WINTERS RIGHTS (DECISION)

The U.S. Supreme Court precedent decision (Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908)) in which the Court prohibited any uses by non-Indians that interfered with the Indian tribes' use of their reserved water. In Winters, the Court held that when reservations were established, Indian tribes and the Unites States implicitly reserved, along with the land, sufficient water to fulfill the purposes of the reservations. The ruling rests on the principle that Indian tribes retain all rights not explicitly relinquished. These federal reserved water rights are commonly known as Winters Rights as based on the Winters Doctrine. The court recognized these rights as having a priority date coinciding with the date the reservation was established, thus providing a means to integrate federally reserved rights with Appropriative Water Rights recognized under state law. Since reserved rights are not created by state law, Winters Rights retain their validity and seniority regardless of whether tribes have put the water to Beneficial Use. On-going conflicts concerning this ruling tend to involve non-Indian water users appropriating water under state law, water that previously may have been reserved for Indian tribes, though never quantified by courts or fully used on reservations. Also see Reservation Doctrine, Reserved Rights Doctrine, and Winters Doctrine, Practicably Irrigable Acreage (PIA), (Prior) Appropriation Doctrine, and Water Law (Federal).