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<br />11 <br /> <br />land, and-significantly--whether the Navajo Tribe has given up water rights in <br />exchange for federal projects, which means NIIP.28 <br /> <br />Understanding whether Navajo claims to the San Juan in New Mexico were quantified <br />with NIIP requires a brief look at the history of the project. <br /> <br />History of the Nav~o Indian Irriiation Prqject <br /> <br />The 1962 legislation that authorized NIIP followed a decade and a half of <br /> <br />negotiations among the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the <br /> <br />State of New Mexico, and the Navajo Tribe to divide the waters of the San Juan <br />River.29 The state of New Mexico is entitled to a portion of the San Juan under the <br />set of interstate compacts that govern allocation of the river's water.30 During <br /> <br />negotiation, the debate centered on the division of San Juan water among the two <br /> <br />major river basins in New Mexico--the San Juan, the source of the water, and the Rio <br /> <br />Grande, the state's most populous area. <br /> <br />28~ 1. Whiteing, "Survey of Recent Developments in Indian Water Law: Litigation <br />and Negotiations," in Natural Resource Development in Indian CountIY (1988). The case <br />is New Me;gco v. United States. Civ. No. 75-184 (11th Jud. Dist., San Juan County, filed <br />Mar. 13, 1975). <br /> <br />~e history of this negotiation is recounted in J. Jacobsen, A Promise Made: The <br />Navaio Indian Irri~ation Proiect and Water Politics in the American West 109-133 (1989). <br /> <br />>>rhe "law of the Colorado River" is discussed at length.int'm; ~ text accompanying <br />notes 59-61. <br />