Clinton v. Babbitt

Decision Date17 June 1999
Docket NumberNo. 98-15306.,98-15306.
PartiesAlvin CLINTON; Teddy Begay; Peggy Scott; Verna Clinton; Carlos Begay; Irena Babbitt Lane; Glenna Begay; John B. Nez, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Bruce BABBITT, Secretary of the Interior, Defendant-Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Daniel H. Israel, Carefree, Arizona, for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Steven E. Carrol and John A. Bryson, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., and Richard G. Patrick, Assistant United States Attorney, Phoenix, Arizona, for the defendant-appellee.

Tim Atkeson and Peter Krumholz, Arnold & Porter, Denver, Colorado, for amicus curiae the Hopi Tribe.

Before: BRIGHT,1 FLETCHER, and THOMPSON, Circuit Judges.

DAVID R. THOMPSON, Circuit Judge:

Alvin Clinton, Teddy Begay, Peggy Scott, Verna Clinton, Carlos Begay, Irena Babbitt Lane, Glenna Begay, and John Nez ("the plaintiffs") are members of the Navajo Nation living on the Hopi Partitioned Lands ("HPL"), a portion of northeast Arizona that has been determined, after decades of litigation and legislation, to belong to the Hopi Tribe. Congress attempted to resolve residual disputes among the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the United States, and Navajos who live on the HPL ("HPL Navajos"), in the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act of 1996, Pub.L. No. 104-301, 110 Stat. 3649 (1996) ("1996 Settlement Act"). Under the 1996 Settlement Act, HPL Navajos who wish to continue living on the HPL must enter into long-term leases with the Hopi Tribe.

The plaintiffs, dissatisfied with the terms of the leases approved by the 1996 Settlement Act, brought this action against Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. The district court dismissed the action. It determined that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction, that the plaintiffs' action was barred by sovereign immunity, that the Hopi Tribe was an indispensable party to the action, and that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm the district court's judgment on the ground that the Hopi Tribe is an indispensable party.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The plaintiffs' suit is the latest chapter in a more-than-a-century-old dispute between members of the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation over the use of approximately 2.5 million acres in northern Arizona. This dispute has been the subject of extensive litigation and legislation, including at least eighteen opinions of this court.2 We provide only a summary of the relevant details of these disputes.

The disputes have their genesis in an Executive Order signed by President Chester A. Arthur in 1882. That Order created a 2.5 million acre reservation for the Hopi Tribe and for "such other Indians as the Secretary of Interior may see fit to settle thereon." Exec. Order of Dec. 16, 1882, reprinted in Healing v. Jones, 210 F.Supp. 125, 129 n. 1 (D.Ariz.1962), aff'd, 373 U.S. 758, 83 S.Ct. 1559, 10 L.Ed.2d 703 (1963). Over the next several years, the Hopi Tribe enjoyed the right to use and occupy the 2.5 million acre reservation, but the Navajo population in the area grew substantially. Conflicting claims to exclusive use arose between the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation, producing what became known as "`the greatest title problem in the West.'" Id. at 129.

In 1958, to quiet title to the area, Congress authorized litigation between the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation. Id. at 130 (citing Act of July 22, 1958, Pub.L. No. 85-547, 72 Stat. 403 (1958)). Pursuant to that litigation, a federal district court determined that 650,000 acres of the disputed area belonged exclusively to the Hopi Tribe, and that the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation had joint and undivided interests in the remaining approximately 1.8 million acres, an area thereafter referred to as the "Joint Use Area." Id. at 132. Congress then directed the partitioning of the Joint Use Area in the Navajo and Hopi Indian Land Settlement Act of 1974, Pub.L. No. 93-531, 88 Stat. 1712 (codified as amended at 25 U.S.C. §§ 640d et seq. (1994)) ("1974 Settlement Act"). Pursuant to the 1974 Settlement Act, a federal district court in 1979 partitioned the Joint Use Area by allocating approximately 900,000 acres known as the Hopi Partitioned Lands (the "HPL") to the Hopi Tribe and approximately 900,000 acres known as the Navajo Partitioned Lands to the Navajo Nation. See Sekaquaptewa v. MacDonald, 626 F.2d 113 (9th Cir.1980) (affirming the partition).

The 1974 Settlement Act required members of each tribe to move from lands partitioned to the other tribe by 1986 and created a commission to pay for the major costs of such relocations. 25 U.S.C. §§ 640d-11, 640d-12, 640d-13, 640d-14. As of 1996, the United States had spent more than $330 million to relocate more than 11,000 tribal members. S.Rep. No. 104-363, at 22 (1996) (statement of Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice). All of the few Hopi residing on lands partitioned to the Navajo Nation, and several thousand Navajos residing on lands partitioned to the Hopi Tribe, moved in the years following the 1979 partitioning. Id. About 50 to 100 Navajo families (the "HPL Navajos"), however, refused to leave the Hopi Partitioned Lands. Id. at 5.

In 1988, a group of HPL Navajos filed suit against the United States claiming that the 1974 Settlement Act's partition requirement violated the First Amendment. Manybeads v. United States, 730 F.Supp. 1515 (D.Ariz.1989) appeal docketed No. 90-15003 (9th Cir.1990). In 1991, this court ordered the plaintiffs in that litigation, the United States, the Navajo Nation, and the Hopi Tribe into mediation. As a result of this mediation, a 1992 Agreement in Principle was reached. That Agreement was ratified by the Hopi Tribal Council, the Navajo Tribal Council, the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture, and the Associate Attorney General of the United States. Further negotiations resulted in a settlement between the Hopi Tribe and the United States. See S.Rep. No. 104-363, at 35-47 ("Settlement Agreement").

Under the Settlement Agreement between the Hopi Tribe and the United States, the Hopi Tribe agreed to permit HPL Navajo families to remain on the HPL under the terms of 75-year leases ("accommodation leases"). Id. at 40 (Settlement Agreement, ¶ 4(a)). Each eligible HPL Navajo could choose whether to enter into a 75-year accommodation lease with the Hopi Tribe. The terms of the leases are standard terms embodied in an Accommodation Agreement negotiated by the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, and representatives of the HPL Navajos. See S.Rep. No. 104-363, at 47-54 ("Accommodation Agreement"). Under the terms of the Accommodation Agreement, eligible HPL Navajo families are entitled to lease (at no cost) for 75 years a three-acre homesite and ten acres of farmland, to have grazing privileges, and to engage in traditional uses of other areas of the HPL. Id.

The United States and the Hopi Tribe also agreed that, in return for a total of $50.2 million in compensation from the United States, the Hopi Tribe would dismiss several claims the Tribe had brought against the United States and abide by the lease terms set forth in the Accommodation Agreement. S.Rep. No. 104-363, at 6. In particular, the United States agreed to pay the Hopi Tribe the following incremental compensation: (1) a $2.4 million payment after the Tribe dismisses its pending appeal in this court in Secakuku v. Hale, No. 94-17032 (9th Cir. filed Nov. 11, 1994); (2) a $22.7 million payment after Congress enacts legislation expanding the Tribe's leasing authority and the Tribe dismisses its claims in the United States Court of Federal Claims for damages caused by any Federal action that occurred prior to 1982; (3) a $10 million payment after 65 percent of the eligible Navajo heads of household living on the HPL either sign an accommodation lease or relocate and after the Tribe dismisses its claims in the United States Court of Federal Claims for livestock trespass damages against the United States from 1983 to 1988; and (4) a $15.1 million payment after 75 percent of the eligible Navajo heads of household living on the HPL either sign an accommodation lease or relocate and after the Tribe dismisses its claims in the United States Court of Federal Claims for livestock trespass damages against the United States from 1989 through 1996. Id. at 41-42 (Settlement Agreement, ¶ 6).

In addition, the United States agreed to take in trust up to 500,000 acres of land in northern Arizona acquired by the Hopi Tribe, if 75 percent of the eligible Navajo heads of household living on the HPL either sign an accommodation lease or relocate. Id. at 42 (Settlement Agreement, ¶ 7). As part of that 500,000 acres, the United States also agreed, on behalf of the Hopi Tribe and with funds provided by the Tribe, to acquire State of Arizona lands interspersed among private lands acquired by the Tribe. Id.

Congress ratified the Settlement Agreement and the Accommodation Agreement in the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act of 1996, Pub.L. No. 104-301, 110 Stat. 3649 (1996) ("1996 Settlement Act"). Congress explicitly approved the Settlement Agreement, but added conditions to the taking of land in trust for the Hopi Tribe by the United States, including increasing the triggering percentage of HPL Navajo heads of household entering accommodation leases or relocating from 75 percent to 85 percent. 1996 Settlement Act § 5(2)(A). Section 9 of the 1996 Settlement Act amended 25 U.S.C. § 415 to permit accommodation leases for a term of 75 years and to allow future extensions of such leases. Id. at § 9. Finally, Congress confirmed the Hopi Tribe's right to bring actions "to quiet possession that relates to use of the HPL after February 1, 2000, by a Navajo family that is eligible for...

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