Chapoose v. Clark

• Decision Date: 10 April 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. No. C-83-1145W.
• Citation: 607 F. Supp. 1027
• Parties: Haskell Levi CHAPOOSE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. William P. CLARK, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Utah

607 F. Supp. 1027

Haskell Levi CHAPOOSE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. William P. CLARK, et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. C-83-1145W.

United States District Court, D. Utah, C.D.

April 10, 1985.

George E. Mangan, Machelle Fitzgerald, Roosevelt, Utah, for plaintiffs.

Joseph W. Anderson, Asst. U.S. Atty., William R. McConkie, Dept. of the Interior, Salt Lake City, Utah, Martin E. Seneca, Jr., Fort Duchesne, Utah, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

WINDER, District Judge.

The issues in this case have been reduced by two previous memorandum decisions and orders. Only one issue remains. Both parties agreed that the final issue should be decided on memoranda without oral argument, with the plaintiffs submitting the first memorandum, the defendants then submitting their memorandum, and the plaintiffs submitting a reply. All memoranda have now been received. Throughout the case, plaintiffs have been represented by George E. Mangan, Machelle Fitzgerald, and Herbert Wm. Gillespie. Defendants have been represented by Joseph W. Anderson and William Robert McConkie. The court has read the memoranda submitted by the parties, and has reviewed the administrative record, various of the authorities cited, and all the material contained in the court file. Being now fully advised, the court renders the following decision.

Background

This case began when the Secretary of Interior denied applications from each of the plaintiffs that they be added to the rolls of the Ute Indian Tribe. The Secretary held that 25 U.S.C. § 677d precludes the plaintiffs from becoming tribe members. According to the Secretary, only Indians who are "full-bloods" can be members of the tribe. Also according to the Secretary, "full-bloods" are only those who "possess one-half degree of Ute Indian blood and a total of Indian blood in excess of one-half." 25 U.S.C. § 677a(b). None of the plaintiffs meet this blood-quantum requirement.

The Secretary's action came after the highest level of the Ute Tribal Court had found that the plaintiffs are entitled to tribal membership under the tribal constitution. The tribal court had ordered the Ute Tribal Business Committee to seek the Secretary's approval of an ordinance enrolling the plaintiffs in the tribe. Because the plaintiffs do not meet the blood-quantum requirement the Secretary believes to be mandated by § 677a(b), the Secretary refused to approve the Ute Tribal Business Committee ordinance which would have enrolled them in the tribe. The Secretary's action means that the plaintiffs are not considered to be members of the tribe and are not awarded any share of the tribal trust funds.

This court previously dismissed the second through fifth causes of action contained in the plaintiffs' complaint. Only one basic issue remains: whether the Secretary's action in denying the plaintiffs membership in the tribe is arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law. See 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A). Because the Secretary's action turns on his interpretation of a statute he is charged to administer, his action can be overturned only if his interpretation is "clearly wrong" or "plainly erroneous." R.V. McGinnis Theatres & Pay T.V., Inc. v. Video Independent Theatres, 386 F.2d 592, 594 (10th Cir.1967), cert. den., 390 U.S. 1014, 88 S.Ct. 1265, 20 L.Ed.2d 163 (1968); Board of Directors and Officers, Forbes Federal Credit Union v. National Credit Union Admin., 477 F.2d 777, 783-84 (10th Cir.1973), cert. den., 414 U.S. 924, 94 S.Ct. 233, 38 L.Ed.2d 158. As discussed below, this court finds that the Secretary's interpretation of § 677d is clearly and plainly contrary to Congress's intent. Consequently, the Secretary's action cannot stand.

The Language of the 1954 Act

This case revolves around the proper interpretation of the tribal enrollment provisions of the Act of Aug. 27, 1954, Pub.L. No. 670, 68 Stat. 868 (codified as amended at 25 U.S.C. §§ 677-677aa) hereinafter cited as "the 1954 Act". The 1954 Act divided the Ute Tribe on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation into two groups, the mixed-bloods and the full-bloods, and terminated only one of those groups, the mixed-bloods. The mixed-bloods were given their share of the tribal assets and their tribal identity was terminated. This termination was effective on August 24, 1961, when the Secretary of the Interior issued a proclamation removing restrictions on mixed-blood property and terminating federal recognition of the mixed-bloods as an Indian tribe. The full-bloods, however, were not terminated as a tribe. Congress intended that the full-bloods continue their tribal identity, and that the federal government continue to fulfill its trust responsibilities toward the full-bloods.

Although the legislative history clarifies the language of the 1954 Act, the statutory language itself is somewhat ambiguous. The membership section of the 1954 Act reads as follows:

Effective on the date of publication of the final rolls as provided in section 677g of this title the tribe shall thereafter consist exclusively of full-blood members. Mixed-blood members shall have no interest therein except as otherwise provided in this subchapter. New membership in the tribe shall thereafter be controlled and determined by the constitution and bylaws of the tribe and ordinances enacted thereunder.

25 U.S.C. § 677d (emphasized portion added in 1956 amendment).

The Act defines what a "full-blood" is.

"Full-blood" means a member of the tribe who possesses one-half degree of Ute Indian blood and a total of Indian blood in excess of one-half, excepting those who become mixed-bloods by choice under the provisions of section 677c of this title.

25 U.S.C. § 677a(b).

The section of the Act defining when the membership rolls become final also contains some relevant language. That section provides, in pertinent part:

After disposition of all such appeals to the Secretary, and after all transfers have been made pursuant to section 677c of this title the roll of the full-blood members of the tribe, and the roll of the mixed-blood members of the tribe, shall be published in the Federal Register, and such rolls shall be final for the purposes of this subchapter, but said sections shall not be construed as granting any inheritable interest in tribal assets to full-blood members of the tribe or as preventing future membership in the tribe, after August 27, 1954, in the manner provided in the constitution and bylaws of the tribe.

25 U.S.C. § 677g (emphasized portion added in 1956 amendment).

Legislative History of the 1954 Act

In order to properly interpret 28 U.S.C. §§ 677-677aa ("the 1954 Act"), it is helpful to understand the backdrop against which the original statute and its amendments were enacted. During the period from 1943 to 1961, the policy of Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs ("BIA") was one of termination. The government wanted to eliminate the tribal structure and have the Indians become assimilated into society. See generally F. Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law 152-80 (1982 ed.). The long-term aim of the policy was

the eventual discharge of the federal government's obligation, legal, moral, or otherwise, and the discontinuance of Federal supervision and control at the earliest possible date compatible with the government's trusteeship responsibility.

Id. at 157 (quoting Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Zimmerman, Jr.'s Circular No. 3675 (May 28, 1948)). In 1953, Congress made a general declaration of its Indian policy, which passed by unanimous vote in both the House and the Senate.

It is the policy of Congress, as rapidly as possible, to make the Indians within the territorial limits of the United States subject to the same laws and entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as are applicable to other citizens of the United States, to end their status as wards of the United States, and to grant them all of the rights and prerogatives pertaining to American citizenship....

H.R.Con.Res. 108, 83d Cong., 1st Sess., 67 Stat. B132 (1953). While there were some exceptions, the overall policy of Congress and the BIA was clear: the Indian tribes were to be disbanded and the Indians were to be integrated into American society. No longer were the Indians to be treated any differently than any other racial minority.

This is the context in which the 1954 Act was passed. The 1954 Act was one of many termination acts enacted between 1954 and 1962. See F. Cohen, supra, at 173-74. Apparently because of ambiguities in the unamended 1954 Act, there was some confusion in the Department of the Interior as to whether the 1954 Act was the first step in terminating the full-bloods as well as the mixed-bloods. In 1955, the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior held that it was such a first step, and interpreted the blood-quantum requirements of the 1954 Act as superseding the membership requirements of the Ute tribal constitution and bylaws.

You have requested my opinion on the question whether membership in the full-blood group of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah, for the purpose of participating in the development program provided for that group by section 24 of the act of August 27, 1954, ... is to be determined by the constitution and bylaws of the Ute Tribe or by the provisions of the act of August 27, 1954.

It is quite clear, I think that the provisions of the act control the determination of membership in the full-blood group for the purposes of section 24.

. . . . .

The membership of the full-blood group is controlled by the statutory provisions referred to above and not by anything contained in the constitution and bylaws of the Ute Tribe.... The constitution and bylaws and any tribal ordinances in force on the date of the act may be utilized only for the purpose of determining the "Ute Indian blood" of the mixed or full-blood member as those terms are defined in the act.

Dept. of Interior Solicitor's Opinion of Sept. 6, 1955, reprinted...