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<br />ATTACHMENT B (CONTINUED) <br /> <br />PAGE :3 <br /> <br />By building these two projects, the United States Government has <br />the opportunity to rectify serious social and economical injustices that <br />it has created by: (1) waiting for over a century after the Ute Reser- <br />vations were established before it made any attempt to quantify the water <br />rights to which the Tribes are entitled, and (2) building the Mancos <br />Reclamation Project and obligating the water users of that project to a <br />repayment obligation without analyzihg the effect of potential Indian <br />water rights on the payment capability of those water users. <br /> <br />The Justice Department is preparing to initiate other suits for <br />the purpose of quantifying the water rights of other Indian Tribes <br />throughout the Western United States. The cooperative approach to <br />solving the social and economic problems resulting from the establish- <br />ment of Indian water rights, as demonstrated by the two Ute Tribes, could <br />set a precedence of national significance. <br /> <br />15 <br />