They Poured Concrete Over Apache Graves to Build This Arizona Lake

On March 4, 1930, Calvin Coolidge sat down to lunch on top of a new dam on the Gila River in Arizona. Behind it, where the lake was supposed to be, there was mostly grass. Under that grass was the old town of San Carlos, the government agency for the San Carlos Apache Reservation since the 1870s, and an Apache cemetery. The Apache refused to let their dead be dug up and moved. Before the water came, the cemetery was covered with a slab of concrete. This documentary follows the records: why the San Carlos Apache said no, who the water from Coolidge Dam was really for, and what happens to Old San Carlos when the lake goes away. In 2026, San Carlos Lake fell below one percent of its capacity, and a federal court record from 2003 tells us what that means for the cemetery. Some scenes in this video are visual reconstructions of historical events. CHAPTERS 00:00 Lunch at Coolidge Dam 01:48 389 Acre-Feet 03:43 An Agency on the Gila 04:42 Clum and Geronimo 06:08 The Pima Go Dry 07:09 The Graves in the Way 09:17 Concrete Over the Cemetery 10:09 Whose Water Was It 11:46 Packing Up for Rice 13:07 Dedication Day 15:10 Filled, Then Drained 16:55 The Tribe Sues 18:59 Three Cemeteries 19:53 The 2,429-Foot Line 22:06 After the Fall Flood #sancarloslake #coolidgedam #arizonahistory