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Show 258 had vested. The United States successfully sued to enjoin the upstream farmers from interfering with the flow of water to the Fort Belknap Reservation. The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's holdings that "there was reserved to said Indians the right to use the water of Milk River to an extent reasonably necessary to irrigate the lands included in the reserve created by the said treaty ...," and that the defendants would be enjoined from interfering with the flow of 5,000 miners' inches of Milk River water to the Reservation. 143 Fed., at 743. The Supreme Court thus held that the reservation of water was effective as of the date that the Fort Belknap Reservation was created, 207 U. S., at 577, and that the appropriative rights obtained by the defendants subsequent to the time that the water was reserved but prior to the time that it was put to use on the Reservation were subordinate to the Reservation's rights. The Supreme Court supported this result with the following reasoning, at p. 577: "The power of the Government to reserve the waters and exempt them from appropriation under the state laws is not denied, and could not be. . . . That the Government did reserve them we have decided, and for a use which would be necessarily continued through the years." The Winters case has been cited many times as establishing that the United States may, when it creates an Indian Reservation, reserve water for the future needs of that Reservation, and that appropriative water rights of others established subsequent to the reservation must give way when it becomes necessary for the Indian Reservation to utilize additional water for its expanding needs. United States v. Powers, 305 U. S. 527 (1939); United States V. Ahtanum Irrigation District, 236 F.2d 321 (9th Cir. 1956), cert, denied, 352 U. S. 988 (1957); United States |
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Original Report: State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California |