Stories from the Colorado River Basin
Voices from Indigenous Land and Water Protection
April 10, 2025 at the CAVEA Theater in MSU Denver’s Jordan Student Success Building (JSSB), Room 420. ____________________________________________ LOUISE BENNALLY is a grandmother, mother and clan mother from the Black Mesa community of Big Mountain in Northern Arizona… [Read Bio] ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ LEONA MORGAN is a Diné organizer and educator on nuclear issues since 2007 in the Four Corners and Colorado River Basin region… [Read Bio] ____________________________________________ We want to hear from you! Share questions for speakers. All of our precious, finite water sources are connected, from flowing surface streams across Mother Earth to the underground Aquifers below us, to the raindrops falling from the clouds above, all of water is connected. The Waters Connect Us is multi-generational work to protect SacredWater that was inspired by Debra White Plume (Oglala Lakota / Cheyenne) of Owe Aku / Bring Back the Way and a tight-knit group of Indigenous and non-native people committed to environmental and human rights work. We honor those whose footsteps we walk in this water and ancestral lands’ work and are dedicated to strengthening and building solidarity to increase the effectiveness of the many movements to protect lands and waters. We are all connected through water + land + life. MSU Denver is located on the lands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota, and Ute, and other Indigenous peoples who maintain a continuous relationship with this land. 
REUBEN CRUZ is a Piipaash/ Quechan/Mexican poet, educator and writer who was raised along the Gila and Salt Rivers in the Colorado River Basin of central Arizona..… [Read Bio]
WOMAN STANDS SHINING, Pat McCabe, is a mother and grandmother, artist, activist, international speaker, advocate for the sacredness of water all over the world, and conduit for voices of earth and spirit from Diné Nation… [Read Bio]
12:30-1:45
Community Welcome Lunch for panel attendees. RSVP for lunch
2:00-3:15
Moderated Panel with distinguished speakers. RSVP to reserve your space.
3:45-4:45
Round table discussion and networking with speakers and guests.
RSVP is required to reserve a space.
