Abstract
At issue in In re General Adjudication of All Rights to Use Water in Gila River System and Source (Gila River V) is the appropriate standard to be applied in determining the amount of water reserved for federal Indian lands. Although Arizona utilizes the doctrine of prior appropriation to determine state water rights, Winters v. United States prevents this doctrine from applying to federal reservations. Instead, Winters holds that federal reservations implicitly reserve unappropriated water to the extent necessary to accomplish the reservation's purpose.
Despite the general holding in Winters, the United States Supreme Court has not established a specific test to ensure proper application of the Winters doctrine and almost seventy years after Winters, it continues to state the rule generally. For example, in Cappaert v. United States, the Court held that federal water rights only reserved an amount of water "necessary to fulfill the purpose of the reservation, no more." With no specific test before them, lower courts were forced to reach their own conclusions, and many began by attempting to discern a reservation's purpose.
How to Cite
45 Ariz. L. Rev. 241 (2003)
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