The Great Salt Lake in Utah is facing an existential crisis driven by mining, water diversion , and climate change. Indigenous leaders are now calling for a fundamental shift in governance, moving away from viewing the water as a commodity and toward treating it as a living relative.
The transition from Shoshone kinship to industrial extraction
For centuries, the Great Salt Lake served as a sacred reservoir and a central pillar of life for the Shoshone, Ute, Goshute, and Paiute peoples. These Indigenous nations utilized the lake's brine for healing and relied on its natural rhythms to guide their seasons and destinies. The lake was viewed not as a resource to be harvested, but as a living partner in a circle of life.
This relationship began to erode as the lake's status shifted toward industrial utility. As the report notes, the waters eventually became a target for mineral exploitation and large-scale irrigation. Even the 1847 arrival of pioneers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who initially viewed the lake with spiritual reverence, eventually gave way to a management style focused on extraction and resource control.
A governance model dominated by water users and agribusiness
Current management of the Great Salt Lake Basin is controlled by a planning committee primarily composed of agricultural businesses, government agencies, and conservation organizations. This structure treats the lake as an object to be partitioned and utilized, often overlooking the deep ancestral ties held by local tribal nations. The existing framework prioritizes the needs of those who extract water over those who have historically protected it.
The Utah Division of Indian Affairs currently serves as the only official Indigenous voice within the state's decision-making framework.. According to the report, this representation is insufficient , as the most invested stakeholders—the tribal nations with direct ancestral ties—remain largely sidelined in the governance process. This exclusion creates a disconnect between those who manage the water and those who hold its spiritual and historical stewardship.
Cristina Mormorunni and the 'Waters Remember' campaign
The "Indigenous LED's Waters Remember" campaign is working to disrupt this status quo by advocating for a guardianship model that integrates Indigenous law and ceremony with modern science. Co-founded by Red River Métis Cristina Mormorunni, the initiative seeks to restore Indigenous authority over what is considered a spiritual homeland. The campaign aims to move the legislative conversation from "what can we take?" to "what do we owe?"
This movement seeks to re-establish the lake as a "sister" to the people of the region. Supporters point to the enduring presence of nature, such as the buffalo grazing on Antelope Island and the ancestral migrations of birds, as evidence that the lake's spirit remains alive. By centering Indigenous knowledge, the campaign hopes to reconstruct a relationship of reciprocity that could ensure the lake's survival for future generations.
The challenge of integrating tribal law into Utah's legislature
While the movement for Indigenous-led stewardship is gaining momentum, several critical questions remain regarding the actual implementation of such a model. It is currently unclear how the Utah state government would integrate Indigenous law and ceremony into existing legislative frameworks without causing significant conflict with established water rights. The practical mechanics of merging cultural knowledge with modern scientific management remain unproven.
Furthermore, the report does not specify how the "Waters Remember" campaign intends to reconcile the competing interests of powerful agricultural and mining stakeholders with the proposed guardianship model. Without a clear roadmap for how authority will be shared, the transition from viewing the lake as a resource to viewing it as a relative remains a profound,yet unverified, political ambition.
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