John v. Sec'y of the Interior

350 F. Supp. 3d 945
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedOctober 22, 2018
DocketCase No. 3:14-CV-247-LRH
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 350 F. Supp. 3d 945 (John v. Sec'y of the Interior) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
John v. Sec'y of the Interior, 350 F. Supp. 3d 945 (D. Nev. 2018).

Opinion

LARRY R. HICKS, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiffs Timothy Aaron John, Travis Ray John, Tiffany Lynnae John, Tyrone Fred John, Shirley L. Palmer, Leslie L. Palmer, Jaleen M. Flowers, and Jesse Wade Palmer have filed a motion for summary judgment. (ECF No. 35). Defendant, the Secretary of the Interior (the "Secretary"), filed a response, which also functioned as a cross-motion for summary judgment. (ECF Nos. 37-38). For the reasons stated below, the Court denies plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and *947grants the Secretary's motion for summary judgment.

I. Factual Background and Procedural History

In 1977, the Indian Claims Commission awarded a diverse group of Native Americans, later identified as the "Western Shoshone Identifiable Group," $26 million in compensation for land encroachment during the nineteenth century. W. Shoshone Identifiable Group v. U.S. , 40 Ind. Cl. Comm. 318, 453 (1977); Shoshone Tribe v. U.S. , 11 Ind. Cl. Comm. 387, 416 (1962). The award was set aside in an interest-bearing trust account in the U.S. Treasury pending the formulation of a distribution plan. Because the affected groups could not come to a consensus on how to distribute the funds, the sole authority of crafting a distribution plan remained with Congress. 25 U.S.C. § 1402(c), (d).

In 2004, Congress enacted the Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act, Pub. L. 108-270, 118 Stat. 805 ("Distribution Act"). The Distribution Act required the Secretary to establish a roll of eligible individuals and distribute the funds as equally as practicable to those on the roll. An individual would only be eligible for a share of the funds if that person was a United States citizen, had not received a per capita payment from another similar judgment, and was at least 1/4 blood quantum Western Shoshone. Congress did not condition eligibility on official membership with any one particular federally-recognized tribe, but rather on having the minimum 1/4 blood quantum. On September 28, 2012, the judgment roll was completed, and disbursement of the funds was completed a few days later.

Plaintiffs themselves are two groups of cousins - Jennifer John, the mother of plaintiffs Timothy Aaron John, Travis Ray John, Tiffany Lynnae John, and Tyrone Fred John, is the sister of Dorothy Palmer, the mother of plaintiffs Shirley L. Palmer, Leslie L. Palmer, Jaleen M. Flowers, and Jesse Wade Palmer. All plaintiffs claim Western Shoshone ancestry through their respective mothers. This dispute centers around the ancestry of plaintiffs' great-great grandmother, Hattie Dyer, and whether or not she was full Western Shoshone. If Hattie Dyer had full Western Shoshone ancestry, then plaintiffs would have the required 1/4 Western Shoshone blood quantum necessary for inclusion in the judgment roll. If Hattie Dyer had anything other than full Western Shoshone ancestry, then plaintiffs would not have the required 1/4 blood quantum and would thus be excluded from the roll.

Plaintiffs filed their first complaint in May 2014 (ECF No. 1) and amended it once in October 2014 (ECF No. 14). In their amended complaint, plaintiffs state that in November 2010, the Regional Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs ("BIA") in Phoenix, Arizona (an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior) made a preliminary determination that Hattie Dyer was 1/2 Western Shoshone by blood quantum, rendering plaintiffs ineligible for the judgment roll. (ECF No. 14 at 6). Plaintiffs had apparently believed that Hattie Dyer had been full Western Shoshone. In June 2012, the Washington D.C. office of the BIA reaffirmed the Phoenix office's determination. Plaintiffs allege that Leona Hicks, the maternal grandmother to some of the plaintiffs, wrote to the BIA in October 2013 and January 2014 to question the decision, but never received a satisfactory answer as to why her "blood quantum had been altered without notice to her." (Id. at 6-7).

On February 5, 2015, the Court granted the Secretary's motion to voluntarily remand plaintiffs' case back to the BIA for reconsideration of the agency's initial determination that Hattie Dyer was only 1/2 Western Shoshone. (ECF No. 18). On November *9486, 2017, the BIA sent letters to each of the plaintiffs notifying them that it had found Hattie Dyer to be half Western Shoshone and half Paiute, thereby denying their appeal. (ECF No. 24-1). The letters explained that in 1975, Hattie Dyer applied to be included in the Northern Paiute Judgment, but her initial application was rejected. (Id. at 3). Her daughter appealed the decision (Hattie Dyer had passed away in 1976), "providing evidence that Hattie Dyer was 1/2 Paiute and 1/2 White," and the BIA consequently approved her application. (Id. ). The letters also quote a March 1978 probate order dispensing with Hattie Dyer's property: "[A]lthough the records reflect that Hattie Dyer is a Shoshone Indian, testimony adduced at the hearing established that she was of Paiute Indian descent and such testimony further establishes the probable reason why the records are apparently in error." (Id. ). Reviewing that evidence, along with the rest of the evidence available, the BIA concluded that plaintiffs did not meet the 1/4 blood quantum threshold.

Plaintiffs and the Secretary have filed cross-motions for summary judgment on plaintiffs' request for judicial review of the BIA's non-eligibility determination regarding their inclusion on the Western Shoshone Judgment roll.

II. Legal Standard

Summary judgment is appropriate only when the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and affidavits show "that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the [moving party] is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). In assessing a motion for summary judgment, the evidence, together with all inferences that can reasonably be drawn from them, must be read in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp. , 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986) ; Cnty of Tuolumne v. Sonora Cmty. Hosp. , 236 F.3d 1148, 1154 (9th Cir. 2001).

The moving party bears the burden of informing the court of the basis for its motion along with evidence showing the absence of any genuine issue of material fact.

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Bluebook (online)
350 F. Supp. 3d 945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-v-secy-of-the-interior-nvd-2018.