Tackling tough RC's - strategies

Hi Nightsking

To begin with , try to identify the main topic of the sentence. In simple terms, figure out "what the passage is about?"/ "who is the hero of the story?"

Next you need to identify the "Scope" of this "topic". What about the topic? For example: if the passage is on birds, then the topic is "birds". Now the passage could be about the habitat/ species/ habits/ colors... or anything about the birds. "that thing" is the scope of the passage.

Now, let's try to simplify this passage:


In Winters v. United States (1908), the Supreme Court held that the right to use waters flowing through or adjacent to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation was reserved to American Indians by the treaty establishing the reservation.

- as you read, keep a check on what the passage is about... so far it looks like something about right to use waters. As per the court right was reserved to American indian by some treaty. Don''t get into too many details right now. The idea is to get the gist of the passage and not to remember each and every thing. The passage is not going anywhere. You can always come back to it for specific details.

- read with anticipation. As the first sentence talks about some treaty restricting right to use water. The author may expand on it.

Although this treaty did not mention water rights, the Court ruled that the federal government, when it created the reservation,
intended to deal fairly with American Indians by preserving for them the waters without which their lands would have been useless.

- facts we get to know here:

>treaty didn't mention rights
(you need to connect it with first line now.
which rights? right to use water! ...
which reservation? waters flowing through or adjacent to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation was reserved to American Indians

first line tells us that right was reserved by treaty, second line tells us that treaty didn't mention water right but court intended to be fair.

Later decisions, citing Winters, established that courts can find federal rights to reserve water for particular purposes if (1) the land in question lies within an enclave under exclusive federal jurisdiction, (2) the land has been formally withdrawn from federal public lands — i.e., withdrawn from the stock of federal lands available for private use under federal land use laws — and set aside or reserved, and (3) the circumstances reveal the government intended to reserve water as well as land when establishing the reservation.

This paragraph states the situations in which a court can find rights to reserve water. Try the rest of the passage in a similar way and do let me know if you face any problem.



Some American Indian tribes have also established water rights through the courts based on their traditional diversion and use of certain waters prior to the United States’ acquisition of sovereignty. For example, the Rio Grande pueblos already existed when the United States acquired sovereignty over New Mexico in 1848.

Although they at that time became part of the United States, the pueblo lands never formally constituted a part of federal public lands; in any event, no treaty, statute, or executive order has ever designated or withdrawn the pueblos from public lands as American Indian reservations.

This fact, however, has not barred application of the Winters doctrine. What constitutes an American Indian reservation is a question of practice, not of legal definition, and the pueblos have always been treated as reservations by the United States. This pragmatic approach is buttressed by Arizona
v. California (1963), wherein the Supreme Court indicated that the manner in which any type of federal reservation is created does not affect the application to it of the Winters doctrine. Therefore, the reserved water rights of Pueblo Indians have priority over other citizens’ water rights as of 1848, the year in which pueblos must be considered to have become reservations.


Happy Prepping!

Dolly