Indian reserved water rights
Subtitle: the Winters doctrine in its social and legal context, 1880s-1930s
By: John Shurts.
Series: Legal history of North America ;; v. 8
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Norman
Language: eng
Number of pages: 333
Subjects: Water rights -- Milk River (Mont. and Alta.) -- History; Indians of North America -- Montana -- Claims -- History; Water development projects -- Milk River (Mont. and Alta.); Water rights -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- West (U.S.) -- Claims
Description: "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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-324) and index.