Dozens of Colorado residents file complaints against funeral homes and crematories each year. Several funeral homes are then investigated and disciplined over those complaints. But unless they’re reported on by media outlets, many of the stories of alleged misconduct live in relative obscurity deep inside a clunky government database. The stories included in this database range from funeral homes and crematories operating without licenses to cases of allegedly storing bodies improperly.
The Fort Yuma-Quechan Indian Tribe is situated at a nexus in the Colorado River Basin.
That’s true in a geographic sense. The tribe’s reservation overlays the Arizona-California border near Yuma, Arizona. The two states are heavily reliant on water from the Colorado River.
The reservation also abuts the U.S.-Mexico border where the river flows into Mexico for use in cities and on farms. One of the river’s largest irrigation projects, the All-American Canal, was dug through the tribe’s land, and flows from the reservation’s northeastern boundary to its far southwestern corner, on its way to irrigate crops in California’s Imperial Valley. The confluence of the Colorado River and one of its historically important tributaries, the Gila River, is nearby.
Credit Luke Runyon/KUNC
Anyone who has hosted a good dinner party knows that the guest list, table setting and topic of conversation play a big role in determining whether the night is a hit or the guests leave angry and unsatisfied.
That concept is about to get a true test on the Colorado River, where chairs are being pulled up to a negotiating table to start a new round of talks that could define how the river system adapts to a changing climate for the next generation.
The decision of who gets to sit at that table, whose interests are represented, and what’s on the menu is still very much in flux. But the uncertainty isn’t stopping would-be participants from voicing concerns they feel leaders in the southwestern watershed can no longer ignore.