Opinion ID: 3152784
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Tribal Land

Text: The Tohono O’odham Nation, formerly known as the Papago Tribe, is a federally recognized Indian tribe with over 28,000 members. The tribe is descended from Native Americans who resided for centuries along the banks of the Gila River in Arizona. In 1882, by executive order, President Chester A. Arthur set aside for the Nation a 22,400-acre Gila Bend Reservation in southwestern Arizona. The size of the reservation was later reduced to 10,297 acres by executive order of President William Howard Taft. In 1960, in order to provide flood protection to non-tribal areas, the federal government completed construction of the Painted Rock Dam, located on the Gila River approximately ten miles from the Gila Bend Reservation. In subsequent decades, flooding from the dam caused major damage to the reservation, destroying farm land and rendering the reservation land economically unviable. The Nation was left with “a reservation which for all practical purposes [could not] be used to provide any kind of sustaining economy.” The Nation sought a legislative remedy, rather than engaging in lengthy litigation, and petitioned Congress for a new reservation on lands that would be suitable for agriculture. II. Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act In 1982, pursuant to section 308 of the Southern Arizona Water Rights Settlement Act, Pub. L. No. 97-293, 96 Stat. 1261 (1982), Congress recognized its trust responsibility to 6 TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION V. STATE OF ARIZONA find a different land base for the Nation. Section 308 authorized the Secretary of the Interior (the Secretary) to conduct a study of the reservation, and to find lands suitable for a tribal reservation. The ensuing study concluded that the reservation land had little economic value and was unsuitable for agriculture or grazing. Another study found that there were no public lands within a 100-mile radius of the reservation that were suitable as potential exchange properties for the reservation. In 1986, Congress passed the Act to facilitate the replacement of the reservation lands, and to promote the economic self-sufficiency of the Nation. Pub. L. No. 99-503, § 2. The Act (1) authorized the Nation to assign 9,880 acres of tribal land within the Gila Bend Indian Reservation to the federal government in exchange for $30,000,000; (2) authorized the Nation to purchase up to 9,880 acres of private land, which would, at the request of the Nation, be held in trust for the tribe, and thereby be incorporated into tribal land; and (3) released the Nation’s claims against the United States for past injuries to land and water rights. Pub. L. No. 99-503, §§ 4(a), 6(c)-(d), 9(a). The Act requires that purchased private land be held in trust and not be “outside the counties of Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima, Arizona, or within the corporate limits of any city or town.” Id. § 6(d). In 1987, the Nation assigned its rights in the reservation lands and relinquished its claims against the United States.