Inupiat Community of Arctic Slope v. United States

680 F.2d 122, 230 Ct. Cl. 647, 1982 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 336
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJune 2, 1982
DocketNo. 596-77
StatusPublished
Cited by61 cases

This text of 680 F.2d 122 (Inupiat Community of Arctic Slope 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
Inupiat Community of Arctic Slope v. United States, 680 F.2d 122, 230 Ct. Cl. 647, 1982 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 336 (cc 1982).

Opinion

FRIEDMAN, Chief Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

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. Ill 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 (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.

[649]*649I.

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. Ill, 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. [650]*650denied, 397 U.S. 1076 (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, "[T]he 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.
[651]*651(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.

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Bluebook (online)
680 F.2d 122, 230 Ct. Cl. 647, 1982 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 336, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/inupiat-community-of-arctic-slope-v-united-states-cc-1982.