Fort Mojave Indian Tribe v. United States

23 Cl. Ct. 417, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 268, 1991 WL 116813
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJuly 1, 1991
DocketNos. 169-89L, 170-89L
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 23 Cl. Ct. 417 (Fort Mojave Indian Tribe v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fort Mojave Indian Tribe v. United States, 23 Cl. Ct. 417, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 268, 1991 WL 116813 (cc 1991).

Opinion

OPINION

ANDEWELT, Judge.

In these consolidated cases, plaintiffs, Fort Mojave Indian Tribe and Colorado River Indian Tribe (referred to herein as the Tribes), seek damages from the United States relating to their alleged loss of water rights for irrigating land on their respective reservations. The purported loss of water rights was the result of the 1963 Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546, 83 S.Ct. 1468, 10 L.Ed.2d 542 (1963) (Arizona I), and the decree that carried that decision into effect, Arizona v. California, 376 U.S. 340, 84 [420]*420S.Ct. 755, 11 L.Ed.2d 757 (1964) (the 1964 decree). The United States intervened in that litigation and represented the Tribes’ interests. In the instant actions, plaintiffs contend that defendant made serious errors while representing plaintiffs’ interests in Arizona I and that those errors constitute both a breach of trust and an uncompensated taking of plaintiffs’ property in violation of the fifth amendment.

The instant actions are presently before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, defendant’s motion for summary judgment as it relates to plaintiffs’ takings claim is granted. Defendant’s motion in all other respects and plaintiffs’ cross-motion are denied.

I.

Plaintiffs’ respective reservations were created by federal statute and/or executive orders.1 The statute and executive orders specify the land boundaries within plaintiffs’ reservations but do not mention the grant of any water rights. The issue of Indian reservation water rights was addressed by the Supreme Court in Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564, 28 S.Ct. 207, 52 L.Ed. 340 (1908). Therein, the reservation was created by a treaty which similarly made no reference to water rights. The Court concluded that the absence of a specific allocation of water rights was not dispositive and that the treaty should be interpreted to contain an implied reservation of sufficient water rights for the tribe to carry out the purposes for which its reservation was created. Id. at 575-77, 28 S.Ct. at 211-12.

The Supreme Court applied the Winters decision to the Tribes’ reservations in Arizona I. Arizona I was an original action filed in the Supreme Court by the State of Arizona against the State of California and seven of its agencies. Therein, Arizona sought to clarify its title to a specific amount of water from the Colorado River and its tributaries. The States of Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico were joined as parties and the United States intervened to represent both the federal interest and the interests of plaintiffs and three other tribes whose reservations are within the states involved.

After the parties filed their preliminary pleadings, the Court referred the case to a special master to hear the evidence and recommend a decree. The hearing before the special master extended from June 1956 through August 1958 and involved the testimony of 340 witnesses, the receipt of thousands of exhibits, and a transcript of 25,000 pages.

During the hearing, the State of Arizona contended that the tribes’ Winters water rights should be calculated based on the “reasonably foreseeable needs” of the tribes on their respective reservations. That standard apparently would have resulted in the Supreme Court calculating the tribes’ water rights based on the actual number of Indians on each reservation. The United States, representing the Indians, proposed a different standard that would produce significantly higher water allotments for the tribes. The United States argued that the tribes’ Winters water rights should be calculated so as to permit irrigation of all “practicably irrigable land” on the reservations, i.e., that the statutes and orders creating the reservations should be interpreted to include an implied grant of sufficient water to irrigate all practicably irrigable reservation land. During the hearing, the United States presented evidence to show the amount of such land on plaintiffs’ respective reservations.

After the hearing, the special master filed a 433-page report of his findings and legal conclusions, including a recommended [421]*421decree. The special master adopted the standard proffered by the United States for calculating the tribes’ Winters water rights. He concluded “that the water was intended to satisfy the future as well as the present needs of the Indian Reservations and ... that enough water was reserved to irrigate all the practicably irrigable acreage on the reservations.” Arizona I, 373 U.S. at 600, 83 S.Ct. at 1498. Relying on the evidence presented by the government, the special master also made a determination as to the precise amount of practicably irrigable land located on the respective reservations. In assessing such amounts, the special master resolved certain boundary disputes concerning the tribes’ respective reservations.

After briefing and oral argument, the Supreme Court issued its June 3, 1963, decision in Arizona I. The Court, in pertinent part, adopted the findings and conclusions of the special master, with the exception of the special master’s determination of disputed boundaries. The Court explained:

We have concluded, as did the Master, that the only feasible and fair way by which reserved water for the reservations can be measured is irrigable acreage. The various acreages of irrigable land which the Master found to be on the different reservations we find to be reasonable.
We disagree with the Master’s decision to determine the disputed boundaries of the Colorado River Indian Reservation and the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation. We hold that it is unnecessary to resolve those disputes here. Should a dispute over title arise because of some future refusal by the Secretary to deliver water to either area, the dispute can be settled at that time.

Id. at 601, 83 S.Ct. at 1498.

The 1964 decree “carrped] into effect” the Court’s Arizona I decision. 376 U.S. 340, 84 S.Ct. 755. The decree allocated water rights among the states and, in Article II, defined each tribe’s entitlement to water from its respective state’s allotment. Pursuant to Article II, except in periods of water shortage, each state was entitled annually either to the amount of water necessary to irrigate a specified number of acres of land or to a specified number of acre-feet of water, whichever was less.2

During shortages, when the annual water supply from the Colorado River measured at a specified location fell below 7.5 million acre-feet, the decree provided that the water would be allocated among the states and tribes on a priority basis without regard to state lines. Priority would be based on the dates on which the states and tribes had perfected their respective rights to the water. Id. at 342-43, 84 S.Ct. at 756-57. Article II granted the tribes “perfected rights” to the amount of water allocated to them in Article II for nonshortage periods.

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Bluebook (online)
23 Cl. Ct. 417, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 268, 1991 WL 116813, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fort-mojave-indian-tribe-v-united-states-cc-1991.