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<br />PRE L U D E <br /> <br />?_~LEMS OF INDIAN WATER RIGHT LITIGATION <br /> <br />The Animas-La Pleta Project together with the adjacent Dolores <br />Project can solve serious social and economic problems of regional <br />significance relating to the establishment of Indian water rights <br />and can eetablish a precedence that will be instrumental in solving <br />similar problems nationally. <br /> <br />;~ <br /> <br />The Justice Department has filed Civil Action No. C-4497 <br />(~S vs. Akin) in the United States District Court for the District <br />of Coloredo in which the United States seeks to have the water rights <br />of the Ute Mountain Uta and Southern Ute Indian Tribes established <br />in the San Juan River Basin in Southwestern Colorado. Although <br />these claims have not as yet baen dafined in amount, preliminary <br />inventories indicate that the Tribes own in excess of 50,000 acres <br />of arable land and vast quantities of coal. Water will be needed <br />to develop these resources. <br /> <br />~. <br />iJ <br /> <br />'" <br />", <br />',' <br /> <br />;~ <br /> <br />f'_~- <br />".J <br /> <br />Because of the legal precedents established by the United <br />States Supreme Court in Win~rs vs. United States, 207 U.S. 564 <br />(1908) and Arizona vs~ Califorlli1!, 343 U.S. 546 (1963), it is <br />expected that the water rights claimed by the Indian Tribes will <br />receive a priority date es of 1868 when their Reservations were <br />established. This date would proceed and be senior to any of the <br />water rights now using Colorado River water in Colorado. <br /> <br />., <br />;< <br />, , <br />rt" <br />~i <br />~~ <br />~~ <br /> <br />~ r~ <br />\1 <br />",~ <br />*~i <br />"I <br /> <br />The Town of Mancos, population 1200, and the surrounding <br />Mancos Reclamation Project with an irrigated agricultural area of <br />about 10,000 acres will be affected most seriously by these pending <br />water rights. The Ute Mountein Ute Indian Tribe has potentially <br />irrigatable lands located downstream from Mancos that are several <br />times larger in area than those of the area irri9a~ed by the Mencos <br />Project. If the Tribe receives El No. 1 priority water right for <br /> <br />i <br />