Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2025

The bill would authorize, ratify, and confirm a 2023 settlement agreement resolving the Zuni Tribe's water rights claims in the Zuni River Stream System in New Mexico. It would quantify the tribe's water rights, establish a Zuni Tribe Settlement Trust Fund with two accounts, and require the Treasury to transfer about $655.5 million and $29.5 million into those accounts for water infrastructure, operation and maintenance, and tribal water administration. It would also require the tribe and the United States to waive related water rights claims once an "Enforceability Date" is reached, contingent on funding, court approval, and New Mexico enacting conforming leasing legislation. Separately, the bill would withdraw about 92,364 acres of federal land from mining, mineral leasing, and public land disposal to protect the Zuni Salt Lake and Sanctuary's cultural and water resources, direct the Bureau of Land Management to manage that land with specific use restrictions, and require the Interior Department to take certain surrounding land into trust for the tribe. It would not affect the water rights of other tribes or of individual Indian allottees, and the settlement's waivers would expire if funding or other conditions are not met by July 1, 2030.

The Zuni Tribe and its members, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico overseeing the related water adjudication, the State of New Mexico, non-Indian water users in the Zuni River Stream System, individual Indian allottees holding land parcels within or near Zuni lands, and the Bureau of Land Management, which would manage the withdrawn federal land.

If enacted, the tribe would gain legally secure, non-forfeitable water rights and hundreds of millions of dollars for wells, irrigation, and water infrastructure, while giving up broader water claims against the United States and other parties. Mining and development would be permanently barred on tens of thousands of acres around the Zuni Salt Lake, and nearby land would pass into tribal trust ownership.

Implementation hinges on an "Enforceability Date" that the Secretary of the Interior declares by Federal Register notice once all conditions are met: full federal appropriation and deposit of settlement funds, court approval of a Partial Final Judgment and Decree, execution of waivers by the tribe and Secretary, New Mexico's cost-share payments, and state legislation allowing 99-year water leases. Until then, most provisions remain inactive, and the whole title expires if the Secretary has not made these findings by July 1, 2030. The tribe would submit management or expenditure plans to the Secretary to withdraw and spend trust fund money, file annual expenditure reports, and the Bureau of Land Management would manage withdrawn lands in consultation with the tribe under specified use restrictions.