Opinion ID: 458771
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the uintah issue

Text: 2 With respect to the case against disestablishment, it was even clearer in connection with the Uintah Indian Reservation than the other areas. The district court pointed out in its opinion that the Act of May 5, 1864, 13 Stat. 64, which established the Uintah Reservation provided that the lands within the Uintah Reservation should be 'set apart for the permanent settlement and exclusive occupation of the Indians.'  521 F.Supp. 1072 at 1111, quoting H.R.Rep. No. 660, 53d Cong., 2d Sess., 1-3 (1894). The Uintah Reservation was thus clearly established as a permanent home for the Ute Tribe. Considering that Congress' intent to establish and set aside the Uintah Reservation was clearly expressed, disestablishment of that reservation would require an equally clear expression of congressional intent to change the status of the reservation. 3 Recently the Supreme Court decision in Solem v. Bartlett, 465 U.S. 463, 104 S.Ct. 1161, 79 L.Ed.2d 443 (1984), clarified that only in two types of situations should courts find that Congress intended to disestablish an Indian reservation. The first of these is when Congress uses explicit language of cession in an opening act and also gives indication of an unconditional commitment to compensate Indians for their opened lands. 104 S.Ct. at 1166. The other situation is [w]hen events surrounding the passage of a surplus land act-- particularly the manner in which the transaction was negotiated with the tribes involved and the tenor of legislative reports presented to Congress--unequivocally reveal a widely-held, contemporaneous understanding that the affected reservation would shrink as a result of the proposed legislation.... Id. But neither the intent behind the Indian Appropriations Act of 1905, ch. 1479, 33 Stat. 1048 [hereinafter cited as 1905 Act], that allegedly diminished the Uintah Reservation, nor the language used in that Act, is sufficiently clear to support a finding that the Act disestablished or diminished the Uintah Reservation. Indeed the language used in that Act is sufficiently clear to support a finding that the Act did not disestablish or diminish the Uintah Reservation. Neither the language used in that Act nor any other aspect of it gives clear support for a finding that the Act disestablished or diminished the Uintah Reservation. Nor does the legislative history support the allegation approached. 4 The original opinion, 716 F.2d 1298, in this case inferred, from a series of laws passed between 1902 and 1905, that Congress intended to diminish the size of the Uintah Reservation. The opinion stated that Congress' intent in passing the Indian Appropriations Act of 1902, ch. 888, 32 Stat. 245 [hereinafter cited as 1902 Act], was to disestablish the Reservation and that its original intent carried through to the 1905 Act that actually opened the Reservation to non-Indian settlers. The object of this was certainly different from the conclusion that was set forth. But we now conclude that no intention to alter the Reservation's boundaries was present. Actually the intent was to open the Reservation to non-Indian settlers and this couldn't effect the result that was suggested. 5 The district court's opinion was indeed well researched on this question, and others as well. The 1902 Act would have returned all surplus Uintah Reservation lands to the public domain if the Ute Tribe's consent could be obtained. That consent was never forthcoming. The Tribe refused all requests to give up their lands. As a result of the impasse, Congress passed additional legislation in 1903 and 1904 extending the time set for the opening of the Reservation. See Indian Appropriations Act of 1903, ch. 994, 32 Stat. 982, 997-98; Act of Apr. 21, 1904, ch. 1402, 33 Stat. 189, 207-08. Finally, Congress passed the 1905 Act, opening the Reservation for non-Indian settlement under the homestead and townsite laws. This measure, which actually effected the opening of the Reservation, did not contain the public domain language used in the 1902 Act. 6 It is not possible to find that the series of congressional enactments summarized above revealed a baseline purpose of disestablishment, 716 F.2d at 1312, that carried through into the 1905 Act. To do so is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's longstanding directive, reiterated in Solem, that in the absence of substantial and compelling evidence of a congressional intention to diminish Indian lands, the courts' traditional solicitude for the Indian tribes must compel a finding that the old reservation boundaries survived the opening. 104 S.Ct. at 1167. It is impossible to draw disestablishment conclusions or inferences from these congressional statements. 7 An examination of the 1902-1905 series of Congressional enactments with the proper solicitude for the Indian tribes, Solem 104 S.Ct. at 1167, provides inferences against diminishment. The district court's initial decision that the Uintah Reservation was not disestablished or diminished is correct. The strongest inference that is to be drawn from Congress' actions is that Congress wished surplus Uintah Reservation lands to be put to productive use. With respect to the Reservation's boundaries, the only inference that can be drawn is that Congress had no intention for them to change. Congress' use of homestead and township acts language in the 1905 Act, as contrasted with its use of public domain language in the 1902 Act, is evidence of a clear retreat from any desire to effect a wholesale diminishment of the Reservation. 1 8 The original opinion's conclusion that the Uintah Reservation was diminished by the 1905 Act is not correct. Indeed we accept the district court's view that the Reservation's boundaries were not changed by the 1905 Act.