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<br />000463 <br /> <br />Introduction To Briefing Paper. <br /> <br />This briefing paper in support of the Agreement in Principle <br />of March 14, 1986 will be divided into five parts. <br /> <br />Part One will be a short summary of the Agreement in <br />Principle. <br /> <br />Part Two will discuss the history of the Ute Indian <br />Reservations in Colorado and the long and difficult effort <br />undertaken by the United States, the Ute Indians, the State of <br />Colorado and neighboring non-Indian citizens to quantify and <br />resolve the Tribes' Federal Winters rights water claims which <br />attach to virtuallY all of the rivers of Southwest Colorado. <br /> <br />Part Three of this briefing paper will address the <br />substantial cost sharing commitments undertaken by the Tribes, <br />the States of Colorado and New Mexico, and the non-Indian water <br />users of Southwestern Colorado and Northwestern New Mexico. The <br />cost sharing commitments will be shown to be reasonable and fair <br />when compared with-other cost sharing arrangements currently <br />being arranged throughout the United States. <br /> <br />Part Four will describe how the Agreement in Principle <br />carries forth a 1968 national commitment to the Ute Indian Tribes <br />and to the States of Colorado and New Mexico to develop the <br />Animas-La Plata Project in Southwest Colorado simultaneously with <br />the construction of the substantially more. expensive Central <br />Arizona Project. <br /> <br />Part Five summarizes the separate breach of trust and <br />contract claims which the two Tribes and local water users have <br />prepared against the United States. These substantial legal <br />claims arise out of the improper protection and use of the Ute <br />Tribes' water rights by the United States during the period <br />1945-1985. <br /> <br />Part One <br /> <br />A Summary of the Agreement in Principle of March 14, 1986. <br /> <br />The State of Colorado, the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, <br />the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and non-Indian water users in <br />Southwest Colorado have agreed in the Agreement in Principle to a <br />comprehensive and final settlement of the Ute Tribal Winters <br />rights claims to water in Southwest Colorado. The Agreement in <br />Principle resolves the long standing Winters rights claims of the <br />Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes by recognizing <br />the Tribal rights and providing the Tribes with the physical and <br />financial resources to put those rights to use. <br />