Book description
On January 6, 1908, the Supreme Court ruled that when land is set
aside for the use of Indian tribes, that reservation of land includes
reserved water rights. The Winters Doctrine, as it has come to be
known, is now a fundamental principle of both federal Indian law and
water law and has expanded beyond Indian reservations to include all
federal reservations of land.
Ordinarily, there would not be much to say about a one
hundred-year-old Supreme Court case. But while its central conclusion
that a claim to water was reserved when the land was reserved for
Indians represents a commitment to justice, the exact nature of that
commitment-its legal basis, scope, implications for non-Indian water
rights holders, the purposes for and quantities of water reserved, the
geographic nexus between the land and the water reserved, and many
other details of practical consequence-has been, and continues to be,
litigated and negotiated. In this detailed collection of essays,
lawyers, historians, and tribal leaders explore the nuances of these
issues and legacies.
Barbara Cosens is professor of law at the University of
Idaho.
Judith V. Royster is professor of law at the University of
Tulsa.
