Snoqualmie Tribe of Indians v. United States

• Citation: 372 F.2d 951,178 Ct. Cl. 570
• Decision Date: 17 February 1967
• Docket Number: No. 7-65.,7-65.
• Parties: The SNOQUALMIE TRIBE OF INDIANS, on its own Behalf, and on relation of the SKYKOMISH TRIBE OF INDIANS v. The UNITED STATES.
• Court: Court of Federal Claims

178 Ct. Cl. 570, 372 F.2d 951 (1967)

The SNOQUALMIE TRIBE OF INDIANS, on its own Behalf, and on relation of the SKYKOMISH TRIBE OF INDIANS v. The UNITED STATES.

No. 7-65.

United States Court of Claims.

February 17, 1967.

Herbert E. Marks, Washington, D. C., for appellant, Donald C. Gormley, Washington, D. C., attorney of record. Wilkinson, Cragun & Barker, Washington, D. C., of counsel.

Walter J. Muir, Washington, D. C., with whom was Asst. Atty. Gen. Edwin L. Weisl, Jr., for appellee.

Before COWEN, Chief Judge, JONES, Senior Judge, and LARAMORE, DAVIS, and COLLINS, Judges.

OPINION

LARAMORE, Judge.

In January 1951, the appellant Snoqualmie Tribe of Indians filed a timely petition with the Indian Claims Commission alleging that it was a party to the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855 and that under that Treaty it ceded to the United States for an unconscionable consideration a designated part of the total area described in the Treaty. Treaty with the Dwamish &c. Indians, January 22, 1855, ratified March 8, 1859, 12 Stat. 927. Jurisdiction was predicated on and recovery sought under section 2 of the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946. 60 Stat. 1049, 25 U.S.C. § 70a (1964 Ed.). In interlocutory orders in 1960 and 1965, the Commission ruled against appellant on certain aspects of its claims. A review of the events behind the claims and the proceedings before the Commission will show the present posture of the case.

In the Treaty of Point Elliott, some 22 tribes and bands of Indians located in the Puget Sound area of the then Territory of Washington agreed with Isaac I. Stevens, the Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory, to cede to the United States an area whose boundary started at a point near present-day Seattle, Washington and proceeded in a southeasterly direction to the summit of the Cascades, then north along the summit of the range to the 49th parallel (the Canadian border), then west to the Strait of Georgia, and finally south and east back to Seattle. Article I, 12 Stat. 927-928. In consideration of the cession, the Indians were given reservations, certain rights off the reservations such as the right to fish in common with white citizens of the Territory, the right to a school, and $150,000 cash to be paid to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in a series of annual payments for the "use and benefit of the said Indians under the direction of the President of the United States." Articles II, III, V, VI, XIII, XIV, 12 Stat. 927, 928-930. The total consideration worked out to a value of about $320,000. No attempt was made to attribute ownership of any particular land to any of the participating tribes or bands, nor was any allocation of the consideration made.¹

Much of the Snoqualmie Tribe's efforts in the pre-trial period centered on developing sufficient evidence to prove aboriginal title to the portion of the Point Elliott Treaty cession claimed in its petition. As the evidence-gathering process continued, it was concluded that the original petition should have included a claim on behalf of the Skykomish Tribe, as it appeared that the Skykomish either were a sub-group of the Snoqualmie Tribe at the time of the cession or had merged with it thereafter through intermarriage. The Snoqualmie attorneys informed the defendant's representatives of this contention, and in the 1958 hearings on the issue of the aboriginal title, the government defended against the Skykomish claim as well as the Snoqualmie. It should be noted that defendant has at all times objected to introduction of evidence on the Skykomish claim.

The Commission granted the Snoqualmie Tribe's motion to amend the petition to conform with the evidence, and the appellant, at that point being the Snoqualmie Tribe and the "Snoqualmie Tribe on relation of the Skykomish Tribe of Indians," filed proposed findings of fact setting out the following areas of exclusive use and occupancy: for the Snoqualmie Tribe, the drainage area of the Snoqualmie River, or an area of 436,774 acres; for the Snoqualmie Tribe on relation of the Skykomish Tribe, the drainage area of the Skykomish River, or an area of 538,048 acres. The areas abut each other, the Skykomish lying to the north, and both are within the boundaries of the Point Elliott Treaty cession. There are no conflicting claims. In June 1960, the Commission issued findings of fact which concluded that appellant had aboriginal title to areas which were considerably smaller than those claimed. 9 Ind.Cl.Comm. 25, 38-39 (1960). In the accompanying opinion, it decided that the Snoqualmie Tribe could properly sue for the Skykomish, and that the claim in the amended petition was timely because the defendant was put on notice of the subject matter of the claim by the original petition which referred to the Point Elliott Treaty and all its signatories. 9 Ind.Cl.Comm. 25, 43. This was in vain, however, because of the next step in the analysis which was that the United States could not be liable owing to the lack of proof of existing Skykomish descendants. An interlocutory order containing the above was issued on June 30, 1960.

Three months later, on September 30, 1960, appellant asked the Commission by motion to modify its findings regarding Skykomish descendants, or alternatively, to reopen the record to hear new evidence on the existence of living descendants. The government responded with a motion for rehearing filed on November 3, 1960. On June 6, 1961, the Commission granted appellant's motion to reopen the record and denied the other motions. Appellant then introduced some affidavits of persons claiming Skykomish ancestry, and the government introduced some affidavits for purposes of rebuttal. On October 5, 1962, appellant renewed its motion for the Commission to modify its findings on descendants, now in the light of the new evidence. Nothing was heard from the Commission for two and one-half years, so on March 24, 1965, appellant moved for a "summary disposition" of the liability issue in its favor. This time, the Commission was more responsive. By orders of May 7, 1965, it denied this motion and the October 1962 motion to modify. In an opinion accompanying the denial of the motion to modify, it explained that it had decided its 1960 opinion regarding the Skykomish claim was incorrect, not in result but in reasoning. The Commission now wrote that it had correctly determined originally that the Snoqualmie and Skykomish Tribes were separate at the time of the Treaty, but incorrectly concluded that the Snoqualmie Tribe could amend its petition to present a claim for the Skykomish Tribe. 15 Ind.Cl.Comm. 267, 268-279 (1965). The rationale of this portion of the opinion is that the Snoqualmie and Skykomish are not in "privity" so that the former can represent the latter, and that even if they were, the Skykomish claim is an original lawsuit barred by the statute of limitations. 25 U.S.C. § 70k (1964 Ed.). In this connection, the Commission explained that the doctrine of relation back enunciated in rule 13(c) of its Rules of Procedure is a procedural device of no avail to appellant here because the Commission's statute of limitations is jurisdictional — i. e., the appellant should not be allowed to circumvent the substantive consequences of an absolute time bar by a procedural device.

Consistent with the opinion denying the motion to modify, the Commission on the same day, on its own motion, withdrew its 1960 opinion, findings, and order, and substituted a new opinion, findings, and interlocutory order. 15 Ind.Cl. Comm. 267-372. Again it found that the Skykomish Tribe was separate from the Snoqualmie in 1859 and that appellant had not been able to prove the Snoqualmie were the successors. This led to the holding that the Snoqualmie could not represent the Skykomish. With regard to the boundaries, the Commission reaffirmed its 1960 finding on the Snoqualmie boundary and found it unnecessary to include any finding on the Skykomish boundary. The present appeal is primarily directed to this interlocutory order and its supporting findings and opinion. Also on appeal, though perhaps indirectly, is that portion of the June 30, 1960 interlocutory order which relates to the Skykomish boundaries.

The issues before us fall under five headings: (1) Whether the Commission was in error in changing its 1960 interlocutory order, findings of fact, and opinion sua sponte in 1965. (2) Whether the Snoqualmie Tribe can maintain an action on behalf of descendants of the Skykomish Tribe. (3) Whether there are Skykomish descendants among the present-day Snoqualmie Tribe members. (4) Whether the claim added by amendment relates back to the original petition to be timely. (5) Whether the Commission's findings on the boundary of the territory ceded by the Snoqualmie Tribe are supported by substantial evidence. Related to this issue is the problem of determining the boundary of the Skykomish Tribe cession in light of the fact that the Commission's 1960 findings on this were withdrawn in 1965 leaving a void. We are not at this time confronted with any issues of valuation or offsets.

(1)

In a recent appeal, we upheld the right of the Indian Claims Commission to sua sponte vacate an order and replace it with a new one where the case was kept within the jurisdiction of the Commission by a party's motion for rehearing. Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon v. United States, App. No. 2-64 (decided October 14, 1966). We balanced the interests of finality against the need for the Commission to reach the right result, and concluded that the moving party had in effect waived its interest in finality by asking the tribunal to rehear its case — i. e., it did not want the decision to be final. There remained, then, only the interest in the Commission's being correct; this being so, it was no abuse of discretion for the Commission to revise its earlier decision on its own initiative.

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