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<br />...... . <br /> <br />4203 <br /> <br />to the detriment of on-reservation tribal interests or favors <br />uses of the United States which are in competition with the <br />tribal needs. ~ <br /> <br />The historical record of the Mancos Project establishes a <br />compelling claim that the United States was aware that a <br />significant portion of the waters diverted for the Mancos Project <br />was being used or would be used by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to <br />develop badly needed irrigation on the Reservation. That record <br />demonstrates that the United States consciously and deliberately <br />withheld information from the Tribe and the non-Indian <br />beneficiaries of the project for fear that formal acknowledgment <br />would result in a demise of the project. Based on the September <br />1984 Report of Fort Lewis College Economics Professor Bernard <br />Anderson, the Tribe's damage claims from lost farm income could <br />range from $200,000 per year to $2,000,000 per year since 1945. <br /> <br />B. The Appropriation of Power Revenues <br /> <br />The two Tribes are also prepared to prosecute breach of <br />trust claims against the United States for the United States' <br />exclusive appropriation of power revenues generated from the <br />100,000 acre feet of unused Winters rights contributed by the <br />Tribes to the Colorado River System. The Tribes assert that the <br />United States does not have the right to appropriate exclusively <br />for its own benefit the net income derived from the sale of the <br />power. revenue generated on the River. The tribal economic <br />calculations indicate that the Tribes have a claim against the <br />United States for a proportionate amount of the net power <br />revenues in the range of $1.5 to $2 million for the last twenty- <br />five years. <br /> <br />C. Delay in Constructing the Animas-La Plata Project <br /> <br />The two Tribes are investigating the United States' <br />violation of its obligations as their trustee when the Secretary <br />of the Interior failed to implement the 1968 mandate to build the <br />Animas-La Plata Project on a timetable which provided for the <br />delivery of water to the two Tribes no later than the date of <br />delivery of water from the Central Arizona Project. That <br />Congressional directive created a special duty to the Ute Indians <br />who were important beneficiaries of the project. The United <br />States duty to the Ute Indians has been breached by the <br />Secretary's and Congress' decisions, made without consultation <br />with the Tribes and without seeking modification of the 1968 <br />commitment, to proceed to spend over $3,600,000,000 on the <br />Central Arizona Project while failing to proceed on the ~nimas-La <br />Plata Project. <br /> <br />11 <br />