WSP09057

• File Number: 8220.106
• Description: Animas-La Plata
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 3/31/1990
• Author: Lois G. Witte - DAG
• Title: State and Tribal Partnerships in Negotiated Water Settlements: What Can Be Achieved--The Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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the owner of the water right.

3/ The United States District Court for the District of Colo-
rado agreed with the state. The United States Court of Appeals,
Tenth Circuit, reversed the lower district court finding that the
national and sovereign character of the reserved water right
claim strongly mitigated against the application of the absten-
tion doctrine. United States v. Akin, 504 F.2d 115 (1974).

4/ Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United
States, (a/k/a Akin v. United States), 424 U.S. 800 (1976).

5/ These claims were originally all filed as one pleading in
the Colorado District Court for Water Division No. 7 as Case No.
W-1603-76 and sought confirmation of the reserved rights held by
the United States in trust for the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe,
the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, individual Indians owning trust
allotments on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation and the Bureau
of Indian Affairs. Subsequently the application was amended and
eleven separate applications were filed, each amended application
covering water rights associated with a specific river identified
in the amended application. These cases are known as W-1603-76
(Navajo River); W-1603-76A (Blanco River); W-1603-76B (San Juan
River); W-1603-76C (Piedra River); W-1603-76D (Pine River); W-
l603-76E (Florida River); W-1603-76F (Animas River); W-1603-76G
(Mancos River); W-1603-76H (Dolores River); W-1603-76I (McElmo
Creek); and W-1603-76J (La Plata River).

if 70 Stat. 105; 43 U.S.C. S 620.
II 82 Stat. 885, 43 U.S.C. S 1505.
Y 92 Stat. 409.
2.1 96 Stat. 1261.

10/ 25 U.S.C. S 177. The Non-Intercourse Act requires that
congress approve the transfer of Indian trust property.

11/ The Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1985, Chapter IV of
Public Law 99-88, 99 Stat. 293.

12/ "Agreement in Principle Concerning the Colorado Ute Indian
Water Rights Settlement and Binding Agreement for Animas-La Plata
Project Cost Sharing."

13/ The "law of the river II was not defined in the Final Settle-
ment Agreement other than as those state and federal laws, regu-

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