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Show APPENDIX XI XI-15 U. S. Grant This opinion deals only with that portion of the above-described boundary from the top of Riverside Mountain through section 12, T. 5 S., R. 23 E., S.B.M., California. As established by the Act of March 3, 1865, supra, and enlarged by the Executive Order of November 22, 1873, the Colorado River Indian Reservation was located in the Territory of Arizona and bounded on the west by the Colorado River. Lands in California were first added to the reservation by the Executive Order of November 16, 1874. The record discloses that this latter Executive Order enlarging the reservation was designed to make possible control of access to the reservation from the west and to avoid loss (transfer of land) caused by changes in the channel of the Colorado River. That segment of the west boundary of the reservation germane to this memorandum, i.e., from the top of Riverside Mountain to the west bank of the Colorado River, was described in the Executive Order of November 16, 1874, as a line "* * * [from the top of Riverside Mountain] in a Southeasterly direction to the point of beginning * * * ." When this segment of the boundary was surveyed in 1875 by Chandler Robbins, it was ascertained that this line severed a large tract of valuable land on the east side of the river which had been reserved for Indian use by the Act of March 3, 1865, supra, and the Executive Order of November 22, 1873. Because of this fact, the Indian Agent in charge of the reservation, by letter of January 31, 1876, requested the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to obtain an Executive Order changing the boundary line of the reservation between Riverside Mountain and the place of beginning, making the Colorado River the boundary line. Thereafter, by letter of May 10, 1876, from the Acting Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior, it was recommended that the President be requested to issue an order changing this boundary line so that when it reached the west bank of the Colorado River it would follow said west bank down the river to a point opposite the point of beginning, thence to the place of beginning. Following a concurrence in the recommendation of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs by the Acting Secretary, the President issued the Executive Order of May 15, 1876. For many years the proper location of the west boundary of the reservation, as described in the Executive Order of May 15, 1876, has been in dispute. During the trial of Arizona v. California, et a\., the United States claimed water rights for an extensive area of irrigable lands along the west side of the river. California resisted the claim of the United States for any lands south of section 25, T. 2 S., R. 23 E., on the grounds that there were no such lands within the boundary of the reservation. California's contention was based upon the fact that the west bank of the river, which was the call of the west boundary of the reservation in the Executive Order of May 15, 1876, established a boundary that would change with movements of the river. The United States contended, among other things, that this Executive Order established a permanent and unchanging boundary along the west bank of the river as it existed in 1876. The Special Master ordered that the proper position of the boundary be litigated and, following trial, the Special Master made Findings of Act and Conclusions of Law which, in effect, held that the Executive Order of May 15, 1876, established a boundary which changes as the course of the Colorado River changes, except when such changes are due to an avulsion. He further held that two avulsive changes had severed lands from the reservation and placed these lands on the west side of the river. The effect of the Master's holding was to disallow any claim of the United States for water for lands south of section 25, T. 2 S., R. 23 E., which were located on the west side of the Colorado River except in the two areas the Master found to have been severed from the reservation and placed on the west side of the river by manmade avulsive changes in the river's course. Before the Supreme Court, California excepted to the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law of the Special Master. In ruling thereon, the Supreme Court disagreed with the Special Master's decision to determine the disputed boundary of the Colorado River Indian Reservation. Arizona v. California, et al., |