 The growth of Farmington and surrounding towns in the 1920s due to agriculture and a petroleum boom created the need for additional water supply as well as flood control, both equal in importance due to the seasonal nature of the San Juan River.The Navajo Nation's growing population was suffering from food and employment shortages, which the Bureau of Reclamation envisioned could be solved by a large irrigation project.The 1908 Supreme Court decision "Winters v. United States" ruled that a federally established Indian reservation was "entitled to the water needed to create a permanent homeland".