|
Items in cart [0] |
Questions? Call 888-624-8373 |
HARDBACK PDF BOOK Free Resources |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2009. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 20
The Cultures of Irrigation
The obvious dimensions of irrigation are tangible how much water is
used, what acreage of land is irrigated, what crops are grown, what forces of
change and responses are seen. But to really understand irrigation and how it
might evolve in the future, we must consider the more intangible, subjective
dimensions of irrigation in a sense, the context in which change must occur.
In this report, we call this the culture of irrigation.
At one level, irrigation is simply the application of water to grow plants. At
another level, it is the basis for an economy and a way of life. In a very real
sense, irrigation made possible the highly intensive settlement of a landscape
that otherwise would not readily support large numbers of people. Irrigation has
transformed that landscape, literally and figuratively. The bands of green fields
sometimes spreading out to considerable distances from the banks of the rivers
of the western United States, the circles of green covering the Great Plains, the
urban oases filled with trees, flowers, and lawns these are the products of
. . .
rr~gahon.
More profound than this physical alteration of the landscape is the effect of
the human population that accompanied and caused this alteration and whose
presence was made possible, in part, because of irrigation. Modern irrigation,
beginning in the late nineteenth century, carried with it a sense of mission.
People like E. A. Smythe viewed irrigation as nothing less than the progenitor of
civilization in an otherwise inhospitable land the key to making the desert
bloom (Smythe, 1905~. At this juncture, the roots of modern irrigation have
been largely forgotten, although they continue to influence the views of many
20
OCR for page 21
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
people associated with western
21
il
rrigated agriculture, and they help to explain
many of the policies and institutions in place today.
There are fundamental cultural dimensions of irrigation. The committee
found evidence of these dimensions in its discussions throughout the project,
both with those who spoke to the committee and within its own discussions. The
committee was surprised, however, at the relative paucity of good research ex-
ploring these cultural dimensions, particularly with respect to irrigation in the
United States (see Box 2.1~.
Culture, as used in this chapter, refers to the "ideas, customs, skills, arts, etc.
of a given people in a given period.") Irrigation, as it has been practiced in
agriculture, is a distinctive activity. It is sufficiently distinctive that it has its own
history, its own governmental policies, its own institutions, its own practices,
and, historically at least, its own communities. Modern irrigation in the United
States probably began with the Mormons whose existence as a community in the
Great Salt Basin depended on its practice (Arrington, 1975~. It grew in places
such as California and Colorado, first in support of mining, and then to support
settlement itself. Later in the nineteenth century, it outgrew its utilitarian origins
and took on the aura of a movement, becoming for some the basis for building
utopian communities (Boyd, 1897), for making the desert bloom (Maass and
Anderson, 1978), and for civilizing the Great American Desert of the West
(Smythe, 1905~. Congress created a federal agency now called the Bureau of
Reclamation dedicated solely to the task of expanding irrigation in the West
(Pisani, 1992~.
At the base of this swelling interest in irrigation was a central idea: that a
society and an economy could be built on irrigated agriculture. The essentially
free, virtually unlimited land area of the western United States could be turned
into a productive region, providing land and a means of support for settlers while
also producing beef and other agricultural products for the country. It was a bold
idea, ideally suited for this era of expansion and exploitation. It found wide-
spread support not only among those seeking to promote development of the
West but also among those in other parts of the country who saw this develop-
ment as serving their own interests.
Out of these origins grew an irrigation culture that viewed itself as serving a
larger national interest as well as providing a means of sustenance in an arid
environment. In the arid setting of the West, there was great power in the idea of
irrigation. It unleashed remarkable energies of both private and public enterprise
in the construction of water collection, diversion, and delivery facilities to make
water available for agricultural use. Equally remarkable creativity emerged in the
laws and institutions that were developed to support irrigation.
The national-level prominence given to irrigation through the federal recla-
mation program further supported the development of an irrigation culture. Rec-
lamation projects were extraordinarily successful in obtaining congressional fund
OCR for page 22
22
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
.............................................................................................................................
':':':':':':':':':':':':':':'::::: :'::: :''::: :':: :'::::: :':::: :' ' :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::':':::::::£:':::::::':::::::::::::'':::::::' :':'::: :'::: :' :':':::: :': :' :': :': :'::::: :' :':':::::::::::::'::::::::
maJo-r---sy-n-~ -~-eses---o~ socket ~ a-n-u---c
ing support (McCool, 19871. Federally funded irrigation projects sprouted across
the West, expanding irrigated acreage in some areas and creating new irrigation
in others. Not only did additional lands come under irrigation, but communities
developed and grew. Especially in rural areas, these communities often were
heavily dependent on irrigation for their existence. Businesses in these commu-
nities provided services needed by irrigators, such as the provision of seed, equip-
ment, and basic household supplies. In turn, irrigators generated the market crops
that brought outside capital into the community.
Irrigation culture established itself in the quasi-governmental institutions
OCR for page 23
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
23
- ............................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
...................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................................
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
that were established to build and maintain the facilities needed to provide water
and in the development of the legal rules for allocating the water itself among
different users. Even today, the directors of mutual ditch companies, irrigation
districts, and conservancy districts are leading figures in their communities, con-
stituting a power base with considerable influence over water issues at a state and
even national level.
In today's increasingly urbanized society, evidence of a culture of irrigation
is much less apparent. The unifying idea of a society built around irrigation no
longer has the power it once had. It would be a mistake, however, to believe that
OCR for page 24
24
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
this traditional irrigation culture is no longer important. It remains alive and well
in many parts of the rural West today, and it is also visible in the Great Plains and
South. Irrigation continues to support economies in these areas and to make
possible a way of living that is otherwise less and less available. It is a culture,
however, that in some ways is in retreat and on the defensive. Instead of a
national symbol of progress and growth, some now see irrigated agriculture as a
depleter and polluter of water, living off government subsidies.
Is there vitality still in the idea of irrigation? If it is no longer to serve as the
basis for a society, what is its purpose? What if the "ideas, customs, skill, and
arts" of irrigation should be built upon in the future? What must change? These
are fundamental considerations in the discussion of the future of irrigation.
This chapter begins by explaining the notion of cultural perspectives in rela-
tion to the material presented in the previous chapters. It then discusses five
broad cultural themes or issues: understanding the culture of irrigation; cultural
heritage within a changing cultural context; cultural diversity; cultural conflict
and cooperation; and irrigation knowledge systems.
WHAT ARE CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND
WHY DO THEY MATTER?
The term "culture" is defined here in four ways:
1. National Irrigation Culture (i.e., widespread irrigation attitudes, percep-
tions, values, and policies);
2. Local Irrigation Communities (i.e., local community-based attitudes, per-
ceptions, values, and behavior);
3. Complex Processes of Change (i.e., forces and pressures causing change);
and
4. Complex Patterns of Change (i.e., responses, often region or site specific,
as illustrated later in the regional case studies).
Widespread changes in values, attitudes, norms, aspirations, folklore, and
conflicts affect individual and collective decision making, and they have shaped
the current situation in irrigation. Among irrigators, these shared attitudes and
perceptions have constituted a "culture of irrigation" that has influenced decision
making at the national and regional levels. To understand these decisions, and
how they might affect the future of irrigation, it is necessary to understand the
perceptions and attitudes that shape national and regional irrigation cultures.
Understanding local irrigation cultures is often key to resolving conflicts and to
identifying and implementing creative practical solutions to irrigation problems.
For example, Chapter 1 suggested that the original social aims of irrigation may
have been largely fulfilled, or superseded by other concerns, leading to questions
about the need for "a new social contract," "a new era," or a "new vision" for
OCR for page 25
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
25
irrigation. Those who perceive these needs are, in a sense, seeking to envision and
to design new cultural patterns, contexts, and opportunities for irrigation. Vision and
design these two activities are linked for communities struggling to transform
water systems across the country for the twenty-first century.
Of course, not everyone agrees with recent diagnoses of irrigation problems
or prognoses for change. Some communities in the western states, for example,
argue that the problems are small and easily fixed without radical change. They
describe irrigated agriculture as a culture of continuous adjustment and change-
hourly, daily, seasonal and long-term adjustments to changing markets, technolo-
gies, weather, and social organization and expect the industry to continue to
adjust as needed.
The complex processes of cultural change are clearly evident when looking at
specific regions, such as depicted in the case studies in Chapter 5. Thus, a fourth use
of the term culture is that associated with the complex patterns found in specific
regions. In each case, culture serves as an integrative concept for examining rela-
tions among environment, society, and technology; for addressing conflicts; and for
expanding the range of alternatives available to future irrigators.
This chapter on cultural perspectives seeks to introduce concepts that recur
in later chapters. The "irrigation communities" described in those chapters are
the bearers of irrigation culture. The matrix patterns that link irrigation commu-
nities with changing technologies, water resources, and markets reflect cultural
patterns. The chains of adjustment involve cultural processes. The regional case
studies illustrate different cultural as well as economic, technological, environ-
mental, and institutional issues in irrigation. Urban cultures are more prominent
in the California and Florida cases than in the Great Plains, where the pattern of
ground water irrigation conforms well with rural individualism and small town
environments. It should be noted that each sector has multiple subcultures.
Whereas some urban residents and developers create landscapes irrigated with
vast amounts of potable water, others have banded together to establish new
patterns of "xeriscaping," or prairie and desert landscaping.2 Some of the golf
course developments that used vast amounts of irrigation water, fertilizers, and
pesticides are advancing to the forefront of the horticultural industry' s scientific
application of wastewater reuse, wetlands protection, and nonpoint source pollu-
tion control. At the same time, water conservation specialists report that some
techniques designed to conserve or protect water resources (e.g., lawn sprinkler
automation and ditch lining) have unanticipated effects such as loss of incidental
vegetation providing wildlife habitat that require further behavioral or techno-
logical adjustment.
Irrigated regions have also developed a wide variety of agribusiness and
administrative cultures. A key challenge in urbanizing regions is to facilitate
multiple and complementary water uses. A challenge in rural areas is to coordi-
nate individual and collective water management at larger and larger scales.
American Indian cultures are central in discussions of the future of irrigation in
OCR for page 26
26
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
many regions, especially the Pacific Northwest. Different Hispanic and Asian
culture groups influence irrigation in California and Florida. Political and legal
cultures vary by state, facilitating different kinds of irrigation change and resis-
tance to change. Colorado relies on water courts, while New Mexico and Utah
place more responsibility on water administrators. The culture of water as a
property right is more highly elaborated and contested in the western than in
the eastern states. Even the cultures of environmental groups vary across differ-
ent regions of the country.
Cultural perspectives provide, on the one hand, a synthesis of the diverse
factors affecting irrigation decisions a way of assembling diverse facts, ideas,
and insights. They also help identify issues related to the social meaning of, and
attitudes toward, irrigation. In both respects, they help us understand current
irrigation issues and gauge future possibilities.
CULTURAL ISSUES
The future cannot be predicted from the past (Popper, 1964), and no one
situation is exactly like another, but cultural research can help frame analogies to
assess the likely strengths and weaknesses of the economic, technological, insti-
tutional, and regional alternatives. Analogies use an account of the past (i.e., the
analogue) to help imagine, project, or construct a plausible or instructive scenario
about the future (Glantz, 1988; Helman, 1988~. Irrigators use analogies when
they face a problem by reflecting comparable situations in the past, in other
regions, or in different resource sectors. Analogies have commonly been used,
for example, between the water and electric power sectors. Irrigators use analo-
gies when they imagine how a new technology or crop might affect their opera-
tions. Analogies offer a more detailed perspective on contextual factors that
influence irrigation than do formal decision models. They can help ensure that all
relevant experiences and alternatives are considered. Finally, they are useful for
understanding crisis behavior that falls outside the boundary conditions of most
irrigation planning and management models. This section uses analogies to
examine cultural issues facing water managers today.
Of the many cultural issues surrounding contemporary irrigation, five broad
themes stand out. The first of these, "understanding the culture of irrigation,"
raises basic questions about the nature and meaning of irrigation in the United
States. These questions then lead to more specific questions about cultural
heritage, context, diversity, conflict, and knowledge.
1. Understanding the Culture of Irrigation. Is there a "culture of irrigation"?
That is, do irrigation communities have distinct views of themselves, their contri-
butions to society, attitudes toward water, and institutions they have created?
How well understood are these contemporary cultures of irrigation? What types
of understanding are needed to resolve emerging water problems and conflicts?
OCR for page 27
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
27
2. Cultural Heritage Within a Changing Cultural Context. What is the
"heritage value" of irrigation? How important is it? How does it change as the
larger situation changes? What are the options for heritage conservation?
3. Cultural Diversity. What is cultural diversity? Why is it important? What
problems does it entail? What are the options for fostering constructive diversity?
4. Cultural Conflict and Cooperation. How has conflict shaped and impeded
the development of irrigation? What role have cooperative behaviors played in
irrigation development? How do irrigation policies aggravate or alleviate con-
flict? What are the conditions that facilitate cooperation and conflict resolution?
5. Irrigation Knowledge Systems. What branches of useful irrigation knowl-
edge have been neglected or lost? How might they be identified, evaluated, and
adapted? What is needed to support and facilitate innovation and adaptation of
irrigation science and practice?
The importance of these questions may be illustrated with examples from
modern (1900-1995), early historic (1500-1900), and pre-historic (pre-1500) irri-
gation (Figure 2.1~. These examples also span a range of spatial scales, from the
local to the global. They encourage the type of broad long-term thinking needed
to ensure the sustainability and timely adaptation of irrigation systems. They also
identify alternatives that might be overlooked and keep one mindful of unex-
pected changes in the context of irrigation (Wescoat, 1984~.
Is,/
7
ISSUES
Understanding lhe
Cohere of Jrr~gafion
Choral fler~rage ct
Context
Cultural D`versi~
Cooperation 4t
Conflict
rr~gR6On Knowledge-
S,ystemg
Prel7lstoric - Historic - Mourn
TIMESC4ES
IRlUGAvO~
FUTURES
FIGURE 2.1 Conceptual framework illustrating the nonlinear relationships be-
tween time, spatial scale, and issues related to the evolution of irrigation.
OCR for page 28
28
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
Understanding the Culture of Irrigation
Is there a culture of irrigation in the United States? There are many distinc-
tive regional patterns and processes of irrigation. The massive agricultural
projects and businesses of California, for example, stand in sharp contrast with
smaller operations of the Rocky Mountain states. The center pivot systems of the
Great Plains have little in common with sugarcane irrigation of the Gulf Coast.
There is an enormous diversity of irrigation cultures.
At the same time, several irrigation patterns and movements assumed na-
tional significance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Collectively, the
perspectives and projects associated with irrigation established a "culture of irri-
gation," some aspects of which persist, while others face fundamental challenges.
Three aspects of this culture seem particularly relevant for the future of irrigation.
The Reclamation Ethic
To this day, many irrigators maintain strong views about the inherent value
of "reclamation." Whether draining the bottomlands of the lower Mississippi
valley or irrigating the deserts of the West, the historical transformation of "waste
into wealth" is a source of enormous satisfaction for irrigators. In arid areas,
making "the desert bloom as a rose" has Biblical antecedents and continuing
resonance. Indeed, the Reclamation Movement of the late nineteenth century, led
by William Smythe (1905) and others, had a missionary zeal and explicitly reli-
gious as well as social and economic justifications (Lee, 1980~. To participate in
the transformation of the deserts and wetlands and to bring out their potential
productivity have been viewed as inherently moral and civilizing activities. To
settle middle-class families on productive units of land was an inspiring social
goal (Mead, 1903, 1920~. To meet the harsh challenges of the desert had an
heroic quality (Wescoat, 1990~.3 All of these ideas have shaped the view of
irrigation as a way of life and civilization that has a deep appeal for those who
live it.
Many irrigation communities seek to maintain or revive the original values
associated with reclamation. They disagree with views that see reclamation as
environmentally harmful. Indeed, in some respects the irrigated agricultural
community now is paying a price for not responding sooner to early criticism
about the harms of reclamation by popular critics such as Reisner (1986~. A1-
though many share contemporary concerns for such things as fish, wildlife, and
environmental quality, the community overall was badly served by those who
initially dismissed the critics. Reclamation agencies adapted slowly and awk-
wardly to the changing cultural context.
Cast in this light, the ideology of reclamation helps explain some contempo-
rary irrigation problems and conflicts. It calls for a greater measure of respect
among the participants in irrigation forums. It also suggests a creative approach
OCR for page 29
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
29
to negotiations, which asks, what is the new vision for an integrated water man-
agement that includes irrigation in the twenty-first century? What will be the
new moral landscapes and new forms of heroism? The history of reclamation
informs us that such questions are not irrelevant or utopian: they are practical
matters for collaborative work and creative design.
Attitudes Toward Water
In the western states, water often is described as the "lifeblood" of the re-
gion. Many in the West still believe that land without water has little value,
which is literally true for irrigated cropland. This fundamental dependence on
water gave rise to several deeply rooted concepts that guide agricultural water use
and have profoundly influenced western water law.
At base, irrigators view water as an essential means to an end that is, an
input needed to grow crops. This highly instrumental view of water promotes the
importance of clarity respecting relative rights to use water as well as the value of
certainty in those rights. Thus the principle of priority "first in time, first in
right" holds great importance for irrigators. Not only does priority help to sort
out competing claims to water, it also serves to protect the substantial claims of
irrigated agriculture to water since much of this use was established early enough
in the settlement of the West to give agricultural users seniority over most other
water uses. One consequence of a priority rule is to emphasize time as the most
important factor in determining rights to use water rather than, for example,
place, value, or purpose of use (Bates et al., 1993~.
Related to this strong desire for certainty is the importance of stability and
protection against change. Dependent as they are on the availability of water,
irrigators understandably fear the diminishment of their water supply. With a
historical record of generally increasing land areas coming under irrigation until
the past decade or so, irrigators have jealously guarded their claims. Changes of
the use of irrigation water rights, particularly for nonagricultural uses outside the
original place of use, have been resisted (MacDonnell and Rice, 1994~. The legal
concept of no injury has emerged to protect the water rights of existing users
against change.
At the same time, there is a strongly felt view among most irrigators that
water is a shared public resource. This principle is articulated in constitutions and
statutes throughout the nation. In addition to serving the interests of individual
irrigators, water must be managed wisely to serve the broader interests of the
community. This approach is perhaps most completely exemplified by Hispanic
acequia organizations in northern New Mexico (Crawford, 1989~. Riparian prin-
ciples, prevalent in the eastern states, also emphasize this common property view
of water.
The prior appropriation doctrine has never comported with this view of
water. It is based on establishing rights to water through the act of capture and
OCR for page 30
30
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
use (appropriation), so this doctrine reflects its origins in mining rather than in
agriculture. Water rights are regarded as property rights, to be defended as
vigorously as any other type of property (if not more so). Water diverted from the
river into canals and ditches sometimes has been characterized as private prop-
erty. That portion of the water supply consumptively used in the growing of
crops (perhaps half of the water diverted) is undeniably privatized.
Competing tensions between private and collective need in irrigation pro-
duced several important principles. One is the concept of duty of water. Legally,
this concept places an upper limit on the amount of water necessary to grow crops
on a given parcel of land. There is something particularly revealing about the
idea that water has a "duty" to grow crops. It emerged primarily as a simple
means for state water administrators to allocate water for irrigation uses.4 It
served as a way to more quantitatively articulate the more general principle of
beneficial use the condition of water law that the initiation and continuation of
a water use are limited to those that are regarded as "beneficial."5 The doctrine of
beneficial use is understood to preclude the waste of water (Shupe, 1982~. These
concepts of duty of water and waste reflect the concerns of irrigators with regards
to the importance of water to the larger community that might place limits on
private actions. In practice, these principles have rarely been invoked to question
established water uses.
Given the increasing competition for water use that often pits irrigation
agriculture against urban, tribal, and environmental interests, it is perhaps impor-
tant to understand these cultural views of water. They help to explain the fervor
with which irrigation users sometimes defend their traditional water use preroga-
tives. They shed light on the resistance of many irrigators to the increased efforts
to market water as a means of changing its use from agriculture to cities. They
help explain how irrigators may see water as a collective good in relation to the
needs of the irrigation community but resist the notion of water as a public,
instream resource.
Institution Building
The concepts of priority, beneficial use, duty of water, waste, and injury are
formal irrigation institutions as well as attitudes toward water use. Indeed, one of
the most remarkable aspects of irrigation culture is the institutions created to
guide water use in situations of uncertainty and conflict. In addition to the water
rights principles described above, irrigators crafted institutions to administer those
rights, such as state engineers, water commissioners, and water masters, whose
job was to deliver water within the established water rights structure and to help
resolve conflicts among competing water users. Special water courts were cre-
ated in some states to resolve less tractable water conflicts and to decree the
existence of water rights with their priorities. Over the decades, these courts
moved from an eclectic set of early precedents to establish impressive bodies of
OCR for page 35
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
35
other canals that were less subject to flood hazards, more able to deliver water to
large areas, or more advantageous for some villages than others (Howard, 1993~.
These studies indicate that different culture groups undertook incremental adjust-
ments to flood, drought, desertification, and disaster in ways that yielded a di-
verse mix of adaptive, and for the most part sustainable, irrigation strategies.
Some techniques (e.g., water harvesting, native crops) are being reexamined and
adapted for possible future use (Evenari et al., 1982; Nabhan, 1989~. Linkages
between cultural diversity and economic diversification enabled irrigators to ad-
iust to variable environmental conditions.
Hohokam canal irrigation raises questions about the limits of adjustment in
large-scale specialized irrigation systems. Canal irrigators did employ mixed strate-
gies of food production, but they were more tied to a complex, maintenance-inten-
sive, and highly productive system of cultivation than their neighbors. Despite
continuous adjustment of irrigation practices, which buffered them against certain
types of environmental variability, they were ultimately vulnerable to large-scale
systemic collapse.
These themes diversity, flexibility, and adjustment changed during the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On the one hand, the modern irrigators ex-
perimented boldly with crops, technologies, institutions, and labor practices
(Mead, 1903; Moses, 1986; Robinson, 1977; Smith, 1986; Smythe,1905~. These
experiments sometimes involved new social groups, new irrigation practices, and
new market niches thereby creating new irrigation cultures. On the other hand,
processes of modern diversification were followed by increasingly rapid diffu-
sion of technology, crops, institutions, and people, which actively serve to reduce
diversity to obtain uniform products and economies of scale. Some have main-
tained themselves for several generations or more, while others have had to seek
new markets, and new environmental and cultural niches or shift to other occu-
pations.
Several conclusions seem relevant for the future of irrigation. First, the
history of irrigation is characterized by enormous diversity, which, in principle
and in some respects de facto, has been valued by American society. In addition
to the inherent value of diversity in a democratic society, it has practical value for
risk management, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Because diversity is a dy-
namic process not a static relation it calls for policies that support innovation,
risk management, adjustment to local conditions, broad social participation, and
access to resources. Access to water is a precondition for cultural and ecological
diversity; when denied, it is a source of conflict.
Cultural Conflict and Cooperation
Some of the most inspiring, and painful, lessons of irrigation date to the
middle and late nineteenth century, when large-scale population movements dis-
placed indigenous cultures and reworked the water resources of their settlement
OCR for page 36
36
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
frontier for mining, farming, and ranching purposes. These processes involved
remarkable instances of cooperation, and also bitter conflicts. In addition to
conflicts with American Indians over land and water, irrigators had uneven rela-
tions with other economic groups. Irrigators established themselves in some
areas to serve small populations of miners, travelers, trappers, forts, ranchers, and
traders. Where mixed activities flourished, they sometimes came into conflict-
as when hydraulic mining destroyed water quality, stream channels, and down-
stream irrigated lands. Federal reclamation policy sought, in part, to "settle" the
western territories, that is, to populate them and to substitute a sedentary stable
agrarian economy and society for more volatile and transient activities. Later,
when flourishing irrigation economies contributed to population growth and com-
mercial expansion, it sometimes led to competition for limited water supplies and
environmental conflict.
Cooperation and conflict are perennial in irrigated areas. Pre-historic irriga-
tion systems involved high levels of community cooperation for construction,
maintenance, cultivation, and settlement. The archeological record of economic
competition and political conflict is limited, but ethnohistorical evidence sug-
gests that pre-historic irrigators faced a variety of internal and external conflicts
that affected the sustainability of their irrigation systems.
In the sixteenth century, Hispanic land and water development extended
across central Texas, the Rio Grande valley, southern Arizona, and coastal Cali-
fornia, adapting water management practices and institutions derived from Span-
ish, Roman, and Islamic sources (Baade, 1992; Dobkins, 1959; Ebright, 1979;
Glick, 1972; Greenleaf, 1972; Meyer, 1984; Simmons, 1972~. Some of these
water systems were built with slave labor, while others involved inspiring pat-
terns of community cooperation for canal management combined with private
and collective property rights (Hutchins, 1928; Meyer, 1984~. Although these
rights and the rights of Pueblo Indians were formally recognized in the Treaty of
Guadeloupe Hidalgo (1848), conflicts continued to arise over the legal status and
protection of community irrigation practices (Brown and Ingram, 1987; Crawford,
1989).
Inspiring lessons of cooperation may also be drawn from the Mormon expe-
rience in central Utah and surrounding areas. The Mormon's combination of
egalitarian sharing of resources and risks with strong hierarchical decision mak-
ing helps account for their success in building irrigation systems and communi-
ties. Although church control gave way to civil government in Utah rather
quickly, it continued to influence community water management in less formal
ways (Alexander, 1994; Arrington, 1975~. Many small towns in Utah retain the
original pattern of large ditches serving fields outside the town and a network of
smaller ditches running along streets for family gardens in town (Wescoat, l990~.
Several groups that sought to emulate the Mormon example had mixed re-
sults. Utopian and planned agricultural communities like Greeley, Colorado, had
high aspirations, but they were not able to attain or maintain the level of commu
OCR for page 37
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
37
nity cohesion needed to face internal and external pressures (Boyd,1897~. To be
fair in the comparison, they settled in areas of more rapid land development with
members of varied backgrounds and goals. But as conflicts arose, these experi-
ments were abandoned for state-based systems of water rights administration.
Most states built on the pluralistic frontier precedents established in miner's
courts and people's courts (Moses, 1986~. They established ditch companies,
irrigation districts, and conservancy districts as civic institutions dedicated to
cooperative water development and management. Recently, these groups have
been joined by a growing number of nongovernmental alliances of agricultural,
environmental, ethnic, and urban groups with interests in local watersheds (Natu-
ral Resources Law Center, 1996; Young and Congdon, 1994~. It is encouraging
to observe progress toward negotiated settlements for issues of longstanding
conflict in California, such as, the bay-delta dispute, the Monterey agreement,
and water banking and transfer proposals. Equally encouraging is the formation
of new groups specializing in alternative dispute resolution and negotiation
(Moore, 1995), although progress in this field has not been as rapid as was once
expected.
Before turning to the legacy of conflict, it is important to review, again, the
extraordinary diversity of nineteenth century irrigation practices. A wide variety
of farmers and communities adapted practices from the eastern states for the arid
West. African-Americans had transferred rice irrigation practices from Gambia
to South Carolina (Carney, 1993~. Chinese immigrants played a central role in
the reclamation of the Sacramento River floodplains and delta (Chan, 1986~.
Indians from the Punjab irrigated lands in the Imperial and Central valleys of
California, regions very similar to, and influenced by irrigation practices in,
colonial India (Jensen, 1988; Leonard, 1992; Wescoat, 1994~. American water
engineers and lawyers drew practical lessons from Italy and France, as well as
India and Egypt (Davidson, 1875; Hilgard, 1886; Jackson et al., 1990; Kinney,
1912; Wilson, 1890-1891~. It is little wonder that new types of conflict, and
conflict resolution, arose in this rapidly changing heterogeneous environment.
The diversity of irrigation in some areas lacked any coherence. The first
California state engineer, William Hammond Hall, wrote despairingly of the
Central Valley that:
Here have met . . . customs of the civil law countries of southern Europe, as
modified by Mexican practice; the common law water-course rulings of Eng
lish courts; and a mining water-right jurisprudence, with customs locally
evolved under new conditions. Here also have met, to develop this industry and
make laws for its governance, people from all parts of the world and in all
grades of circumstances, hardly any of whom had the slightest idea of water
right systems or irrigation customs, legislation, administration or practice. (Hall,
1886, p. 5)
OCR for page 38
38
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
The resolution of this eclectic state of affairs took two paths: cultural conflict, and
new institutions to facilitate water development and conflict resolution.
Early in the nineteenth century, it was widely recognized that some groups
were violently displacing others. Anglo settlers in the Salt and Gila drainages of
Arizona drove Pima irrigators from a profitable cash cropping livelihood to welfare
dependence during the last three decades of the nineteenth century (Hackenberg,
1983~. Upstream Anglo communities disrupted downstream Anglo irrigation at
Greeley, Colorado. Hunters, pastoralists, and mobile farming groups lost access
to natural water sources and customary water uses with the expansion of seden-
tary irrigation and the property rights regimes designed to serve it. As Edward
Spicer wrote in 1962, it was the latest "cycle" in three centuries of conquest
(Limerick, 1987~. Early Asian irrigators who had helped reclaim difficult lands
were violently abused, deported, and in some cases stripped of their citizenship.
Water was just one dimension of these social injustices and conflicts. Among
the many sobering lessons to be drawn, three seem pertinent here. First, the
displacement of some groups by others was sometimes portrayed as natural,
necessary, or appropriate as an instance of the strong and efficient replacing the
weak and less productive. Comparable arguments are being addressed toward
some irrigators today. How should such arguments be assessed in the light of
past experience?
Second, many of the impacts of water development on American Indian tribes
were known as they were occurring. Although protested by some, they were simply
ignored by most (Merritt, 1984~. Significantly, the impacts of water development on
tribes are continuing. Are there other, comparable, underappreciated, conflicts to-
day. If so, how might they affect the future of irrigation? (Burton, 1991; Jacobson,
1989; McCool, 1987~.
Third, the historical literature on irrigation is suffused with high ideals of
cooperation and conciliation. Where have such ideals actually guided human
action, and where have they been merely rhetorical? It hardly bears repeating that
despite Supreme Court recognition of Indian water rights in 1908,7 and the moral
language of treaties, few tribes have obtained their rightful share of material
irrigation benefits to date.
In some cases, the adoption of irrigation institutions (e.g., water rights, irri-
gation district laws, and administrative systems) accelerated the trends mentioned
above. In other cases, it promoted inefficient patterns of water ownership and
use. But the development of irrigation institutions was in many respects a re-
markable achievement with constructive lessons for the future. Irrigation institu-
tions provided principles and procedures for defining rights to water and resolv-
ing conflicts among water rights holders. They established organizations to serve
collective and increasingly complex social aims, along with rules and regulations
to govern those organizations. They asserted that, in contrast with land, water
rights are limited and do not include a right to waste.
In future efforts to reform irrigation institutions, three points seem important.
OCR for page 39
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
39
First, irrigation is a cultural as well as economic and political system. The
cultural character of irrigation institutions accounts in part for their resistance to
change; an understanding of this cultural dimension might facilitate constructive
change and conflict resolution. Second, it is important not to lose sight of the
enduring value and efficacy of modern examples of cooperation and conflict
resolution in irrigation. Otherwise, future generations may find themselves try-
ing to recover what was lost from the middle and late twentieth century as well as
from earlier periods. Third, it is important to focus on inventing new forms of
cooperation that transcend the costly and historically entrenched patterns of con-
flict that involve water and related land resources, such as alternative methods of
dispute resolution and mediation.
Knowledge Systems in Irrigation: Past, Present, and Future
It is useful to situate the preceding themes within an encompassing theme of
irrigation knowledge systems, which speaks directly to issues of policy and re-
search. Knowledge systems include ways of learning and knowing, as well as the
types of knowledge obtained, and the relationships between that knowledge and
productive human activity. Modern irrigators report rapid adoption of some
innovations, such as the annual adoption of new seed varieties, and the (rela-
tively) slow development and diffusion of others, such as the 10 to 15 years for
certain subsurface drip irrigation technologies (H. Wuertz, personal communica-
tion, 1995~. Farmers' "learning curves" vary in accordance with their specific
farming situations and pressures, their learning styles, and the relationship be-
tween their patterns of communication and decision making. In a rare scientific
simulation of the diffusion of irrigation decisions and technologies, Leonard
Bowden (1965) found that the diffusion of center pivot irrigation in eastern
Colorado could be best predicted by two types of communication telephone
contacts and personal conversations at barbecues!
Some ancient indigenous knowledge systems have endured. The Zuni tribe
of New Mexico still draws on traditional agronomic and spiritual practices (Enote,
1995~. The tribe is also experimenting with high-tech geographical information
systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS), and seeking ways to com-
bine the old and the new. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation in Oregon follow a "tribal philosophy of balance and harmony" to
seek cooperative solutions to water conflicts (fliers, personal communication,
1995~. Their Interim Water Code (1981, as amended through 1994) balances this
tribal philosophy with widespread traditions of western water law. How will
tribal knowledge systems be translated into strategies for water use, and what are
the implications for irrigated agriculture?
Knowledge systems from the early-modern era also persist, with continuous
adaptations and adjustment. Renewed attention is being given to Hispanic acequia
irrigation and related economic initiatives (Pulido,1993~. The history of irrigation is
OCR for page 40
40
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
a lively topic in current debates about the "new western history" (Hundley, 1992;
Pisani, 1992; Tyler, 1992; Worster, 1985~. Investigations have focused on the
historical development and meaning of modern irrigation organizations, projects,
leaders, and laws, as well as the more traditional topic of early agricultural settle-
ment. One continuing debate concerns the proper relations among individual irriga-
tors, irrigation organizations, and government agencies. As early as 1874, the
reputed environmental observer George Perkins Marsh wrote about the "evils" of
irrigation. Maass and Anderson (1978) argued that, contrary to Wittfogel, irrigation
organizations had effectively used federal programs to advance their local ends.
Donald Worster (1985), by contrast, used Wittfogel's arguments to show how fed-
eral agencies colluded with large California agribusinesses to gain control over land,
water, and labor in the region. Both arguments have merit for specific areas and
events, but neither describes the whole picture.
Another debate concerns the passing of the "water buffaloes" and "lords of
yesterday" who built the massive agricultural and urban plumbing systems of the
past century. Critics assert that those systems served some groups well in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but they do not serve the emerging
interests of society well at all (Limerick, 1987; Wilkinson, 1988~. Irrigation will
continue to be part of the cultural heritage in many areas and a vital economic
sector in some, but it will no longer be the centerpiece of long-term water plan-
ning, use, and power.
Although hotly debated, these interpretations are increasingly influential. At
stake are not just the number of acres irrigated, bushels harvested, and acre-feet
diverted. There are also serious policy concerns about the economic and environ-
mental performance of irrigation systems, the adjustments needed to fulfill com-
peting demands, and equity issues in water use and reallocation.
CONCLUSION
In question in all of these cultural issues are the lessons, meaning, and value
of irrigation. Although it is easy to abuse history, it would be an error to assess
current irrigation problems without studying the full record of experience and
experiments that created them and that might lead beyond them. Some lessons
are inspiring, while others are tragic many are changing as society rethinks the
past as well as the future of irrigation.
Because historical and cultural studies arise from present-day concerns, they
shed light on the knowledge systems of the present. They remind us that modern
irrigation systems have complex cultural roots, and that they are cultural, as well
as economic, institutional, technological, and ecological. In some respects, post-
war irrigation science and policy made radical breaks with the past, comparable
with the Green Revolution in other parts of the world. These advances in water
management and crop production involved ecological and social costs and risks
that sparked detailed attention and debate.
OCR for page 41
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
41
More recently, irrigation cultures have been experimenting with new combi-
nations of past, present, and future knowledge conjoining new technologies and
business practices with traditional values, and traditional technologies with new
values. These experiments respond to changing local, national, and global situa-
tions. They seek to articulate local economic activity with larger regional and global
markets. They arise from citizen initiatives and coalitions, supported but not led by
government programs and personnel. They seek to balance environmental, social,
and economic interests. Finally, they seek more efficient, flexible, and cooperative
approaches to conflict resolution.
These experiments have fundamental significance for the future character
and sustainability of irrigation agnculture. It is sobenng, however, that scientific
research on the social aspects of irrigation is advancing further in Asia and other
parts of the world than in the United States a situation that suggests that greater
attention be given to comparative international research as well as social investi-
gation of U.S. irrigation planning and policy.
NOTES
1. Webster's New World Dictionary, Second Edition, Simon & Schuster, 1982, at 345.
2. Xeriscaping refers to a range of landscape design concepts that reduce water use.
3. These ideological values should not be exaggerated, relative to the simple economic aims of
irrigators, but neither should they be dismissed as merely special interest attitudes.
4. For example, Wyoming under Elwood Mead developed the rule that one cubic foot per
second of water diverted during the irrigation season was enough to irrigate 70 acres of land. Later,
several other states adopted a rule of apportioning some maximum number of acre-feet of water per
acre. For example, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska place a limit of three acre-feet per
acre (Getches, 1984).
5. The doctrine of beneficial use is most fully developed in the western states, while the some
what broader concept of reasonable use generally applies in the eastern states. Some states use both
concepts.
6. Fish protection and multiple use of streams was common in the early legislation of territories
like Colorado and was not abandoned for wholesale stream diversion uses until the 1870s.
7. Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564, 28 S.Ct. 207, 52 L.Ed. 340 (1908).
REFERENCES
Alexander, T. G. 1994. Stewardship and enterprise: The LDS Church and the Wasatch Oasis
Environment, 1847-1930. Western Historical Quarterly 25:341-364.
Arrington, L. J. 1975. A different mode of life: Irrigation and society in nineteenth century Utah.
Agricultural History 49:3-20.
Baade, H. W. 1992. Roman law in the water, mineral, and public land law of the southwestern
United States. The American Journal of Comparative Law 40:865-877.
Bates, S., D. Getches, L. MacDonnell, and C. Wilkinson. 1993. Searching Out the Headwaters:
Change and Rediscovery in Western Water. Covelo and Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Bowden, L. 1965. Diffusion of the Decision to Irrigate. Research Paper No. 97. Chicago, Ill.:
Department of Geography, University of Chicago.
Boyd, D. 1897. Irrigation near Greeley, Colorado. Washington, D.C.
OCR for page 42
42
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
Brown, F. L., and H. M. Ingram. 1987. Water and Poverty in the Southwest. Tucson, Ariz.:
University of Arizona Press.
Bryan, K. 1929. Flood-water farming. Geographical Review 19:444-456.
Bryan, K. 1941. Pre-Columbian agriculture in the Southwest as conditioned by periods of alleviation.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers xxxi:219-242.
Burton, L. 1991. American Indian Water Rights and the Limits of the Law. Lawrence, Ks.:
University Press of Kansas.
Carney, J. A. 1993. From hands to tillers: African expertise in the South Carolina rice economy.
Agricultural History 67:1.
Castetter, E. F., and W. H. Bell. 1942. Pima and Papago Agriculture. Inter-American Studies No. 1.
Albuquerque, N. Mex.: University of New Mexico.
Chan, S. C. 1986. This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in California Agriculture, 1860- 1910. Berke-
ley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. 1981-1994. Interim Water Code. Pendleton,
Ore.
Corbridge, J. N., Jr., ed. 1984. Special Water Districts: Challenge for the Future. Boulder, Colo.:
Natural Resources Law Center.
Cordell, L. S. 1984. Prehistory of the Southwest. New York: Academic.
Coward, E. W., Jr., ed. 1980. Irrigation and Agricultural Development in Asia: Perspectives from the
Social Sciences. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Crawford, S. 1989. Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico. New York:
Anchor Books.
Davidson, G. 1875. Irrigation and Reclamation of Land for Agricultural Purposes in India, Egypt,
Italy, etc. Executive Doc. No. 94. U.S. Senate, 44th Cong. Washington, D.C.
Dobkins, B. 1959. The Spanish Element in Texas Water Law. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas
Press.
Dobyns, H. F. 1974. The Kohatk: Oasis and Akchin horticulturalists. Ethnohistory 21:317-327.
Doolittle, W. E. 1990. Canal Irrigation in Prehistoric Mexico: The Sequence of Technological
Change. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press.
Downing, T., and M. Gibson. 1974. Irrigation's Impact on Society. Anthropological Paper No. 25.
Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona.
Doyel, D., and F. Plog, eds. 1980. Current Issues in Hohokam Prehistory. Anthropological Re-
search Papers No. 23. Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona State University.
DuMars, C. T., M. O'Leary, and A. E. Utton. 1984. Pueblo Indian Water Rights: Struggle for a
Precious Resource. Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press.
Ebright, M. 1979. Manuel Martinez's Ditch Dispute: A Study in Mexican Period Custom and
Justice. New Mexico Historical Review 54: 21-34.
Enote, J. 1995. Conservation at Zuni Pueblo: Lessons in Sustainability. Conference on Sustainable
Use of the West's Water. Boulder, Colo.: Natural Resources Law Center.
Evenari, M., et al. 1982. The Negev: The Challenge of a Desert. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press.
Folk-Williams, J. A. 1982. What Indian Water Means to the West: A Sourcebook. Santa Fe, N.
Mex.: Western Network.
Forde, C. D. 1963. The Hopi and Yuma: Flood farmers in the North American desert. In Habitat,
Economy and Society: A Geographical Introduction to Ethnology. New York: E.P. Dutton. Pp.
220-259.
Getches, D. 1984. Water Law in a Nutshell. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co.
Glantz, M., ed. 1988. Societal Responses to Regional Climate Change: Forecasting by Analogy.
Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
Glick, T. F. 1972. The Old World Background of the Irrigation System of San Antonio, Texas.
Southwestern Studies No. 35. E1 Paso, Tex.: University of Texas at E1 Paso.
Greenleaf, R. E. 1972. Land and water in Mexico and New Mexico, 1700-1821. New Mexico
Historical Review 47:85-112.
OCR for page 43
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
43
Gummerman, G. J., ed. 1991. Exploring the Hohokam: Prehistoric Desert Peoples of the American
Southwest. Albuquerque, N. Mex.: University of New Mexico Press.
Hackenberg, R. A. 1983. Pima and Papago ecological adaptations. In Handbook of North Ameri
can Indians, Vol. 10. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 161-177.
Hall, W. H. 1886. Irrigation Development. Sacramento, Calif.: State Of lice.
Haury, E. W. 1976. The Hohokam, Desert Farmers and Craftsmen: Excavations at Snaketown,
1964-1965. Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press.
Helman, D. A. 1988. Analogical Reasoning: Perspectives of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive
Science, and Philosophy. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Hilgard, E. W. 1886. Alkali Lands. University of California, College of Agriculture, App. 7.
Sacramento: State Office, J.J. Ayers, Supt. State Printing.
Hodge, F. W. 1893. Prehistoric irrigation in Arizona. American Anthropologist VI:323-330.
Howard, J. B. 1993. A paleohydraulic approach to examining agricultural intensification in
Hohokam irrigation systems. In Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 7, V. L.
Scarborough and B. L. Isaac, eds. Greenwich: JAI Press, Inc. Pp. 263-324.
Hundley, N., Jr. 1992. The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, 1770's-1990's. Berkeley, Calif.:
University of California Press.
Hunt, R., and E. Hunt. 1976. Canal irrigation and local social organization. Current Anthropology
17:389-411.
Hutchins, W. A. 1928. The community acequia: Its origin and development. Southwestern Histori-
cal Quarterly xxxi:261-284.
International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI). 1993. Annual Report. Columbo, Sri Lanka:
IIMI.
Jackson, W. T., R. F. Herbert, and S. R. Wee, eds. 1990. Engineers and Irrigation: Report of the
Board of Commissioners on the Irrigation of the San Joaquin, Tulare, and Sacramento Valleys of
the State of California, 1873. (Reprinted as Engineering Historical Studies No. 5. Fort Belvoir:
Office of History, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)
Jacobson, J. E. 1989. A promise made: The Navaho Indian Irrigation Project and water politics in
the American West. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Colorado,
Boulder.
Jensen, J. M. 1988. Passages from India: Asian Indian Immigrants in North America. New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press.
Kinney, C. S. 1912. A Treatise on the Law of Irrigation and Water Rights etc., 2nd ea., 4 vols. San
Francisco, Calif.: Bender-Moss Company.
Kroeber, A., and C. Kluckhohn. 1963. Culture: A Conceptual Review of Concepts and Definitions.
New York: Vintage.
Kromm, D. E., and S. E. White, eds. 1992. Groundwater Exploitation in the High Plains. Lawrence,
Ks.: University Press of Kansas.
Lacey, M. J., and M. O. Furner, eds. 1993. The State and Social Investigation in Britain and the
United States. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press.
Lansing, J. S. 1991. Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Land-
scapes of Bali. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Lee, L. B. 1980. Reclaiming the American West: An Historiography and Guide. Santa Barbara,
Calif.: ABC-Clio.
Leonard, K. I. 1992. Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans. Philadel-
phia, Pa.: Temple University Press.
Lightfoot, D. 1990. The prehistoric pebble-mulched fields of the Galisteo Anasazi: Agricultural
innovation and adaptation to environment. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Geography, Uni-
versity of Colorado, Boulder.
Limerick, P. N. 1987. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. New
York: W.W. Norton and Co.
OCR for page 44
44
A NEW ERA FOR IRRIGATION
Maass, A., and R. L. Anderson. 1978. ... and the Desert Shall Rejoice: Conflict, Growth and
Justice in Arid Environments. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
MacDonnell, L., and T. Rice. 1994. Moving agricultural water to cities: The search for smarter
approaches. Hastings West-Northwest Journal 2:27-54.
Marsh, G. P. 1874. Irrigation: Its evils, the remedies, and the compensation. 43 Cong. 1 sees., S.
Misc. Doc. 55.
McCool, D. 1987. Command of the Waters: Iron Triangles, Federal Water Development, and Indian
Water. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
McGuire, R. H., and M. B. Schiffer. 1982. Hohokam and Patayan: Prehistory of Southwestern
Arizona. New York: Academic Press.
McGuire, T. R., W. B. Lord, and M. G. Wallace, eds. 1993. Indian Water in the New West. Tucson,
Ariz.: University of Arizona Press.
Mead, E. 1903. Irrigation Institutions. New York: Macmillan Company.
Mead, E. 1920. Helping Men Own Farms. New York: Macmillan Company.
Merritt, R. H., 1984. The Corps, the Environment and the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Histori-
cal Division, Office of Administrative Services, Office of the Chief of Engineers. Washington,
D.C.
Meyer, M. C. 1984. Water in the Hispanic Southwest: A Social and Legal History, 1550-1850.
Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press.
Mitchell, D. 1995. There's no such thing as culture: Towards a reconceptualization of the idea of
culture in geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers New Series 20:102-
116.
Moore, L. 1995. Regional water planning in New Mexico: An opportunity for citizen involvement
in state government. In Sustainable Use of the West's Water. Boulder, Colo.: Natural Resources
Law Center.
Moses, R. J. 1986. The Historical Development of Colorado Water Law. In Tradition, Innovation
and Conflict: Perspectives on Colorado Water Law. L. J. MacDonnell, ed. Boulder, Colo.:
University of Colorado, Natural Resources Law Center. Pp. 25-40.
Nabhan, G. P. 1979. The ecology of floodwater farming in arid southwestern North America. Agro-
Ecosystems 5:245-255.
Nabhan, G. P. 1989. Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation.
San Francisco, Calif.: North Point Press.
Natural Resources Law Center. 1996. The Watershed Sourcebook: Watershed-Based Solutions to
Natural Resources Problems. Boulder, Colo.: Natural Resources Law Center.
Palerm, A. 1973. Obras Hidraulicas prehispanicus, en el sistema lacustre del vane de Mexico. Mexico
City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia.
Pisani, D. J. 1984. From the Family Farm to Agribusiness: The Irrigation Crusade in California and
the West, 1850-1931. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Pisani, D. J. 1992. To Reclaim a Divided West: Water, Law and Public Policy, 1848-1902. Albu-
querque, N. Mex.: University of New Mexico Press.
Popper, K. 1964. The Poverty of Historicism. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Pulido, L. 1993. Sustainable development at Ganados del Valle. In Confronting Environmental
Racism: Voices from the Grassroots. R. D. Bullard, ed. Boston: South End Press. Pp. 123-140.
Reisner, M. 1986. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. New York:
Penguin Books.
Riebsame, W. E., S. Changnon, and T. R. Karl. 1991. Drought and Natural Resource Management
in the U.S.: Impacts and Implications of the 1987-89 Drought. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
Robinson, M. C. 1977. Water for the West: The Bureau of Reclamation, 1902-1977. Chicago, Ill.:
Public Works Historical Society.
Saarinen, T. F. 1966. Perception of the Drought Hazard on the Great Plains. Research Paper No.
106. Chicago, Ill.: Department of Geography, University of Chicago.
OCR for page 45
THE CULTURES OF IRRIGATION
45
Shupe, S. 1982. Waste in western water: A blueprint for change. Oregon Law Review 61:483.
Simmons, M. 1972. Spanish Irrigation Practices in New Mexico. New Mexico Historical Review
47: 135-150.
Smith, C. L. 1972. The Salt River Project: A Case Study in Cultural Adaptation to an Urbanizing
Community. Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press.
Smith, K. L. 1986. The Magnificent Experiment: Building the Salt River Reclamation Project
1890-1917. Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press.
Smythe, E. A. 1905. The Conquest of Arid America, 2nd ed. Reprint. Seattle, Wash.: University
of Washington Press.
Spicer, E. H. 1962. Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico and the United States on
Indians of the Southwest. Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press.
Steward, J. H., R. M. Adams, D. Collier, A. Palerm, K. A. Wittfogel, and R. L. Beals. 1955.
Irrigation Civilizations: A Comparative Study. Social Science Monographs No. 1. Washington,
D.C.: Pan American Union.
Takaki, R. 1990. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian-Americans. New York:
Penguin.
Tyler, D. 1992. The Last Water Hole: The Colorado-Big Thompson Project and the Northern
Colorado Water Conservancy District. Niwot, Colo.: University Press of Colorado.
Uphoff, N. T. 1992. Learning from Gal Oya: Possibilities for Participatory Development and Post-
Newtonian Social Science. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Wescoat, J. L., Jr. 1984. Long-term change in water management systems. In Transactions, Interna-
tional Commission on Irrigation and Drainage. New Delhi: International Commission on Irriga-
tion and Drainage.
Wescoat, J. L., Jr. 1990. Challenging the Desert. In The Making of the American Landscape. M. P.
Conzen, ed. Boston, Mass.: Unwin Hyman. Pp. 186-203.
Wescoat, J. L., Jr. 1994. Water rights in South Asia and the United States: Comparative perspec-
tives, 1873-1993. Paper presented to SSRC Study of Comparative Property Rights.
Wilkinson, C. F. 1988. To settle a new land: An historical essay on water law in Colorado and in the
American West. In Water and the American West: Essays in Honor of Raphael J. Moses. D. H.
Getches, ed. Boulder, Colo.: Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado. Pp. 1-18.
Williams, R. 1983. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Fontana.
Wilson, H. M. 1890-1891. Irrigation in India. In 12th Annual Report, U.S. Geological Survey, Part
II, Irrigation. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Geological Survey.
Worster, D. 1985. Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity and the Growth of the American West. New
York: Pantheon Books.
Young, T., and C. Congdon. 1994. Plowing New Ground: Using Economic Incentives to Control
Water Pollution from Agriculture. Oakland, Calif.: Environmental Defense Fund.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
cultural heritage
