Union Calendar No. 418
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3640
[Report No. 104–777]
A BILL
To provide for the settlement of issues and claims
related to the trust lands of the Torres-Martinez
Desert Cahuilla Indians, and for other purposes.
SEPTEMBER 5, 1996
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Commit-
tee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and
ordered to be printed
IB
Union Calendar No. 418
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3640
[Report No. 104–777]
To provide for the settlement of issues and claims related to the trust
lands of the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 13, 1996
Mr. BONO (for himself, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. BROWN of California, Mr.
CALVERT, and Mr. BURTON of Indiana) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Resources
SEPTEMBER 5, 1996
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole
House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on June 13, 1996]
A BILL
To provide for the settlement of issues and claims related
to the trust lands of the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla
Indians, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Torres-Martinez Desert
Cahuilla Indians Claims Settlement Act’’.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds and declares that:
(1) In 1876, the Torres-Martinez Indian Res-
ervation was created, reserving a single, 640-acre sec-
tion of land in the Coachella Valley, California, north
of the Salton Sink. The Reservation was expanded in
1891 by Executive Order, pursuant to the Mission In-
dian Relief Act of 1891, adding about 12,000 acres to
the original 640-acre reservation.
(2) Between 1905 and 1907, flood waters of the
Colorado River filled the Salton Sink, creating the
Salton Sea, inundating approximately 2,000 acres of
the 1891 reservation lands.
(3) In 1909 an additional 12,000 acres of land,
9,000 of which were then submerged under the Salton
Sea, were added to the reservation under a Secretar-
ial Order issued pursuant to a 1907 amendment of
the Mission Indian Relief Act. Due to receding water
levels in the Salton Sea through the process of evapo-
ration, at the time of the 1909 enlargement of the res-
ervation, there were some expectations that the Salton
Sea would recede within a period of 25 years.
(4) Through the present day, the majority of the
lands added to the reservation in 1909 remain inun-
dated due in part to the flowage of natural runoff and
drainage water from the irrigation systems of the Im-
perial, Coachella, and Mexicali Valleys into the
Salton Sea.
(5) In addition to those lands that are inun-
dated, there are also tribal and individual Indian
lands located on the perimeter of the Salton Sea that
are not currently irrigable due to lack of proper
drainage.
(6) In 1982, the United States brought an action
in trespass entitled ‘‘United States of America, in its
own right and on behalf of Torres-Martinez Band of
Mission Indians and the Allottees therein v. The Im-
perial Irrigation District and Coachella Valley Water
District’’, Case No. 82–1790 K (M) (hereafter in this
section referred to as the ‘‘U.S. Suit’’) on behalf of the
Torres-Martinez Indian Tribe and affected Indian
allottees against the two water districts seeking dam-
ages related to the inundation of tribal- and allottee-
owned lands and injunctive relief to prevent future
discharge of water on such lands.
(7) On August 20, 1992, the Federal District
Court for the Southern District of California entered
a judgment in the U.S. Suit requiring the Coachella
Valley Water District to pay $212,908.41 in past and
future damages and the Imperial Irrigation District
to pay $2,795,694.33 in past and future damages in
lieu of the United States’ request for a permanent in-
junction against continued flooding of the submerged
lands.
(8) The United States, the Coachella Valley
Water District, and the Imperial Irrigation District
have filed notices of appeal with the United States
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from the dis-
trict court’s judgment in the U.S. Suit (Numbers 93–
55389, 93–55398, and 93–55402), and the Tribe has
filed a notice of appeal from the district court’s denial
of its motion to intervene as a matter of right (No.
92–55129).
(9) The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
has stayed further action on the appeals pending the
outcome of settlement negotiations.
(10) In 1991, the Tribe brought its own lawsuit,
Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, et al., v.
Imperial Irrigation District, et al., Case No. 91–1670
J (LSP) (hereafter in this section referred to as the
‘‘Indian Suit’’) in the United States District Court,
Southern District of California, against the two water
districts, and amended the complaint to include as
a plaintiff, Mary Resvaloso, in her own right, and
as class representative of all other affected Indian al-
lotment owners.
(11) The Indian Suit has been stayed by the Dis-
trict Court to facilitate settlement negotiations.
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to facilitate
and implement the settlement agreement negotiated and ex-
ecuted by the parties to the U.S. Suit and Indian Suit for
the purpose of resolving their conflicting claims to their mu-
tual satisfaction and in the public interest.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
For the purposes of this Act:
(1) The term ‘‘Tribe’’ means the Torres-Martinez
Desert Cahuilla Indians, a federally recognized In-
dian tribe with a reservation located in Riverside and
Imperial Counties, California.
(2) The term ‘‘allottees’’ means those individual
Tribe members, their successors, heirs, and assigns,
who have individual ownership of allotted Indian
trust lands within the Torres-Martinez Indian Res-
ervation.
(3) The term ‘‘Salton Sea’’ means the inland
body of water located in Riverside and Imperial
counties which serves as a drainage reservoir for
formally objects to the Tribe’s request to convey
the subject lands into trust and notifies the Sec-
retary of such objection in writing within 60
days of receiving a copy of the Tribe’s request in
accordance with the Settlement Agreement.
(b) RESTRICTIONS ON GAMING.—The Tribe shall have
the right to conduct gaming on only one site within the
lands acquired pursuant to subsection (a)(1) as more par-
ticularly provided in the Settlement Agreement.
(c) WATER RIGHTS.—All lands acquired by the Tribe
under subsection (a) shall—
(1) be subject to all valid water rights existing
at the time of tribal acquisition, including (but not
limited to) all rights under any permit or license is-
sued under the laws of the State of California to com-
mence an appropriation of water, to appropriate
water, or to increase the amount of water appro-
priated;
(2) be subject to the paramount rights of any
person who at any time recharges or stores water in
a ground water basin to recapture or recover the re-
charged or stored water or to authorize others to re-
capture or recover the recharged or stored water; and