of having 50 to 100 head of sheep, now we have maybe 10 to 12.”
The dry wells, increasingly hot summers and freezing winters seemed to confirm the fears of Native people that climate change was taking a toll on the Navajo Nation and on Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas and the world...