United States v. Oranna Bumgarner Felter

752 F.2d 1505, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 27961
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 17, 1985
Docket82-1745
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 752 F.2d 1505 (United States v. Oranna Bumgarner Felter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Oranna Bumgarner Felter, 752 F.2d 1505, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 27961 (10th Cir. 1985).

Opinion

HOLLOWAY, Chief Judge.

The Government appeals the district court’s ruling that defendant, a mixed-blood Ute Indian, did not unlawfully fish within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1165. The Act of August 27, 1954, ch. 1009, 68 Stat. 868, codified at 25 U.S.C. §§ 677-677aa (“1954 Act”), divided the Ute Tribe into two groups: mixed-blood members and full-blood members. The district court held that persons identified as mixed-blood members under the 1954 Act for purposes of distributing tribal assets, and for purposes of terminating federal supervision over the property of mixed-blood members, retained the right to fish and hunt within the reservation. We are persuaded by the reasoning of the district court’s scholarly opinion, 546 F.Supp. 1002, and we affirm.

I

A. The 1954 Act

During the 1950s, Congress developed a new approach in federal Indian policy. Congress passed legislation to end the special relationship between certain Indian tribes and the federal government. This legislation terminated federal supervision and services in relation to these tribes. See generally F. Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law 152-80 (1982). The 1954 Act 1 terminated the federal mixed-blood Ute Indians of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah. See Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation v. Probst, 428 F.2d 491, 495-96 (10th Cir.) (“The [1954] Act was intended to distribute tribal property and terminate federal supervision over the mixed-bloods.”), 2 cert. *1507 denied, 400 U.S. 926, 927, 91 S.Ct. 189, 27 L.Ed.2d 186 (1970).

Under this Act, Congress divided the Ute Tribe into two groups: full-blood members (those with one-half degree of Ute Indian blood and a total Indian blood in excess of one-half) and mixed-blood members (those with insufficient Indian or Ute blood to qualify as full-blood Utes, or those full-blood Utes who elect to be treated as mixed-blood members). 25 U.S.C. § 677a(b), (c). The Act required the preparation and publication of rolls listing the full-blood and mixed-blood members of the Tribe. Id. § 677g. These rolls were published in the Federal Register on April 5, 1956. 21 Fed.Reg. 2208-12. Defendant was listed on the roll of mixed-bloods. Id. 22 — . The Act provided that upon publication of the rolls, “the tribe shall thereafter consist exclusively of full-blood members. Mixed-blood members shall have no interest therein except as otherwise provided in this subchapter.” 25 U.S.C. § 677d.

The Act required the division between the full-blood and the mixed-blood Utes of tribal assets “susceptible to equitable and practical distribution.” Id. § 677i. Mixed-blood members received “unrestricted control” of their proportionate share of the divided property. Federal supervision of mixed-blood members and their property was terminated, “except as to [their] remaining interest in ... tribal assets not susceptible to equitable and practicable distribution.” Id. § 677o(a). The Act extinguished the Federal trust relationship with mixed-blood members; 3 these members were no longer “entitled to any of the services performed for Indians because of his status as an Indian.” 4 Id. § 677v.

B. The Facts

The material facts of the case are reported in the district court’s opinion, United States v. Fetter, 546 F.Supp. 1002, 1003-04 (D.Utah 1982), and are not in dispute.

On June 6, 1980, defendant was issued a Federal misdemeanor citation for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1165, 5 by fishing without a tribal permit at the Bottle Hollow Reservoir within Indian Country and upon lands in the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation held in trust by the United States for the Ute Indian Tribe. I R. 1. At trial before a magistrate, defendant did not deny fishing at that time and place. Instead, she contended that she had a legal right to fish on the reservation which would negate any liability under § 1165. Defendant maintained that as a mixed-blood Ute Indian, her right to fish the waters located on the reservation was not abrogated by the 1954 Act.

The magistrate held that the 1954 Act terminated the right of the mixed-blood Utes to hunt and fish on the reservation. The magistrate relied primarily on Menom *1508 inee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. 404, 88 S.Ct. 1705, 20 L.Ed.2d 697 (1968). I R. 219-22. The Supreme Court there held that the Menominee Indian Termination Act of 1954 (“Menominee Termination Act”), ch. 303, 68 Stat. 250, did not abrogate the hunting and fishing rights of the Menominee Indians in Wisconsin. Although the Menominee Termination Act did not mention hunting and fishing rights, the Court held that the Act had to be read in ;pari materia with Public Law 280, Act of August 15, 1953, ch. 505, 67 Stat. 588, 6 which stated that “[njothing in this section ... shall deprive any Indian or any Indian tribe, band, or community of any right, privilege, or immunity afforded under Federal treaty, agreement, or statute with respect to hunting, trapping, or fishing or the control, licensing, or regulation thereof.” Id. The Court concluded that because Wisconsin was one of the states to which Public Law 280 ceded jurisdiction over offenses committed by Indians within the state, Public Law 280 and the Menominee Termination Act, read together, compelled the finding that Menominee Indians retained the right to fish and hunt. The Court held that this conclusion was consistent with § 10 of the Menominee Termination Act, which stated that “all statutes of the United States which affect Indians because of their status as Indians shall no longer be applicable to members of the tribe”; the Court emphasized that the Menominee tribe’s hunting and fishing rights were a creature of an 1854 treaty.

The magistrate held that the Court’s decision in Menominee Tribe required the conclusion that the 1954 Act abrogated the right of mixed-blood Utes to fish and hunt for two reasons. First, Public Law 280 did not apply to the State of Utah. 7

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Bluebook (online)
752 F.2d 1505, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 27961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-oranna-bumgarner-felter-ca10-1985.