Te-Moak Bands of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada v. United States

18 Cl. Ct. 82, 1989 U.S. Claims LEXIS 183, 1989 WL 106857
United States Court of Claims·Decided September 18, 1989·No. No. 326-A·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

ORDER

SMITH, Chief Judge.

This action concerns a motion to intervene by three Indian tribes: The Timbisha Shoshones, the Duckwater Shoshones, and the Yomba Shoshones. These tribes allege that their interests in the case at bar are not adequately represented by the Te-Moak Bands of Western Shoshone Indians. Defendant objects to this motion for intervention; therefore, this motion is made under Rule 24(a) of the Rules of the United States Claims Court (RUSCC) as a matter of right. For the reasons set forth below, the court must deny the motion for intervention.1

FACTS

The history of this case began in 1951 when all of the Shoshone Indian tribes filed a joint petition with the Indian Claims Commission (Commission). One particular claim within the joint petition brought by the Te-Moak Bands on behalf of the Western Shoshones was for compensation for lost California and Nevada lands, allegedly taken by the United States in the latter part of the 19th century. The joint petition also requested relief and a general accounting for defendant’s alleged misuse of funds and proceeds held exclusively by defendant on behalf of the Shoshones.

All of the Shoshone claims proceeded under docket number 326, until 1957. At that time, all of the general accounting claims were severed from the original petition into separate causes of action for each recognized group of Shoshone Indians. The general accounting claim by the Te-Moak Bands on behalf of the Western Shoshones was filed separately under docket number 326-A. All of the Shoshone tribes jointly continued with their taking claims, however, under docket number 326, throughout the early 1960s.

I. The Taking Claim

On October 16, 1962, the Indian Claims Commission found that the Shoshone lands, in effect, had been taken by the United States when settlers and other nonnative Americans gradually encroached upon the aboriginal title held by the Shoshones. Shoshone Indians v. United States, 11 [84] Ind.Cl.Comm. 387 (1962). No taking date for the Nevada lands had been established by the Commission in its decision, but both parties later stipulated this date to be July 1, 1872. Te-Moak Bands of W. Shoshone Indians ex rel. W. Shoshone Nation v. United States, 29 Ind.Cl.Comm. 5 (1972).

The Commission also found that the Western Shoshones were separate from the other Shoshones and that the Te-Moak Bands were representative of the Western Shoshones. Id. at 446. The Commission therefore required the Te-Moak Bands to file a separate amended petition on behalf of the Western Shoshones. This amended petition was docketed under number 326-K.

In 1972, the Commission determined the values of the property taken. The Commission valued the California land at $200,-000.00 as of March 1853, and valued the Nevada land excluding the value of the minerals extracted, at $21,350,000.00 as of July 1, 1872. The value of the minerals extracted from the Nevada land was found to be worth $4,604,000.00 as of that date.

A separate group of Western Shoshone Indians called the Western Shoshone Legal Defense and Education Fund Association (the Association), a group not formally recognized by the federal government, tried to enter the case in 1972. By motion, the Association contended that its lands never were taken. It attempted to repudiate all sums that the Commission found owing to the Western Shoshones, and argued that its constituents still held legal title to the property. Their motion was dismissed as untimely. Western Shoshone Legal Defense & Educ. Ass’n, 35 Ind.Cl.Comm. 457 (1975), affd, 209 Ct.Cl. 43, 531 F.2d 495, cert. denied, 429 U.S. 885, 97 S.Ct. 236, 50 L.Ed.2d 166 (1976).

The Te-Moak Bands then changed their legal position. Instead of claiming that a taking had occurred and that just eompensation was due, the Te-Moak Bands switched to the position held by the Association and argued that title to the lands in question never had been lost. Accordingly, the Te-Moak Bands asked for a stay of the Commission’s final award pending a response by the Secretary of the Interior. This stay was denied and the Commission entered judgment on August 15, 1977. Te-Moak Bands of W. Shoshone Indians ex rel. W. Shoshone Nation, 40 Ind.Cl.Comm. 318 (1977), affd, 219 Ct.Cl. 346, 593 F.2d 994, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 973, 100 S.Ct. 469, 62 L.Ed.2d 389 (1979).

This left the Western Shoshones with an award of $26,145,189.89 after offsets.2 This award was certified by the Clerk of the Court of Claims to the General Accounting Office (GAO) on December 6, 1979. United States v. Dann, 470 U.S. 39, 43-44, 105 S.Ct. 1058, 1061-62, 84 L.Ed.2d 28 (1985). At that time, the case was closed except for the issue of attorney’s fees.3 Litigation for attorney’s fees finally was completed on June 3, 1981. Id.

Currently, the monetary award for the taken land is being held by the United States Department of the Treasury in an interest-bearing trust fund. The sum has accrued interest; as of 1984, this sum eq-ualled approximately $43 million. Dann, 470 U.S. at 43, 105 S.Ct. at 1061. The Secretary of the Interior is required to submit a plan to Congress for distribution of the funds to the Western Shoshones but has not acted as of the date of this motion.

II. The Accounting Claim

The Te-Moak Bands’ general accounting claim has moved at a slower pace than the taking claim; there was no activity on the general accounting claim until 1967, sixteen years after the original claim was filed in 1951 and ten years after the general accounting claim was ordered severed from the original joint petition.

[85] Plaintiff filed an amended petition in 1967. The General Services Administration (GSA) later filed a report which included an accounting of two trust funds which originally were awarded to the Indians as a result of various treaties and legislative acts. The first trust fund was derived from the Treaty of Ruby Valley, 18 Stat. 689 (1863). The second trust fund, known as “Indian Moneys, Proceeds of Labor,” was derived from the Act of March 3, 1883 (now codified at 25 U.S.C. § 155 (1982)). The GSA report contained the dates on which the funds were awarded and detailed how those funds were invested and disbursed.

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Te-Moak Bands of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada v. United States, 18 Cl. Ct. 82, 1989 U.S. Claims LEXIS 183, 1989 WL 106857 (cc 1989).

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