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14 officials participated, in 1951, Tribal Council Chair Sam Akheah insisted that the tribe had Winters claims to the entire river. "[T]he Navajos feel the San Juan is their river," he said, pointing out that the Tribe had large enough needs and had been promised enough economic development by the federal government that they could easily use all the river's water. Ahkeah concluded, "there are no tenable grounds for the proposed [Chama] diversion, and [we] urge you to support firmly what we regard as our moral and legal right to the fullest possible development of the San Juan.,,3B '~ , J But by 1957 the tribe had decided to relinquish its claims to the 110,000 acre-feet for the Diversion. The reasons for this choice are plain. In the 1957 resolution that urged Congress to pass a bill jointly authorizing NIIP and the San Juan-Chama Diversion, the Tribal Council acknowledged that it was supporting the Chama Diversion "[i]n return for the generous support of the State of New Mexico for the proposed Navajo Indian Irrigation Project."ag Navajo accession to the Chama Diversion is a classic ~~, t ~ ti 0:: example of the political dynamic in which Indian water claims exist. In exchange for f; ;~ ~~ political support of NIIP, the tribe gave up 110,000 acre-feet of water a year. ,. ~" , ~ ~ ~~ The Navajo also waived their early priority to the water to be used in NIIP in the ~?- ., :;" course of negotiating for the project. That is, instead of insisting on their right to receive all their NIIP water first in times of shonage, which they could do under 3BNational Archives, su~ra. note 15 at 57-62. 3~avajo Tribal Council Resolution CD-86-57. [lIereinafter, Resolution, cited by number].Tribal Council Resolutions may be read at the Law Ubrary of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice in Window Rock, Arizona.