| OCR Text |
Show with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The lands which are suitable for irrigation can be ascertained. The quantity of water needed per acre for irrigation purposes also can be determined by methods used in any other water litigation. Thus the total amount of Indian claims can be determined. In this litigation Arizona argued that the quantity of water reserved should be measured by the Indians' ' reasonable foreseeable needs,' which the Supreme Court said in fact means ' by the number of Indians.' In rejecting this contention the Supr erne C ourt s ai d: U ' How many Indians there will be and what their future needs will be can only be guessed. We have concluded, as did the master, that the only feasible and fair way by which reserved water for the reservations can be measured is irrigable acreage.' " By applying the ' irrigable acreage' standard, perhaps the ' open end' nature of the decrees can be ' closed.' It is desirable that this be done; otherwise, if water for Indian use can be reserved to meet all needs of. the Indians in perpetuity as these needs develop, expand, and grow, then the Indians, under the doctrine of implied reservation, could forever hold a cloud over all water rights on and near the reservations; this would be a serious and unnecessary impediment to non- Indian development and use of the surplus. " it is clear from the cases which have considered the matter that the quantity reserved is net limited by the needs of the Indians at the time of the creation of the reservation, nor to the number of Indians on the reservation at a subsequent date. Sufficient water is reserved to meet the needs of the irrigable lands within the Indian reservation. ul5T Therefore, water requirements for the irrigable Indian lands must be satisfied prior to any non- Indian use.. Lands for which the Ute Indian Tribe claims water rights are classified in five groups, as discussed below. Group 1 includes 59,222 acres of land on tributaries of the Duchesne River not involved in the Bonneville Unit, but for which a Federal decree has been entered. These lands are served or are to be served from the Lake Fork and Uinta Rivers and are involved in the Upalco and Uintah Units of the Central Utah Project. Group 2 includes 18,613 acres of land in the Uintah Indian Irrigation Project; to which the State has certified the water right. This includes 1/ Id,, at 601, 10 L. Ed. 2d at 578, 83 Sup. Ct. at 1U98. 554 |
