Watchlist: ‘Reclaimed: The Lifeblood of Navajo Nation’

By Kamiah Koch

Social media digital journalist

Indigenous peoples’ history and culture have been passed down for generations through oral storytelling. That tradition lives on today and with technology involved, those stories are now being recorded.

The next few Watchlist articles would be more appropriately named “listen-lists” because they are going to be recommending podcasts rather than videos.

In November 2025, a podcast called “Reclaimed: The Lifeblood of Navajo Nation,” hosted by journalist and Navajo Nation citizen Charly Edsitty, was first published by ABC Audio.  

Using her own family’s history, Edsitty explores the Navajo Nation’s century-long fight for water equality rights.

“In this season of ‘Reclaimed,’ I’ll take you back over 100 years to when a controversial deal was signed that would change the fate of the Navajo,” Edsitty said in the trailer episode of the podcast. “And how today, a new deal is being negotiated between the Tribe and its neighboring states that may do it again.”

This four-part podcast begins with an explanation of the Navajo Nation’s current access to water – or lack thereof. In episode one, Edsitty explains many of the Navajo Nation residents drive miles to fill up water tanks or collect water from unregulated wells, which are often contaminated.

Edsitty said this all began when Navajo people were marched onto the reservation in the 1800s just before the Colorado River was diverted to growing cities in states like California and New Mexico. By 1922, the Colorado River Compact was negotiated and signed between states, essentially excluding the Navajo Nation from the water-access agreement.

“Because looking after the Tribes was the federal government’s job, the individual states in the compact washed their hands of the whole Indian question,” Edsitty said.

A century later, it has only gotten worse.

“To this day, the Navajo Nation has no guaranteed share of any water from the main part of the Colorado River, even though it borders the northwest edge of the reservation,” Edsitty said. “What this means is the Tribe has been stuck in the past.”

In episode two, Edsitty follows the United States being held accountable in a Supreme Court case to the treaties they signed and episode three follows Navajo citizen’s limited solutions to clean water. In the fourth episode, the Navajo Nation attempts to renegotiate a water deal.

You can listen to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or find ways to listen at https://abcaudio.com/podcasts/reclaimed-navajo-nation/.