Indian reserved water rights : the Winters doctrine in its social and legal context, 1880s-1930s / John Shurts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shurts, John, 1956-

Series:

Legal history of North America ; v. 8

Legal history of North America Indian reserved water rights

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Water rights--Milk River (Mont. and Alta.)--History.

Water rights.

Indians of North America--Montana--Claims--History.

Indians of North America.

Water rights--West (U.S.).

Indians of North America--West (U.S.)--Claims.

Water resources development--Milk River (Mont. and Alta.).

Water resources development.

Water rights--History--Milk River (Mont. and Alta.).

Indians of North America--History--Claims--Montana.

Water resources development--Claims--Milk River (Mont. and Alta.).

Indians of North America--West (U.S.).

Genre:

Claims.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 333 pages) maps ;

Place of Publication:

Norman, Oklahoma : University of Oklahoma Press, c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"In its 1908 decision for Winters v United States, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower-court ruling that the United States and the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Indians had reserved rights to water in the Milk River through an 1888 treaty which created the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. Since 1908 the Winters decision, or Indian reserved water rights doctrine, has played an important and controversial role in the West." "Indian Reserved Water Rights is the first book-length historical study of the Winters case and the early use of the reserved water doctrine. In the book, John Shurts explains how the litigation and its outcome fit well within the existing legal context and into ongoing efforts at water development in the Milk River Valley. He also examines the life of the Winters doctrine during its earliest years, primarily through a study of water-rights litigation on the Uintah Reservation, in Utah."--Jacket.

Contents:

pt. I. Winters v. United States: Litigation, Decisions, and Context. Ch. 1. Prelude to the Winters Litigation: Land Cession and Reservation Agreements, Non-Indian Settlement, and Irrigation. Ch. 2. Legal Context of the Litigation: The Prior Appropriation System and Possibilities in the Law of Water in Montana in 1905. Ch. 3. Commencement of the Winters Case: A Federal Court Decision for Fort Belknap and Its Place in the Water Issues of the Milk River Valley. Ch. 4. Winters in the Federal Court of Appeals: Reclamation Anxiety, Kansas v. Colorado, and Affirmation by the Court of Appeals. Ch. 5. Back in the Milk River Valley, 1905-1907: Reclamation, Reservation Busting, and Sugar Beet Production. Ch. 6. Winters and Allotment: The Blackfeet Reservation Allotment Legislation and Water Rights. Ch. 7. The Supreme Court's Decision in Winters: Anticlimax in the Milk River Valley, 1907-1908. Ch. 8. The People of Winters and the Natural Law of the West.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-585-25703-5