Inupiat Community of Arctic Slope v. United States

• Decision Date: 02 June 1982
• Docket Number: No. 596-77.,596-77.
• Citation: 680 F.2d 122
• Parties: INUPIAT COMMUNITY OF the ARCTIC SLOPE v. The UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Claims Court

680 F.2d 122

INUPIAT COMMUNITY OF the ARCTIC SLOPE v. The UNITED STATES.

No. 596-77.

United States Court of Claims.

June 2, 1982.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Charles A. Goldmark, Seattle, Wash., attorney of record, for plaintiff; David C. Crosby, William H. Block, Wickwire, Lewis, Goldmark & Schorr, Seattle, Wash., Harry R. Sachse, Sonosky, Chambers & Sachse, Washington, D.C., and Gregory O'Leary, Seattle, Wash., of counsel.

Glen R. Goodsell, with whom was Asst. Atty. Gen., Carol E. Dinkins, Washington, D.C., for defendant.

Before FRIEDMAN, Chief Judge, and KUNZIG^* and BENNETT, Judges.

ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO DISMISS AND PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

FRIEDMAN, Chief Judge:

The Inupiat Community is a recognized tribe of Eskimos inhabiting the Arctic or North Slope of Alaska. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, 43 U.S.C. §§ 1601-1628 (1976 & Supp. III 1979) ("Settlement Act"), extinguished the Eskimos' interest in that land. United States v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 612 F.2d 1132, 1135-38 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 888, 101 S.Ct. 243, 66 L.Ed.2d 113 (1980), discussed below, held that the Settlement Act also extinguished the Eskimos' claims for trespasses of other persons upon those lands that occurred prior to the Settlement Act.

This suit seeks just compensation for the alleged taking by the United States through the Settlement Act of two categories of claims of the Eskimos that arose prior to the Act and that the Act extinguished: (1) claims based upon trespasses by third parties to the land; (2) claims against the United States for various alleged breaches of the government's fiduciary duties to the Eskimos, and the alleged denial by the United States of due process to the Eskimos. The defendant has moved to dismiss and the plaintiff has moved for partial summary judgment on liability. We heard oral argument. We hold for the defendant and dismiss the petition.

I.

The Arctic Slope is an area of 56.5 million acres "`between the summit line of the Brooks Mountain Range and the shore of the Arctic Ocean, from north to south, and from the Canadian Border to Point Hope, from east to west.'" Edwardsen v. Morton, 369 F.Supp. 1359, 1363 n.1 (D.D.C.1973), dismissed as moot, No. 2014-71 (February 16, 1977) (citation omitted). The Slope includes Prudhoe Bay, the site of extensive oil production in Alaska today. Prior to the Settlement Act, the Inupiats claimed Indian or aboriginal title to this land.

The treaty of cession of Alaska in 1867 conferred full rights of citizenship upon Alaskans "with the exception of uncivilized native tribes.... The uncivilized tribes will be subject to such laws and regulations as the United States may, from time to time, adopt in regard to aboriginal tribes of that country." Treaty on Alaska, March 30, 1867, United States-Russia, art. III, 15 Stat. 539, 542. Subsequent statutes continued the status quo for the most part, see infra at 12-14, since Congress never dealt comprehensively with the question of Eskimo lands.

When Alaska became a state in 1959, it was authorized, within 25 years of its admission into the Union, to select more than 100 million acres "from the public lands of the United States in Alaska which are vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved at the time of their selection" for its own. Alaska Statehood Act § 6(b), 48 U.S.C. note prec. § 21 (1976).

In the 1960's, interest developed in the North Slope as a source of oil. Alaska applied for land patents in the area. The Secretary of the Interior tentatively approved the applications. The Statehood Act does not require Eskimo participation in the process, id. § 6(g), and none occurred.

The Eskimos, however, complained that they occupied the patented lands and that therefore the lands were not "vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved." The Secretary then stopped granting tentative approvals and withheld final approval of earlier patents. Alaska challenged this action judicially, and the court upheld the Secretary on the ground that occupied lands were not eligible for state selection. Alaska v. Udall, 420 F.2d 938 (9th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1076, 90 S.Ct. 1522, 25 L.Ed.2d 811 (1970). Under the Statehood Act, however, Alaska was authorized to and did grant conditional leases to the lands that the Secretary tentatively had patented. Alaska Statehood Act § 6(g).

Under the authority of these leases and, the Inupiats claim, in some instances without authority, many oil companies sent exploratory teams to the area. The Inupiats contend that these explorations were trespasses on their land. They assert that the teams damaged the whaling industry; destroyed graveyards; polluted water supplies; scared away fish and game; damaged buildings, campgrounds, cellars and other physical structures; built airports; converted chattels; and caused physical damage to the land. The Inupiats contend also that they should have been paid for the oil companies' use of the land, including the amount the companies would have paid for exploratory rights.

The Inupiats instituted suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Secretary of the Interior and three Department officials, alleging that the Secretary's tentative approval of the land patents was invalid and hence that all the leases Alaska had issued also were invalid. They sought a declaratory judgment that the patents and leases were invalid and damages for the trespasses and the government's alleged breaches of its fiduciary obligations to them. Shortly after the suit was filed, however, Congress passed the Settlement Act.

Congress found "an immediate need for a fair and just settlement of all claims by Natives and Native groups of Alaska, based on aboriginal land claims." 43 U.S.C. § 1601(a). It said, "The settlement should be accomplished rapidly, with certainty, in conformity with the real economic and social needs of Natives, and without litigation." Id. § 1601(b). Accordingly, section 4 of the Settlement Act provided:

(a) All prior conveyances of public land and water areas in Alaska, or any interest therein, pursuant to Federal law, and all tentative approvals pursuant to section 6(g) of the Alaska Statehood Act, shall be regarded as an extinguishment of the aboriginal title thereto, if any.

(b) All aboriginal titles, if any, and claims of aboriginal title in Alaska based on use and occupancy, including submerged land underneath all water areas, both inland and offshore, and including any aboriginal hunting and fishing rights that may exist, are hereby extinguished.

(c) All claims against the United States, the State, and all other persons that are based on claims of aboriginal right, title, use, or occupancy of land or water areas in Alaska, or that are based on any statute or treaty of the United States relating to Native use and occupancy, or that are based on the laws of any other nation, including any such claims that are pending before any Federal or state court or the Indian Claims Commission, are hereby extinguished.

Id. § 1603.

In exchange, Congress gave the Alaskan Natives collectively $962,500,000 and 40 million acres of land in fee simple. Id. §§ 1605, 1611, 1613(h). As their share of the award, the Inupiats received approximately $48 million in periodic payments and approximately 5 million acres of land.

On the government's motion for summary judgment, the district court held in the Inupiats' suit that sections 4(a) and (b) extinguished all the Eskimos' land claims and validated Alaska's land patents and the leases under them. Edwardsen, 369 F.Supp. at 1376-78. The court, however, refused to dismiss the Eskimos' damage claims. It held that the Settlement Act, particularly section 4(c), had not extinguished the claims for trespass against the trespassers, the claims for breach of fiduciary duty against the federal officials for allowing the trespasses, and the claims for denial of due process in the approval of the land patents. Id. at 1378-79. The court further held that the fifth amendment protected those claims. Id. at 1379.

In settlement of those remaining claims, the government, on behalf of the Eskimos, agreed to and did sue the State of Alaska and the various trespassers for their trespasses. The Inupiats intervened in the suit. The United States District Court for the District of Alaska held that section 4 extinguished the trespass claims. It ruled that section 4(a) retroactively extinguished the Inupiats' aboriginal title to most of the land, thereby validating most of the entries. It also held that section 4(c) extinguished all claims based on aboriginal title and that because such title would be an essential element of all the trespass claims, the claims were extinguished. United States v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 435 F.Supp. 1009, 1022-29 (D.Alaska 1977), aff'd, 612 F.2d 1132 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 888, 101 S.Ct. 243, 66 L.Ed.2d 113 (1980). The court further held that the trespass claims were not constitutionally protected property interests. Id. at 1029-31. (Almost four months before that decision, the District Court for the District of Columbia had dismissed the remaining portions of the Edwardsen suit.)

On appeal, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the ruling that the trespass claims were extinguished. It "agreed" with the district court's holding "that § 4(a) was retroactive, and thus that the entries under federal authorization and the conditional state leases ... were not trespasses." 612 F.2d at 1135. The court held also that section 4(c) extinguished all trespass claims. Id. at 1135-39. "We hold that the Act extinguished not only the aboriginal titles of all Alaska Natives, but also every claim `based on' aboriginal title in the sense that the past or present existence of aboriginal title is an element of the claim." Id. at 1134 (footnote omitted). The court found it unnecessary to decide "whether or not any Fifth Amendment compensation is required at...