Law Commons^™

Brief Of Tribal Nations And Indian Organizations As Amici Curiae In Support Of The Navajo Nation, U.S. Supreme Court Docket No. 21-1484, Monte Mills, Heather D. Whiteman Runs Him, Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely, John E. Echohawk, Steven C. Moore, David L. Gover, Joe M. Tenorio, Ada Montague Stepleton, Morgan E. Saunders, Wesley James Furlong, Sydney Tarzwell

Court Briefs

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT: The Winters Doctrine recognizes and gives effect to the promises made by the United States in treaties, congressionally ratified agreements, and executive orders that Tribal Nations would retain permanent and viable homelands. These promises, made in exchange for the Tribal Nations’ cession of billions of acres of land, paved the way for the non-Indian settlement of the West. Although every tribal homeland is unique, invariably, each requires water to be livable. Applying the canons of construction this Court has developed as part of its federal Indian law jurisprudence, as well as the history and circumstances surrounding the …

Indigenous Rights To Water & Environmental Protection, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

This article examines the rights of Indian nations in the United States to adequate water supplies and environmental protection for their land and associated resources. Part I of this article provides a brief background on the history of federal-tribal relations and the source and scope of federal obligations to protect tribal resources. Part II reviews the source and nature of the federal government’s moral and legal obligations to Indian tribes, which are generally referred to as the trust responsibility. Indian reserved water rights and the difficulty tribes experience in protecting habitat needed for healthy treaty resources is discussed in Part …

Water Rights, Water Quality, And Regulatory Jurisdiction In Indian Country, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

In the seminal Indian water rights case, Winters v. United Slates (1908), the Court posed this question: "The Indians had command of the lands and the waters-command of all their beneficial use, whether kept for hunting, 'and grazing roving herds of stock,' or turned to agriculture and the arts of civilization. Did they give up all this?" The Court's answer was no, and since then a large body of law has developed around Indian water rights, although the primary focus has been on the amount of water reserved for various tribal purposes. While Indian nations use property rights theories to …

Customary Practice And Community Governance In Implementing The Human Right To Water--The Case Of The Acequia Communities Of Colorado's Rio Culebra Watershed, Gregory A. Hicks, Devon G. Peña

Articles

This paper offers commentary on the appropriateness of viewing, as a human right, the authority to manage water and to participate meaningfully in watershed governance, and it takes as an example the community of Hispano farmers of the Rio Culebra watershed of Southern Colorado in the headwaters of the Upper Rio Grande. In earlier work, the authors have written about the uneasy relationship between the formal system of appropriative water rights under Colorado law and the enduring set of local water norms practiced within acequias—the traditional water governance institutions and irrigation systems of the Culebra's Hispano farmers. The present …

Indian Water Rights, Practical Reasoning, And Negotiated Settlements, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

This Article first reviews the few Indian water rights cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided. The Article then traces a threshold issue common to Indian water rights litigation in the federal and state courts: how to determine the purposes of a reservation for which a reserved water right should be implied. A review of major Indian water rights cases demonstrates the generally confusing state of the law in significant respects, especially with regard to the "purposes" determination.

This Article posits that the relative uncertainty in this area has created an environment in which creative, practical solutions to conflicts …

Indian Water Rights And The Federal Trust Responsibility, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

Although federal policy shifted from assimilation to pro-tribal positions, the federal courts have quite consistently supported Indian reserved water rights. Indian water rights, however, were neglected by Congress in favor of non-Indian agricultural development in the arid West. Modem litigation over tribal rights takes place primarily in state courts that are tempted to interpret the few U.S. Supreme Court cases in ways that protect existing non-Indian uses over senior tribal water rights. Modern Indian water rights settlements tend to protect existing non- Indian uses while providing substantial benefits for tribes, but in a haphazard manner. This article examines the history …

Indian Water Rights: Litigation And Settlements, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

This article provides a brief overview of the law of Indian and federal reserved water rights and continues with an examination of the Snake River Water Rights Act. The Act serves as a vehicle for discussion of what is right and what is wrong with the current Indian water rights settlement process. Finally, the article suggests that the Administration modify the portion of its criteria and procedures for Indian water settlements dealing with federal financial contributions. These criteria and procedures need to more accurately reflect the realities of past settlements and promote more successes like the Snake River Water Rights …

Treatment As Tribe, Treatment As State: The Penobscot Indians And The Clean Water Act, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

No abstract provided.

Community Acequias In Colorado's Rio Culebra Watershed: A Customary Commons In The Domain Of Prior Appropriation, Gregory A. Hicks, Devon G. Peña

Articles

This article presents an account of the landscape and water institutions of the acequia communities of Colorado's Rio Culebra watershed. The physical and social landscape of the Culebra watershed, a product of water institutions introduced by Hispano settlers in the years immediately following the Mexican War, and the persistence of those institutions after the introduction of the system of prior appropriation, offers an instance of a successful engagement of community water institutions in the creation of a sustainable and resource-rich watershed landscape. The ultimate goals of this article are threefold. First, the article describes the acequialandscape and its social, …

Protection Of Biodiversity Under The Public Trust Doctrine, Ralph W. Johnson, William C. Galloway

Articles

The public trust doctrine is an ancient Roman legal doctrine that has been applied in both England and the United States. The doctrine traditionally addressed questions of public access to and use of commercially navigable waters for navigation, fisheries and various other uses of the underlying seabeds, lake bottoms, and riverbeds. In recent years, the public trust doctrine has been invoked to protect birds and other wildlife, water quality, ecological and environmental values, and different types of recreation. Although no public trust case has applied the doctrine to protect biodiversity per se, it seems clear by analogy to existing case …

Oil And The Public Trust Doctrine In Washington, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

The tragic spill of millions of gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound alerted the people of Washington to the danger of spills in Puget Sound. In Washington, the danger heightens as the amount of oil transported through the Sound increases. Indeed, Coast Guard figures show about 1,500 tanker movements in Puget Sound in 1988, a 50 percent increase over 1974.2 Moreover, the spill from the Exxon Valdez taught us that, because very little can be done after a spill, the only truly effective means of preventing damage from oil spills is to prevent them in the first place. …

Water Pollution And The Public Trust Doctrine, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

Nonpoint pollution from irrigation return flows has become a serious national problem. Even the extraction of water for irrigation and other purposes causes pollution by reducing the assimilative capacity of the source stream or lake. Such pollution can be regulated either by the courts or the legislatures under the public trust doctrine, which antedates the prior appropriation system, and which protects fisheries and water quality. Alternatively, this pollution can be controlled under the state's police powers. The "takings" issue should not be troublesome because no one, not even prior appropriators, has or can acquire a legal right to pollute public …

Pollution Control By Effluent Charges: It Works In The Federal Republic Of Germany, Why Not In The U.S., Gardner M. Brown Jr., Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

This article describes the recent Federal Republic of Germany effluent charge law and the political and legal background that permitted this law to be enacted. The impact of that law is assessed, although the assessment is necessarily tentative in view of the short experience with the law to date. The economic and legal implications of enacting an effluent charge law in the United States also are analyzed. Included in this discussion are the advantages and disadvantages of state vs. federal enactment, the constitutional objections that might be raised to such a law, and how it might be coordinated with existing …

Public Trust Protection For Stream Flows And Lake Levels, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

The public trust doctrine and the appropriative water rights system are headed on a collision course in the West. Appropriators claim vested property rights to extract water for irrigation, mining, manufacturing and other uses. They further assert that under the appropriation doctrine such extractions can continue in perpetuity regardless of the consequences to navigation, fishery and other public values. The public, however, increasingly insists on more protection for environmental and ecological values, aesthetic quality and recreational opportunities, which on lakes and streams usually means leaving waters in place. As a result, the courts are being asked to apply legal doctrines …

Our Salty Rivers: Legal And Institutional Approaches To Salinity Management, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

The salinity problem in United States rivers becomes worse each year, and no water law system to date has been developed that adequately addresses salinity management. Professor Johnson discusses the salinity problem and its scope as well as remedial and preventative measures that have been taken in the past. He suggests combating the salinity problem by use of systems analysis, i.e., a comprehensive basinwide or regional management plan that analyzes the entire hydrological, economic, political, and agricultural system.

The Area Of Origin And A Columbia River Diversion, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

In 1968 Congress declared a ten-year moratorium on any study of diversion of Columbia River water to the Southwest. One of the reasons for the moratorium was to give residents of the Pacific Northwest time to analyze their region's water needs to determine if "surplus" waters are available for export, and to establish, in a broader sense, a regional policy towards diversion proposals. This article assumes a neutral stance towards the ultimate issue of diversion and attempts only to analyze the problem of protecting the area of origin in the event of a Columbia River to Southwest interbasin water transfer. …

The Area Of Origin And A Columbia River Diversion, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

In 1968 Congress declared a ten-year moratorium on any study of diversion of Columbia River water to the Southwest. One of the reasons for the moratorium was to give residents of the Pacific Northwest time to analyze their region's water needs to determine if "surplus" waters are available for export, and to establish, in a broader sense, a regional policy towards diversion proposals.

This article assumes a neutral stance towards the ultimate issue of diversion and attempts only to analyze the problem of protecting the area of origin in the event of a Columbia River to Southwest interbasin water transfer.

Water Law, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

Reviewing Water Law and Administration—The Florida Experience, by Frank E. Maloney, Sheldon J. Plager, and Flether N. Baldwin, Jr. (1968).

Recreational Rights And Titles To Beds On Western Lakes And Streams, Ralph W. Johnson, Russell A. Austin Jr.

Articles

What rights do riparians, their licensees, and the public have to use the small lakes and streams of the West when the beds are privately owned? This is the question which this Article attempts to answer. However, to do this, an analysis had to be made of which lake and stream beds were privately owned. Thus, the Article covers both the questions of title to beds and rights of surface use. This Article represents the first time that an effort has been made to systematically and comprehensively survey the lake and stream surface use cases of the Western part of …

The Canada-United States Controversy Over The Columbia River, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

In a comprehensive study of the recent dispute between Canada and the United States over the Columbia River, Professor Johnson traces its history through the birth of the Harmon doctrine in 1898, the signing of the Boundary Waters Treaty in 1909, and the first Canadian claim to downstream benefits in the early 1950's. Against this background, he analyzes the negotiations and events—particularly the Canadian proposals to divert the Columbia into the Fraser, and to develop the Peace River instead of the Columbia—that culminated in the Columbia River Treaty in 1961. Before Canadian ratification of the Treaty, however, additional problems presented …

Riparian And Public Rights To Lakes And Streams, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

The purpose of this article is to assist in the re-examination of Washington water law by looking at the parts of that law encompassed within the labels "riparian" and "appropriation." The first few pages will sketch some of the current trends in water use, showing some of the remarkable differences in use between the first part of the century and today, and between the eastern and western parts of the state. The balance of the article will examine the two systems to see where they are meeting current needs of the state and where they are not. Several questions will …

The Columbia River System, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

In March, 1959; the International Columbia River Engineering Board submitted its report on the co-operative development of the river to the International Joint Commission. In December, 1959, that Commission submitted to the governments of Canada and the United States its recommendations for apportionment of benefits if co-operative development is undertaken. And thirdly, in the last two years there has been much attention directed at the Peace River development, which is considered by some as competitive with the Columbia. Let us examine the effects of these events on the Columbia River problem. A presentation for Panel II, Current Legal Problems Connected …

Effect Of Existing Uses On The Equitable Apportionment Of International Rivers I: An American View, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

In spite of the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, however, there are at least two reasons why our present topic is pertinent to the Columbia River question; first, there may be a question whether the 1909 treaty really does apply to this situation, and secondly, even if applicable the two countries may for a number of reasons desire not to rely upon its limited provisions for settlement. If the treaty is deemed not to be controlling, then other principles of international law become germane to the dispute, such as the question now before us.

Effect Of Existing Uses On The Equitable Apportionment Of International Rivers I: An American View, Ralph W. Johnson

Articles

The dispute between the United States and Canada regarding the apportionment of the Columbia River is not settled. In March 1959, pursuant to the 1944 reference, the International Joint Conimission submitted to the governments of Canada and the United States a comprehensive engineering report on "Water Resources of the Columbia River Basin" prepared by the International Columbia River Engineering Board. This report contains three plans for utilizing the resources of the Columbia. Two of these plans include diversion of part or all of the Kootenay River into the Columbia at Columbia Lakes. All three plans would develop about the same …