Opinion ID: 412102
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The grazing rights reserved by the Agreement were never extinguished.

Text: 33
34 The non-Indian permittees assert that an act of Congress of 1891, 16 U.S.C. Sec. 471 (repealed 1976), empowering the President to withdraw public lands from settlement in order to establish public reservations or national forests, also gave him the power to extinguish Indian treaty rights in those lands. We reject that reading of the 1891 Act. 35 It is well settled that congressional intent to abrogate rights reserved in Indian treaties and agreements must be expressed clearly and unequivocally. E.g., Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n, 443 U.S. at 690, 99 S.Ct. at 3077 ([a]bsent explicit statutory language, we have been extremely reluctant to find congressional abrogation of treaty rights); Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. at 413, 88 S.Ct. at 1711 ([w]e find it difficult to believe that Congress, without explicit statement, would subject the United States to a claim for compensation by destroying property rights conferred by treaty (footnote omitted)); United States v. Washington, 520 F.2d 676 (9th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1086, 96 S.Ct. 877, 47 L.Ed.2d 97 (1976). 36 We also reject the non-Indian permittees' argument that, since the 1868 Treaty was effectuated by presidential proclamation, the lands set aside for the Reservation were executive order lands rather than congressional lands. Relying upon that argument, they contend that unilateral executive action could terminate any rights in those lands without creating a cause of action for compensation. See Hynes v. Grimes Packing Co., 337 U.S. 86, 69 S.Ct. 968, 93 L.Ed. 1231 (1949); Confederated Bands of Ute Indians v. United States, 330 U.S. 169, 67 S.Ct. 650, 91 L.Ed. 823 (1947). Even if we accept the premise that the Reservation was originally created by executive order, in 1900 Congress ratified the 1898 Agreement, which reserved grazing rights to the Tribes. Subsequent congressional action would therefore be necessary to modify or abrogate its terms. The permittees have not pointed to any congressional enactment which purports to abrogate the Tribes' treaty rights, nor do they cite any post-Agreement delegation by Congress to the President of authority to abrogate Indian treaty rights without congressional consent. We agree with the district court's finding that the grazing rights reserved to the Tribes by the 1898 Agreement were not extinguishable by executive action and were not extinguished by subsequent congressional action. 37
38 In 1967 the Tribes reached a stipulated settlement with the United States for additional compensation for the occupancy rights ceded by the Article I of the 1898 Agreement. The non-Indian permittees assert that the language of this settlement encompasses all claims in regard to Article IV use rights as well. We reject this assertion. There is no evidence in the record that either party to the settlement believed that Article IV rights were involved in the 1967 settlement. In the district court, counsel for the Tribes introduced the affidavit of Robert W. Barker, counsel for the Tribes in the Docket No. 326-E negotiations. Barker stated that to the best of his recollection, grazing rights were neither considered nor discussed as a part of the 1967 stipulated settlement. Counsel for the non-Indian permittees made a timely objection to the admission of the Barker affidavit. We need not decide whether the trial judge erred in denying the objection since the error, if any, was harmless. 39 The non-Indian permittees rely solely on general language of the settlement documents to sweep in Article IV grazing rights, even though all specific language in the pertinent documents, including the original petition, refers only to the low compensation paid for lands ceded in Article I. The Tribes' petition before the Indian Claims Commission did not plead any extinguished grazing rights. The stipulated settlement which reached all claims before the Commission did not encompass tribal grazing rights. 40
41 The failure of the Tribes to exercise their grazing rights from 1907, when local Forest Service officials ousted them, to 1978 has no effect on the vitality of their Article IV rights. Laches or estoppel is not available to defeat Indian treaty rights. Board of Commissioners v. United States, 308 U.S. 343, 351, 60 S.Ct. 285, 288, 84 L.Ed. 313 (1939); United States v. Ahtanum Irrigation District, 236 F.2d 321, 334 (9th Cir.1956), cert. denied, 352 U.S. 988, 77 S.Ct. 386, 1 L.Ed.2d 367 (1957). This is true even where the Indians have long acquiesced in use by others of affected lands or have purported to grant away their occupancy and use rights without federal authorization. United States v. Southern Pacific Transportation Co., 543 F.2d 676, 699 (9th Cir.1976). 42