WSPC12535

• File Number: 8064.100
• Description: Indian Water Rights - Ute Tribes
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 9/30/1997
• Author: Richard G Hamilton
• Title: Southern Ute Indian Tribe Water Rights and the Date of Reservation Under the Winters Doctrine - 09-30-97 through 07-11-98
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

~<i

000784

(SO ERN UTE INDIAN TRIBE WATER RIG S
THE bATE OF RESERVATION UNDER THE aWINTER 'S

INEa

by

Richard G. Hamilton
30 September 1997
15 June 1998
11 July 1998

United States v. Southern Utes or Band of Indians, No. 7-66, 191
Cl. ct. 1, 423 F. 2d 346 (March 20, 1970), was an appeal from the
Indian Claims Commission, 21 Ind. Cl. Comm. 268, which had held that
the Southern utes, under the Act of 1895, were due the balance of money
realized from the sale of reservation land ceded to the United States;
such monies from the sale of reservation land were to be held by the
United States for the sole use and benefit of the Southern Ute Tribe.
The Southern utes claimed that they had a right to receive the sales
proceeds, or an equivalent thereof, and that such interest had been
destroyed by the government subsequently opening the land under the
Free Homestead Act. with the free disposal of those lands, formerly
theirs by reservation, the Southern Utes claimed, that there had been a
"taking" within the meaning of the Constitution that private property
shall not be taken for public use without just compensation;
The United States Court of Claims "affirmed and remanded" United.
States v. Southern Utes or Band of Indians, 423 F. 2d 346, whereupon
the United States sought certiorari in the United States Supreme Court.
In the subsequent United States v. Southern utes or Band of
Indians, 91 S. ct. 1336, (April 26, 1971), the Supreme Court asserted
res judicata ("a matter adjudged; a thing judicially acted upon or
decided; a thing or matter settled by judgement.II) to OVERTURN the
action of the Court of Claims decision. Res judicata is the rule that a
final judgement rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction on the
merits is conclusive as to the rights of the parties and their privies,
and as to them, constitutes an absolute bar to a subsequent action
involving the same claim, demand or cause of action. (see Matchette v.
Rose, 36 Ill. App. 3d 638).
In the summary for United States v. Southern utes or Band of
Indians, Brennan J., writing the majority opinion, wrote for eight
members of the United States Supreme Court that "... [T]he Southern

::.,
\\
-\

'<
~

\
~
~
""\