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. . . Page 2 ute Indians were left with a large contiguous block. The checker board pattern creates. of course, very complex jurisdictional problems for the state of Colorado as well as the Indians, The first claims for water from streams which cross the reservation occurred in approximately 1908 in the Morrison Consolidated Ditch case on the Pine River, This resulted in several years of litigation. The Southern ute Indian Tribe was granted the Number One priority for 213 c, f, s, from the Pine River by Federal Court in 1932, In late sunnner the Pine River averages less than 150 c. f, s, As a consequence. the early non-Indian settlers who laid claim to the water ani developed lands would be without a supply once the Indians began to use their senior rights, In oroer to solve this problem. Vallecito Reservoir was built as a federal reclamation project with ample storage to meet the needs of both Indians ani non-Indians. This project was completed in the early 1940' s, The Southern ute Tribe presently irrigates approximately l3,000 acres ani non-Indians irrigate approximately 45.000 acres of lani in the Pine River Valley. Although the Southern ute Indian Tribe was allocated water ani a means to use it by 1950. the ute Mountain utes wem not, In fact, in the 1940' s, the federal government built Jackson Gulch Reservoir on the Mancos River, the prirnax:y stream through the ute Mountain ute reservation, ani no allowances wem made for Indian water, 'llle town of Towaoc, which is the headquarters for the ute Mountain Reservation. did not even have a potable domestic supply until this year, Since the well-established Winters Doctrine gives Indians water to meet the needs of the reservation, the ute Indian Tribes filed in 1972 in Federal Court seeking to adjudicate their claims on the streams in Southwestern Colorado, The state of Colorado entered the case ani argued successfully that