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.081743 . . STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE DUANE WOODARD ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF COLORADO before the SELECT COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS and the WATER AND POWER SUBCOMMITTEE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES UNITED STATES SENATE concerning S. 1415 THE COLORADO UTE INDIAN WATER RIGHTS SETTLEMENT ACT OF 1987 Washington. D.C. December 3. 1987 Introduction The United States filed suit in 1930 in federal district court to quantify the rights of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to the pine River and a decree was subsequently entered. However. no other claims were filed until 1972. At that time. the United States Department of Justice. as. trustee for the Tribes. filed claims in federal district court for both Tribes on nearly all of the streams in the San Juan River Basin in southwestern Colorado. Defendants and intervenors moved to dismiss this filing on the grounds that under the McCarran Amendment. 43 U.S.C. 5666. the State district court had jurisdiction. On appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. the court ruled that the state did have jurisdiction and that the pOlicy of the McCarran Amendment would be furthered if the quantification of tribal claims to water occurred in the State court (see. Colorado River Water conservation District v United States (a/k/a Akin v United States). 424 U.S. 800 (1976)). The Department of Justice then filed water rights applications in the Colorado District Court for Water Division No.7 in 1976. It is this litigation which the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Final Settlement Agreement ("Agreement") of December 10. 1986. will bring to a negotiated conclusion. Implementation of the Agreement requires. however. the enactment of legislation by Congress. This is why S. 1415 and an identical bill in the House of Representatives. H.R. 2642. have been introduced. 4694E ., "'-