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<br />'I <br /> <br />If the Ute <br />Mountain utes <br />and SOuthern <br />Utes were to <br />realize their <br />water claims in <br />court, they <br />could dry up <br />much of the <br />livelihood of the <br />area's non- <br />Indian farma"s <br />and rancha's. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />c. <br /> <br />Animas-La Plata /1990 <br /> <br />Animas-La Plata: <br />still flawed <br /> <br />December 17. 1900 <br /> <br />By Usa Jones <br /> <br />On the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in <br />southwestern Colorado there is a small <br />patch of green ground. The tribe grows alfalfa <br />there with water bought from the local water <br />district. The rest of the 560,OOO-acre reserva- <br />tion is a brown, stubbly plain that climbs the <br />pifion-and-juniper-covered flanks of Ute <br />Mountain. The snowy S?n Juan peaks form a <br />jagged horizon to the north, but they have his- <br />torically given only aesthetic relief to the reser- <br />vation'8 1,600 residents. Drinking water was <br />piped into the reservation for the first time only <br />last spring. <br />The lanil's dryness accents the poverty of <br />the tribe in this isolated corner of Colorado. <br />Cut off from the rest of the state by the San <br />Juans, the region is the only part of Colorado <br />with a sizable Native American population. Yet <br />the Ute Mountain Utes and their neighbors, the <br /> <br />Southern Utes, are not entirely without <br />resources. They claim water rights dating back <br />to the creation of their original reservations in <br />1868. If they were to realize their water claims <br />in court, they could dry up much of the liveli- <br />hood of the area's non-Indian farmers and <br />ranchers. <br />That possibility, however, faded in 1988 <br />when the tribes settled their water rights in the <br />San Juan Basin and were promised water from <br />two Bureau of Reclamation water projects - <br />the Dolores, now being built, and the long-pro- <br />posed Animas-La Plata., This project, first <br />authorized in 1968, had been shelved because <br />of budgetary restraints and growing environ- <br />mental criticism. <br />But the $590 million Animas-La Plata <br />Project Congress reauthorized in 1988 contin- <br />ues to generate controversy. Last May the U.S. <br />Fish and Wildlife Service stopped the project a <br />day before work was to begin, saying the pro- <br /> <br /> <br />Carl Geers <br />A bonfire fueled by skis bums as Eddie Box Sr., a Southern Ute tribe spiritual leader, <br />performs a ceremony to stop lbe drought and bring snow <br /> <br />24 - C 1996 Higl CountrY News <br />