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<br />. 000465 <br /> <br />responsibilities, and the present worth of local wate~ users <br />repayments of federal reclamation law obligations, a total non- <br />federal contribution to the Animas-La Plata Project and the <br />Tribal development funds emerges which equals $238,200,000. <br />The-non federal contribution of $238,200,000 represents 38% of <br />the combined costs of the construction of the Animas-La Plata <br />Project and the settlement of the Winters rights claims of the <br />Tribes. Attached to this briefing paper is Table 4 from the <br />Agreement in Principle showing the cost sharing commitments <br />embodied in the Agreement in Principle. <br /> <br />The parties have also agreed, as a critical part of the <br />Agreement in Principle, to the provision of development funds for <br />the benefit of the two Tribes. Of the 60.5 million dollars <br />required for the two Tribes, 11 million dollars will be <br />contributed by the State of Colorado. The development funds <br />first provide the means by which the Tribes may actually develop <br />their irrigable lands, including the lands to be served from the <br />Animas-La Plata and Dolores Projects. Second, they represent at <br />least partial compensation to the Tribes for the United States <br />past failures to fulfill its fiduciary obligations. Third they <br />represent a desire by the State of Colorado to assist the Ute <br />Indians in the development of their Reservations. Finally, the <br />establishment of the funds carries forth the expectatio'n that the <br />Winters rights doctrine should provide some measure of concrete <br />benefits to the Tribes. <br /> <br />Part Two <br /> <br />The Agreement in Principle accomplishes a final <br />quantification of the Ute Indian Tribes' Winters Riqhts, water <br />claims. <br /> <br />The national commitment to the Ute Indians emerges from a <br />series of federal laws -- the Treaty of October 7, 1863, the <br />Treaty of March 2, 1868 and the Act of February 20, 1895. Each <br />of these Congressional enactments was designed to protect and <br />preserve a portion of the lands and waters of the Upper Colorado <br />River basin for a permanent homeland for the Ute Indian people. <br />This one hundred year national commitment to provide a permanent <br />homeland to the Ute Indians containing ample water resources has <br />been mirrored by a more recent national commitment to the Tribes <br />and to the non-Indian citizens of Colorado and New Mexico to <br />develop the Upper Basin share of Colorado River water. <br /> <br />The Agreement in Principle quantifies once and for all the <br />'Winters rights claims of the Tribes. Thus, the Ute Mountain Ute <br />Tribe is to receive a total of 84,500 acre feet of water from the <br />follOWing sources: Dolores River through the Dolores Project; <br />the Animas and La Plata Rivers through the Animas-La Plata <br />Project; and direct flow water rights on the Mancos River, Navajo <br />Wash and the San Juan River. <br /> <br />3 <br />