Opinion ID: 405041
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Secretary's Actions

Text: 9 Despite the Secretary's decision not to include the land in the patent, the Pechanga Band urges us to consider the Secretary's apparent desire to enlarge the reservation. The Band has not, however, supplied us with any reason to look past the Secretary's unambiguous actions. Both opinions cited by the Band discussed intent only because the actions taken by the official did not purport to modify the reservation site. Sekaquaptewa v. MacDonald, 626 F.2d at 118; United States v. Southern Pacific Transportation Co., 543 F.2d at 690. In this case, the Secretary had to issue a patent to the land in order to include it in the reservation. The record is unambiguous that he purposefully elected not to take this final step. We therefore cannot speculate whether the Secretary would have preferred in the abstract to grant the land to the Pechanga Band.