Pit River Home and Agr. Co-op. Ass'n v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 21 July 1994
• Docket Number: Nos. 90-16589,90-16590,s. 90-16589
• Citation: 30 F.3d 1088
• Parties: PIT RIVER HOME AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant. PIT RIVER TRIBAL COUNCIL, Cross-Claimant-Counterclaim-Defendants-Appellees, v. Bruce BABBITT, * Secretary of the Interior, United States of America, Cross-Claim-Defendants-Counterclaim- Defendants-Appellees, v. PIT RIVER HOME AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION; Erin Forrest, Cross-Claim-Defendants-Counterclaimants-Appellants, v. PIT RIVER HOME AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, Cross-Claim-Defendants-Appellants. PIT RIVER TRIBAL COUNCIL, Cross-Claim-Defendant-Appellant, v. PIT RIVER HOME AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION; Erin Forrest, Cross-Claim-Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1088

30 F.3d 1088

29 Fed.R.Serv.3d 755

PIT RIVER HOME AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant.

PIT RIVER TRIBAL COUNCIL, Cross-Claimant-Counterclaim-Defendants-Appellees, v. Bruce BABBITT, ^* Secretary of the Interior, United States of America, Cross-Claim-Defendants-Counterclaim- Defendants-Appellees, v. PIT RIVER HOME AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION;

Erin Forrest, Cross-Claim-Defendants-Counterclaimants-Appellants, v. PIT RIVER HOME AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION,

Cross-Claim-Defendants-Appellants.

PIT RIVER TRIBAL COUNCIL, Cross-Claim-Defendant-Appellant, v. PIT RIVER HOME AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION;

Erin Forrest, Cross-Claim-Defendants-Appellees.

Nos. 90-16589, 90-16590.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted April 13, 1992.

Decided July 21, 1994.

Stephen V. Quesenberry, California Indian Legal Services, Oakland, CA, for plaintiff-appellee, cross-appellant.

Peter A. Appel, Law Clerk, and David C. Shilton, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC, for cross-claim-defendants, counterclaim-defendants, appellees.

Joseph F. Preloznik and Bronson C. LaFollette, Madison, WI, for cross-claim-defendants, counterclaimants-appellants, cross-appellees.

Appeal from United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Before: FLETCHER, POOLE, and BRUNETTI, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge BRUNETTI.

BRUNETTI, Circuit Judge:

OVERVIEW

This lawsuit involves a dispute over which group of Indians are the beneficial owners of a certain piece of property. In the late 1930s, the United States purchased property, called the XL Ranch, in trust for the Pit River Indian Tribe in anticipation of its designation as a recognized tribe. In the early 1940s, the United States granted occupancy rights in the XL Ranch under a revokable assignment to the Pit River Home and Agricultural Cooperative Association (the "Association"), a small group of Pit River Indians. The Association remained on the property until 1977, when the XL Ranch was turned over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (the "BIA") to manage until the Secretary of the Interior (the "Secretary") determined the composition of the Pit River Indian Tribe and hence the permanent beneficiary of the property. In 1987, the Secretary, after a multitude of court and administrative proceedings, designated the Pit River Tribal Council (the "Council") as the governing body of the Pit River Indian Tribe, the permanent beneficiary of the XL Ranch.

Although the litigation below was extensive and drawn out, the main issue that survives on appeal is the Association's request for recognition of its status as both a federally-recognized Indian tribe and as the true beneficiary of the XL Ranch. Subsidiary litigation involves the Council's common law trespass claims against a leader of the Association. We affirm the district court's dismissal of the parties' claims.

FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

In 1938, the United States purchased approximately 9,000 acres of land in Modoc County, California--the XL Ranch--pursuant to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (the "IRA"), 25 U.S.C. Secs. 461-92. The property was taken by grant "in trust for such Bands of the Pit River Indians of the State of California as shall be designated by the Secretary of the Interior."

Historically, the Pit River Indians were not organized as one tribal organization with one set of tribal leaders. Instead, they were divided into eleven distinct and widely dispersed bands located in northeastern California. Each band had a land area in which it enjoyed a preferred status, but the bands cooperated with each other in some activities, including defending the whole Pit River area against outside raiders. At the time of the Secretary's acquisition, many of the Pit River Indians were landless, and the bands had not yet organized into one tribe.

In 1941, the Secretary issued a Revocable Assignment of the XL Ranch to the Association, a group of Pit River Indian families who organized in 1940 for the purpose of occupying the Ranch. The Revocable Assignment granted the Association use and occupancy rights in the Ranch "so long as it makes beneficial use thereof, unless this assignment shall be revoked by the Secretary of the Interior." The Assignment expressly stated The Association occupied the Ranch from 1941 to 1977. Two important additions were made to the Ranch during this time. First, the Department of the Interior acquired for the benefit of the Ranch an easement over other land which included the right to use and store water from the Lauer Reservoir. Unlike the original grant of the Ranch, this easement was taken by "the United States of America in trust for the Pit River Home and Agricultural Association." The parties dispute whose funds were used to purchase this easement. Second, the Secretary exchanged 13.85 acres of the Ranch land for property of the State of California. As was the case with the easement, the United States of America took title to this newly acquired land in trust for the Association.

that it was to be "considered as temporary and revocable in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, and shall exist only until permanent use of the land has been determined and the determination of the Pit River Bands who are to enjoy the beneficial interests has been made by the said Secretary of the Interior."

The genesis of the current dispute was the Secretary's long delay in designating the bands or band members that were to comprise the Pit River Indian Tribe. Thus, when another group of Pit River Indians, the Council, organized and claimed entitlement to the Ranch, a clash was inevitable. It was not until the early 1970s, in response to a petition from the Association and the Council, that the Secretary finally began to address the issue of which bands should be designated collectively as the permanent beneficiary of the Ranch. The Secretary initiated designation proceedings before an Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ"), who, after two years, recommended allowing the Association members to retain their individual plots in the Ranch and to divide up the remainder into plots to be allocated among other groups of Pit River Indians. The Secretary rejected the ALJ's recommendation, however, finding that none of the Pit River Indian groups had established their entitlement to the property to the exclusion of other groups. Instead, the Secretary determined that "the whole Pit River Indian Tribe or Nation when it has organized to include all elements of the Pit River Indians and has received Secretarial approval of the constitution adopted for this purpose should be designated the beneficial owner of the XL Ranch."

In the late 1970s, the Secretary designated the Council as governing body of the beneficiary and revoked the Association's rights in the Ranch. The Secretary, however, withdrew its approval of the Council's constitution in the early 1980s, placing the BIA in control of the Ranch. Finally, after various meetings, drafts, and two referenda (in which members of the Association participated), the Council ratified a constitution that met with the Secretary's approval. On December 3, 1987, the Secretary approved the new constitution and designated the Council as the governing body of the Pit River Indian Tribe, beneficiary of the Ranch.

Meanwhile, litigation had been proceeding in earnest. We focus only on the most relevant proceedings. The core litigation was the Association's suit against the United States and the Secretary of the Interior. Early in the litigation, the United States moved to dismiss the Association's complaint for, among other reasons, failure of the Association to join an indispensable party, the Council. The district court denied the motion to dismiss. Pit River Home and Agric. Coop. Ass'n v. United States, No. S-75-505 (E.D.Cal. filed Apr. 17, 1978). In its ruling, the court held that the Council was a necessary party within the meaning of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19(a). However, the court deferred its decision under Rule 19(b) on whether the Council was an indispensable party, since the record was insufficiently developed to determine whether the Council was a duly recognized tribe entitled to sovereign immunity.

In response to the district court's ruling, the Association added the Council as a defendant in its Fourth Amended Complaint. These proceedings ultimately were dismissed by the district court as both moot and unripe when the Secretary revoked its approval of the Council's constitution. Pit River Home and Agric. Coop. Ass'n v. United States, No. S-75-505 (E.D.Cal. filed Dec. 20, 1985). When the Association asserted anew its The Association claimed that it was a federally recognized Indian band with trust status, and that the United States and Secretary breached the government's trust obligation to it by revoking the Assignment of the Ranch. The Association's argument that it was the beneficial owner hinged on its assertions that it satisfied "the conditions" to the Assignment--namely a requirement of beneficial use--and that the government's revocation of the Assignment and refusal to defend the Association's rights to the property against the Council constituted a breach of the United States' fiduciary duty.

claims to the Ranch in 1988 by way of answer and cross-counterclaim to a suit filed by the Council, it dropped the Council as defendant. The Association strenuously asserts in its briefs to us that it has no claims against the Council.

The Association sought: 1) judicial review of the Secretary's designation of the whole Tribe as the beneficiary of the Ranch, the Lauer Reservoir, and the 13.85 acre plot, and an order setting that designation aside; 2) a writ of mandate ordering the Secretary to designate the Association as the beneficiary; 3) a declaration that it was an Indian tribe with a governing body duly recognized by...