WSP00897

• File Number: 8410.300.60
• Description: Basin Multistate Organizations - Missouri Basin States Association - Reports
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 11/8/1984
• Author: MBSA
• Title: The Issue of Indian Reserved Water Rights
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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(I) For mer indian lands opened to homesteading, claimed by non-indians,
and subsequently reacquired by the indian tribe.

(2) indian lands allotted to individual tribal members, sold by them to

non-indians, and subsequently reacquired by the indian tribe.

Not at issue in the appeal was the date of priority for indian lands that

had never left trust status or for former indian lands that had been opened to

homesteading, went unclaimed, and were subsequently reacquired by the indian

tribe. in these two instances, the federal district court's award of a priority as

of the date of creation of the reservation was unchallenged.

In Anderson, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of

Washington had awarded a priority date as of the date of reacquisition for

former Indian lands homesteaded by non-Indians and later reacquired by the

Indian tr ibe, and for allotted lands sold to non-Indians and subsequently

reacquired by the tribe. However, the Ninth Circuit Court reversed, ruling ". .

. those perfected water rights appurtenant to homesteaded lands will not have a

priority as of the date of reacquisition of the property by the Tribe; instead

they will carry a priority as determined under state law. Homesteaded lands

where the water right has not been perfected or the rights have been lost will

have a priority date as of the date of reacquisition, rather than an original

date-of-the-reservation priority. those water rights appurtenant to lands

reacquired after allotment and sale to non-Indians carry a priority date, as to

those water rights not lost to nonuse, as of the date of the creation of the

reservation" ( ).

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