Opinion ID: 742666
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Validity of Referendum and 1994 Constitution17

Text: 36 In its final order filed September 8, 1995, the district court ruled that the referendum and the adoption of the 1994 Constitution represent a valid exercise of the power of the Osage people to govern themselves. Echoing this reasoning, Individual Plaintiffs argue that Congress did not intend to disenfranchise Osage descendants by the 1906 Act and that they therefore were able to exercise an inherent right to reorganize their government. They also rely on the precept that any limitation on this power should be clearly expressed in a federal statute as expressed in Bryan v. Itasca County, Minnesota, 426 U.S. 373, 381, 96 S.Ct. 2102, 2107, 48 L.Ed.2d 710 (1976) (stating that states would not be presumed to possess the power to tax Indians or Indian property on reservations in the total absence of mention or discussion regarding a congressional intent to confer such power). 37 In contrast, Tribal Defendants emphasize that Congress can limit a tribe's power of self-government. They argue that Congress, in the 1906 Act, defined the Tribe's membership and set its form of general government, and that the referendum and 1994 Constitution are invalid in light of the 1906 Act. 38 The determination of whether Congress has limited the power of the Osage Tribe to determine its own form of government involves primarily the interpretation of the 1906 Act, its amendments, and subsequent case law. As this interpretation is a question of law, we review the district court's ruling on the validity of the referendum and the 1994 Constitution de novo. See Pierce v. Underwood, 487 U.S. 552, 558, 108 S.Ct. 2541, 2546, 101 L.Ed.2d 490 (1988). Although the district court held no evidentiary hearings in its proceedings, the parties did stipulate to certain facts. We review any questions of fact underlying the district court's ruling for clear error. Id. 39 Indian tribes are separate sovereigns with the power to regulate their internal and social relations, including their form of government and tribal membership. Santa Clara, 436 U.S. at 62-63, 98 S.Ct. at 1679-80; United States v. Wheeler, 435 U.S. 313, 322-23 & n. 18, 98 S.Ct. 1079, 1085-86 & n. 18, 55 L.Ed.2d 303 (1978); see also Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law 247-48 (Rennard Strickland, ed.1982). These powers of sovereignty are subject to the plenary authority of Congress. See Santa Clara, 436 U.S. at 58, 98 S.Ct. at 1676-77. Also, tribes retain sovereign powers except where restricted by treaty or statute or where the exercise of a particular power is inconsistent with a tribe's status as a domestic dependent nation. See Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191, 208, 98 S.Ct. 1011, 1020-21, 55 L.Ed.2d 209 (1978). Although an express restriction of an aspect of tribal sovereignty is preferred, Congress' clear intent to restrict an aspect of sovereignty is also sufficient even if it is not express. See United States v. Dion, 476 U.S. 734, 738-39, 106 S.Ct. 2216, 2219-20, 90 L.Ed.2d 767 (1986). 40 The clear intent doctrine has been applied in the context of congressional abrogation of a tribe's treaty rights. In Dion, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the language of a federal statute in light of its legislative history to conclude that Congress had the clear intent to abrogate the treaty rights of the Yankton Sioux Tribe to hunt eagles even though the intent was not expressed. The doctrine also applies in the context of reservation disestablishment. See Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U.S. 481, 505, 93 S.Ct. 2245, 2258, 37 L.Ed.2d 92 (1973). Moreover, the Eighth Circuit has held that Congress terminated the presumed power of Indian tribes to hear citizen suits brought under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 in the more purely internal context of a suit brought by two tribal members against their tribe and various federal defendants under a citizen-suit provision of RCRA arising out of polluted dump sites on the reservation. See Blue Legs v. United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, 867 F.2d 1094, 1097-98 (8th Cir.1989). The Blue Legs court based its holding on RCRA's exclusive federal jurisdiction provision and its legislative history, which expressed a congressional preference for prompt federal adjudication of citizen suits under RCRA, and held that RCRA terminated tribal power to hear such suits even though it did not do so expressly. Id. 18 41 First, Congress has prescribed the form of tribal government for the Osage Tribe. The 1906 Act as amended established the offices of a principal chief, an assistant principal chief, and an eight-member Osage tribal council, and required that elections be held every four years to fill those offices. See Act of June 28, 1906, Pub.L. No. 321, 34 Stat. 539, 545, § 9; Act of March 2, 1929, Pub.L. No. 919, 45 Stat. 1478, 1481, § 7. A subsequent statute extended the operation of the government until a further act of Congress. See Act of October 21, 1978, Pub.L. No. 95-496, 92 Stat. 1660. 42 In Logan v. Andrus, 640 F.2d 269, 270-71 (10th Cir.1981), we rejected the proposition that the Osage Tribal Council as established under the 1906 Act was limited in its governing powers to the administration of the mineral estate. We held that the 1906 Act conferred upon the Osage Tribal Council general governmental authority over the affairs of the Osage Tribe, including the right to include the Tribe as a participant in federal programs. Id. at 270. In Logan, we explained that Congress' description of the government established by the 1906 Act as the tribal government 19 is significant and resolves the question of its general authority. 20 Id. 43 The legislative history of the 1906 Act makes it clear that the act was passed with the approval of the Tribe and in its interests. See H.R.Rep. No. 3219, at 102 (1906). The House Report expressly notes that the 1906 Act made ample provision for the ... tribal government. Id. at 2. Not only did Congress ordain the structure of the tribal government, it also set the terms of office and provided for the time and place of general tribal elections, the succession of officers, and the removal of members of the Tribal Council. In spite of its knowledge of the problems with the statutory government, 21 Congress extended its operation indefinitely in 1978. The legislative history of this 1978 amendment shows that Congress was aware that it was dealing with the tribal government, see S.Rep. No. 95-1157, at 5 (1978), and the amendment reinforces the conclusion that Congress was aware of its prescription of the form of tribal government by not only extending its operation indefinitely but also by providing for a method of selecting a principal chief and a tribal council in the event of a common disaster, see id. at 9; Act of October 21, 1978, Pub.L. No. 95-496, 92 Stat. 1660, § 1. Until the referendum, the United States government recognized Defendant Osage Tribal Council as the general governing body of the Osage Tribe. 22 Moreover, the Council has operated under the 1906 Act since its passage-not the 1881 Constitution. 23 44 The referendum process ordered by the district court produced the 1994 Constitution, which creates a new general government for the Osage Tribe. The 1994 Constitution separates the powers of the Osage Nation into the legislative, executive, and judicial divisions and confers those powers on a national council, a president and vice-president, and a supreme court, respectively. Although the 1994 Constitution makes some provisions to preserve the power of the government established by the 1906 Act over the Osage mineral estate, the government created by the 1994 Constitution is a government wielding general authority, designed, according to the constitutional preamble, to secure to the Osage Nation the blessings of freedom and the Osage ancestral heritage and culture. This establishment of an entirely new form of tribal government exercising general powers is inconsistent with Congress' statutory prescription of the form of tribal government for the Osage Tribe. We hold that Congress clearly intended to terminate the power of the Osage Tribe to create a new form of tribal government inconsistent with the statutory form, see Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law 247 (Rennard Strickland, ed.1982) (recognizing the 1906 Act as an effective limitation on self-governing powers), as the Tribe did in the 1994 Constitution. Because Congress' prescription of a form of tribal government and the restriction of a tribe's powers over internal affairs in this way appears unique in its relations with Indian tribes, see id. at 247 & n. 11, 24 our holding in this matter is correspondingly narrow. 45 Second, the district court ordered the expansion of the Osage franchise to persons who were not entitled to vote under regulations promulgated by the Department of the Interior, 25 and the 1994 Constitution approved this expansion. The district court declared that all persons listed on the 1906 roll and their descendants by blood (but without regard to Indian blood quantum) will be eligible for membership in the Tribe and will be permitted to vote in the referendum. 26 The district court's final order of dismissal confirms that the franchise was expanded to all registered lineal descendants of persons whose names appear on the 1908 roll, without regard to headright ownership, and the certificate of ratification of the 1994 Constitution echoes this expansion. 46 The franchise extension as created in this case is invalid. The district court's orders expanding the franchise in the first instance are invalid because they were issued without subject matter jurisdiction. Moreover, because the form of tribal government created by the 1994 Constitution, its major provision, is inconsistent with the form of government prescribed for the Osage Tribe in the 1906 Act, the 1994 Constitution is invalid. Accordingly, the 1994 Constitution's ratification of the franchise extension is void. Because we decide this issue on grounds independent of the 1906 Act, we need not decide the issue of whether the 1906 Act terminates the Osage Tribe's power to extend the right to vote in its elections to persons not owning headrights. 27 47 In summary, Congress terminated the power of the Osage Tribe to create a form of tribal government inconsistent with the prescription of the 1906 Act. Thus, the government created by the 1994 Constitution is invalid. Also, the extension of the franchise, ordered by the district court and ratified in the 1994 Constitution, is void. 28