Opinion ID: 808281
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the gila bend act

Text: The Nation, earlier known as the Papago Tribe of Arizona, is a federally recognized Indian Tribe with over 28,000 members. The Gila Bend Reservation was established as early as 1882. Today, the reservation includes non-contiguous land located near Tucson, Phoenix, and the town of Gila Bend, as well as points in between. In 1960, the federal government completed construction of the Painted Rock Dam ten miles downstream from the Gila Bend Reservation. During the late 10960 GLENDALE v. UNITED STATES 1970s and early 1980s, the reservation was plagued by flooding from the dam, which eventually destroyed a large farm developed by the Nation, leaving the land unsuitable for economic use. Congress responded to the flooding and the Nation’s petition for a new reservation with the Gila Bend Act. The purpose of the Act was to “facilitate replacement of reservation lands with lands suitable for sustained economic use which is not principally farming . . . and promote the economic selfsufficiency of” the Nation. Pub. L. No. 99-503, 100 Stat. 1798, § 2(4). Under § 4 of the Act, the Nation transferred 9,880 acres of reservation land to the United States in return for $30 million and the right to replace the lost reservation acre-for-acre. Id. at §§ 4(a), 6(c). Subject to the requirements and limitations of the Act, the Secretary of the Interior is required to take up to 9,880 acres of land into trust for the benefit of the Nation, effectively making the land part of the Nation’s reservation. Id. at § 6(d). The Act permits the Nation to use the funds for various purposes, including the purchase of land, and economic and community development. § 6(a).1 Section 6(c) imposes acreage limits.2 Section 6(d) establishes that trust land refers to land under subsection (c), and that such land cannot be taken into trust as reservation land if it is (i) outside certain counties, or (ii) “within the corporate limits of any city or town.”3 1 “The Tribe shall invest sums received under section 4 in interest bearing deposits and securities until expended. The . . . [Nation] may spend the principal and the interest and dividends accruing on such sums . . . for land and water rights acquisition, economic and community development, and relocation costs.” § 6(a). 2 “The Tribe is authorized to acquire by purchase private lands in an amount not to exceed, in the aggregate, nine thousand eight hundred and eighty acres.” § 6(c). 3 “The Secretary, at the request of the Tribe, shall hold in trust for the benefit of the Tribe any land which the Tribe acquires pursuant to subsecGLENDALE v. UNITED STATES 10961 Over the decades after passage of the Act, the Nation acquired land in Arizona but only one parcel has been taken into trust. Then, in 2003, the Nation purchased the disputed land as part of a 135-acre acquisition. The land is a “county island,” surrounded entirely by the City of Glendale. A county island is unincorporated land surrounded entirely by lands incorporated by the municipality. See Town of Gilbert v. Maricopa Cnty., 141 P.3d 416, 418 n.1 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2006) (describing county island). In 2009, the Nation announced plans to use the land for gaming purposes and filed an application with the Department of the Interior to have the land held in trust under the Gila Bend Act. In response, the City of Glendale sought to annex a portion of the 135 acres. The Nation filed suit in state court challenging the annexation effort.4 Due to ongoing state litigation, without relinquishing its claim to the full 135 acres, the Nation requested that the Department of the Interior accept into trust only a 54-acre portion of the land not at issue in state court: Parcel 2, the subject of this appeal.5 tion (c) which meets the requirements of this subsection. Any land which the Secretary holds in trust shall be deemed to be a Federal Indian Reservation for all purposes. Land does not meet the requirements of this subsection if it is outside the counties of Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima, Arizona, or within the corporate limits of any city or town.” § 6(d). 4 The Nation ultimately prevailed on appeal. See Tohono O’odham Nation v. City of Glendale, 253 P.3d 632 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2011), petition for review denied Oct. 25, 2011. 5 The dissent recounts various facts at length to provide, in its view, “the rest of the story.” In effect, the dissent along with the parties opposing the trust designation, infuse the appeal with the Nation’s economic motives and plans for Indian gaming on the trust land. But those issues are not on appeal. We do not and are not called upon to express an opinion as to the availability of the trust land for use as a casino. That question is tied up in other litigation and the legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives. See Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Clarification Act. H.R. REP. No. 112-440 (2012). This issue does not bear on our interpretation of the Gila Bend Act. 10962 GLENDALE v. UNITED STATES