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<br />000728 <br />LAW OFFICES OF ALISON MAYNARD <br /> <br />Attorneys at Law <br />1536 Ogden Street, 3rd Floor <br />Denver, CO 80218 <br /> <br />ALISON MAYNARD <br />PAUL E. UPSONS <br /> <br />Voice: (303) 861-2886 <br />Fax: (303) 861-2902 <br /> <br />MEMORANDUM <br /> <br />TO: <br />FROM: <br />DATE: <br />RE: <br /> <br />Citizens' Progressive Alliance, c/o Phil Doe <br />Alison Maynard <br />June 14, 1998 <br />Southern Ute water rights claims <br /> <br />This memorandum is a legal analysis of various issues identified by Mr. Richard Hamilton in his <br />memorandum dated September 30, 1997, as well as an analysis of the Pine River decree and the <br />1986 Settlement Agreement, all of which sources bear on the reserved water right claims of the <br />Southern Utes. Issues pertinent to the Ute Mountain Ute tribe are not addressed in this <br />memorandum; however, that tribe's claims will be equally affected by the United States Supreme <br />Court decision discussed here as the Southern Utes' claims are. Also not examined, due to time <br />constraints, was the effect of the decree for VaIlecito Reservoir. <br /> <br />I. ISSUE: Does the Southern Ute tribe have a reserved water right with an 1868 <br />priority? <br /> <br />CONCLUSION: No. Any water rights which might have been deemed reserved to the <br />tribe as of the 1868 creation of the reservation, pursuant to the Winters doctrine, were <br />extinguished by the Act of June 15, 1880, which extinguished the reservation itself. <br /> <br />DISCUSSION: The conclusion stated above derives directly from the holding of the United <br />States Supreme Court in United States v. Southern Utes or Band of Tndians, 402 U.S. 159,91 <br />S.Ct. 1336, 28 L.Ed.2d 695 (1971). This case interpreted the Act of June 15, 1880, to have <br />extinguished all right, title, and interest of the Southern Ute tribe in the Ute reservation which <br />had been created in 1868. <br /> <br />As the Supreme Court detailed in its opinion, in 1879, Indian Agent Meeker and others at the <br />White River Station in Western Colorado were murdered by members of the White River Ute <br />band of Utes. Public outcry over this incident led to the Act of Congress of June 15, 1880, <br />terminating tribal ownership in the reservation lands. The Act caused the cession of all acreage <br />not owned by individual Indians to the United States, "except as hereinafter provided for their <br />settlement." The Act then provided for settlement of the White River Utes in Utah and the Un- <br />compahgre Utes along the Grand River, unless insufficient agricultural land was found there, in <br />which case they would also go to Utah (which they soon did). The Southern Utes were to: <br /> <br />. .. remove to and settle upon the unoccupied agriculturaIlands on the La Plata River, in <br />Colorado; and if there should not be a sufficiency of such lands on the La Plata River and <br />