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ARIZONA v. NAVAJO NATION 

Opinion of the Court 

corn. 

In  “consideration  of  the  advantages  and  benefits 
conferred” on the Navajos by the United States in the 1868
treaty,  the  Navajos  pledged  not  to  engage  in  further  war
against  the  United  States  or  other  Indian  tribes.    Id.,  at 
669–670.  The Navajos also agreed to “relinquish all right 
to occupy any territory outside their reservation”—with the 
exception of certain rights to hunt.  Id., at 670.  The Navajos
promised  to  “make  the  reservation”  their  “permanent
home.”  Id., at 671.  In short, the treaty enabled the Navajos 
to  live  on  their  original  land.    See  Treaty  Between  the 
United States of America and the Navajo Tribe of Indians 
With a Record of the Discussions That Led to Its Signing 2,
4, 10–11, 15 (1968). 

Under the 1868 treaty, the Navajo Reservation includes
not only the land within the boundaries of the reservation,
but  also  water  rights.    Under  this  Court’s  longstanding
reserved water rights doctrine, sometimes referred to as the 
Winters doctrine, the Federal Government’s reservation of 
land for an Indian tribe also implicitly reserves the right to 
from  various  sources—such  as 
use  needed  water 
groundwater,  rivers,  streams,  lakes,  and  springs—that
arise on, border, cross, underlie, or are encompassed within 
the  reservation.  See  Winters  v.  United  States,  207  U. S. 
564, 576–577 (1908); see also Cappaert v. United States, 426 
U. S. 128, 138–139, 143 (1976); Arizona v. California, 373 
U. S. 546, 598–600 (1963); F. Cohen, Handbook of Federal
Indian  Law  §19.03(2)(a),  pp. 1212–1213  (N.  Newton  ed.
Under  the  Winters  doctrine,  the  Federal 
2012). 
Government  reserves  water  only  “to  the  extent  needed  to
accomplish  the  purpose  of  the  reservation.”  Sturgeon  v. 
Frost,  587  U. S.  ___,  ___  (2019)  (slip  op.,  at  13)  (internal
quotation marks omitted); United States v. New Mexico, 438 
U. S. 696, 700–702 (1978).

The  Navajo  Reservation  lies  almost  entirely  within  the
Colorado River Basin, and three vital rivers—the Colorado,