American Indian Culture and Research Journal

ARIZONA V. CALIFORNIA et al. No.8, Orig., March 30, 1983 is the latest in a series of related decisions ultimately affecting the water rights of certain Indian tribes situated on the Arizona-California border area. The tribes include the Colorado River Indian Tribes, Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Cocopah Indian Tribe and Fort Yuma, or Quechan, Indian Tribe. The battle began in 1952 when Arizona sued California and others in the United States Supreme Court. The Court settled the matter of apportioning Colorado River water among California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and the United States (on behalf of the affected Indian tribes) in 373 U.S. 546 (1963) and a subsequent decree in 376 U.S. 340 (1964). On behalf of the Tribes the U.S. acquired rights to a share of the water based on the practically irrigable reservation acreage as determined in the Special Master's report of 1964. Eventually the U.S. and the five tribes attempted to adjust the allocation to supply their irrigable lands for which earlier decisions had not accounted and for irrigable lands later found to be within reservation boundaries. The Justices agreed that the Tribes should be allowed to intervene in the continuing Arizona/California water dispute as the Special Master had decreed in his August 28 1979 preliminary report but did not concur to any significant extent with the Special Master's recommendation that the Tribes receive a larger water allocation. The Court decided that the 1964 determination of the Indian water rights in 1964 precluded relitigation of the dispute.