Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community v. City of Prior Lake, Minn.

• Decision Date: 30 August 1985
• Docket Number: Nos. 84-5167,85-5018,s. 84-5167
• Citation: 771 F.2d 1153
• Parties: SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON SIOUX COMMUNITY and Edith Crooks, United States of America, Intervenor Below, Appellees, v. CITY OF PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1153

771 F.2d 1153

SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON SIOUX COMMUNITY and Edith Crooks, United States of America, Intervenor Below, Appellees, v. CITY OF PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA, Appellant.

Nos. 84-5167, 85-5018.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 12, 1985.

Decided Aug. 30, 1985.

Phillip A. Cole, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellant.

John E. Jacobson, Minneapolis, Minn., and Marie E. Klimesz, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for appellees.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, HEANEY and FAGG, Circuit Judges.

LAY, Chief Judge.

The City of Prior Lake, Minnesota, appeals the decision of the district court ¹ granting a permanent injunction requested by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, individual plaintiff Edith Crooks, and the intervenor United States (collectively referred to as the Community), against Prior Lake and awarding attorneys' fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1973l (e), 1988 (1982). Prior Lake also appeals the district court's calculation of attorneys' fees. We affirm the declaratory judgment and the issuance of the permanent injunction by the district court; we modify the award of attorney fees.

Facts

The almost 300 acre Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Reservation is located northeast of Prior Lake, Minnesota. In the early 1800s, the Mdewakanton Band of Sioux occupied with other Sioux bands the southern one-third of the present state of Minnesota. The Sioux bands ceded their lands to the United States in a series of treaties in the mid-nineteenth century. A reservation promised the Mdewakanton Band in an 1858 treaty was finally created with the purchase of three parcels of land in Scott County and Eagle Creek Township in 1890 and 1891. The United States has held the land constituting the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Reservation (the Reservation) in trust for the Community since the purchase.

In 1972, Prior Lake annexed a portion of Eagle Creek Township pursuant to Minn.Stat. Sec. 414.031. The description of the lands included in the annexation, found in the Municipal Commission of the State of Minnesota's 1972 findings of fact and conclusions of law, specifically refers to the northern boundary of part of the Reservation as forming a portion of the Eagle Creek Township territory annexed to Prior Lake. The district court found that the Reservation lands were part of the political unit comprising Eagle Creek Township in 1972.

In 1983, the City Council of Prior Lake passed a resolution revising the boundaries of Prior Lake's election precincts. The resolution changed the number of precincts from two to three, and explicitly excluded the Reservation lands lying within the boundaries of precinct number two. The resolution thus excepted Reservation residents otherwise eligible from voting in municipal elections and from receiving municipal services on the same basis as that upon which such services are provided to other residents of Prior Lake. Eligible voters living on the Reservation apparently did vote in municipal elections between 1972 and 1983. Reservation fire and rescue protection services have been performed since 1982 under a contract between Prior Lake and the manager of the Reservation's commercial bingo operation, and are subject to cancellation with three months' written notice.

The Community brought this action for declaratory and injunctive relief, attorneys' fees and costs pursuant to U.S. Const. amend. XIV; 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1971(a)(1), (a)(2)(A), 1973a, 1983 (1982); and 25 U.S.C. Sec. 465 (1982). The Community sought a declaratory judgment that Reservation residents are also residents of Prior Lake and are entitled to all rights attending such municipal residency. The Community also sought a permanent injunction ordering Prior Lake not to prevent Reservation residents otherwise eligible from participating in municipal elections and further enjoining Prior Lake from failing to provide Reservation residents with police, fire, rescue, and other municipal services in the same manner as that in which services are provided other Prior Lake residents. Prior Lake filed a counterclaim for a declaratory judgment that if Reservation residents were found to be residents of Prior Lake, all municipal ordinances, regulations, and all state and federal laws would apply to Reservation residents. Prior Lake further requested an injunction permanently enjoining Reservation residents from violating such ordinances, regulations, and laws. The district court granted the declaratory and injunctive relief requested by the Community, and dismissed Prior Lake's counterclaim.

The district court also granted the Community's request for attorneys' fees and costs. In a supplemental opinion, the court awarded the Community attorneys' fees totalling $17,383.31. Prior Lake appeals the district court's decision on the merits and the award of attorneys' fees.

Discussion

Prior Lake raises several issues on appeal, contending that the district court erred (1) in finding the Reservation was a part of Eagle Creek Township, (2) in holding that the Reservation could be annexed under either state or federal law, (3) in awarding attorneys' fees and costs to the Community, and (4) in calculating the attorneys' fees award using a base hourly rate higher than either the attorneys' contract rate with the Community or his own current hourly billing rate. We affirm the district court on the first three points; we modify the district court's order on attorney fees.

1. Declaratory and Injunctive Relief

Prior Lake first argues the district court erred in finding the Reservation was part of Eagle River Township at the time of the 1972 annexation. Because the Municipal Commission annexation order included only territory which was a portion of Eagle River Township, Prior Lake contends the Reservation was not made a part of the annexation. We cannot say the district court erred in finding the Reservation was part of the Eagle River Township political unit in 1972. The evidence supports the district court's finding that the Reservation was encompassed geographically within Eagle River Township in 1972. Prior Lake appears to argue that because the Reservation is held in trust by the United States and is not fully subject to state jurisdiction, it was never made a part of the political unit of Eagle Creek Township.

In Little Thunder v. State of South Dakota, 518 F.2d 1253 (8th Cir.1975), this court held that residents of unorganized counties--counties which are attached to adjoining organized counties for the purposes of government and administration--possess a substantial interest in the choice of county officials governing their affairs, and thus cannot be denied the right to vote in elections of the governing organized counties. We stated that "[t]he fact that plaintiffs are reservation Indians is not of great significance. While it is true that * * * the state has limited jurisdiction over them, the effects of county government are not completely absent." Little Thunder, 518 F.2d at 1257. Congress conferred United States citizenship on Indians as a group with the passage of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(b) (1982). State and local citizenship are derivatives of federal citizenship. See Goodluck v. Apache County, 417 F.Supp. 13, 15 (D.Ariz.1975), aff'd, 429 U.S. 876, 97 S.Ct. 225, 50 L.Ed.2d 160 (1976). That a tribal government exercises sovereign powers on a reservation and that reservation lands are held in trust by the United States does not prevent the reservation from constituting a portion of a state and a political subdivision of a state. The Municipal Commission of Minnesota's 1972 findings specifically included the Reservation within Eagle Creek Township. We agree with the district court that the Reservation clearly was part of Eagle Creek Township at the time of the 1972 annexation proceedings. Cf. Howard v. Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, 344 U.S. 624, 626-27, 73 S.Ct. 465, 466-67, 97 L.Ed. 617 (1953) (holding a state can include federal lands within its municipal boundaries so long as the plenary federal jurisdiction within the federal enclave is not disturbed); Chase v. McMasters, 573 F.2d 1011, 1018-19 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 965, 99 S.Ct. 453, 58 L.Ed.2d 423 (1978) (holding a municipality violated the Supremacy Clause in refusing to connect land held in trust by the United States to city water and sewer lines although expressly declining to decide whether a municipality must provide all municipal services to Indians living on tax-exempt property).

Prior Lake argues that even if the district court did not err in finding that the Reservation was included in the portion of Eagle River Township annexed in 1972, the annexation was prohibited under state and federal law and thus is void. Although the district court found that the requirements in the Minnesota annexation statute were met by the 1972 proceedings, see Minn.Stat.Ann. Sec. 414.031 (West Supp.1985), Prior Lake argues that a "judicial gloss" on the annexation statute creating an "implied prerequisite" to annexation was not satisfied. ² In State v. City of White Bear Lake, 255 Minn. 28, 95 N.W.2d 294 (1959), the Supreme Court of Minnesota construed the Minnesota annexation statute to include an "implied prerequisite" requiring "the annexation territory as a whole [to be] so conditioned as properly to be subjected to [city government] * * *." City of White Bear Lake, 255 Minn. at 34-35, 95 N.W.2d at 299. The state court designated three factors necessary to determine if property is "so conditioned:"

(1) that the platted portion of the lands contains a compact center or nucleus of population, (2) that the adjacent unplatted lands are suburban in character, and (3) that the unplatted lands have with the platted portions of the annexing city a unity of interest in the maintenance of a city government.

Id. (footnote omitted).

Prior Lake contends that because it cannot subject Reservation residents to municipal taxes or ordinances, the Reservation...