The exploration of water rights on the Colorado River system has a new element receiving attention. Claims from the Ute Indian Tribe that the Tribe is owed water from Flaming Gorge and the Green River was part of a presentation made at a recent ‘Crisis on the Colorado River’ conference in Boulder, Colorado. An article from Cowboy State Daily states that during the conference it was said that a 1965 agreement entitles the Tribe to half a million acre-feet of water per year from Flaming Gorge and the Green River but Ute Tribe Vice Chairman Christopher Tabee told Cowboy State Daily that that water has never been provided. The article points to recent court cases which dismiss many of the Tribe’s claims to water rights, even all the way to the Supreme Court which ruled to dismiss the lawsuit. Still, the article indicated that the matter remains far from over.
