Opinion ID: 201444
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fiduciary Relationship

Text: 40 The Tribe appears to claim that the United States Congress breached a fiduciary relationship it has with the Wampanoag Tribe because Congress unfairly compensated the Narragansett Tribe in the Settlement Act without providing compensation for the extinguishment of the Indian title of other Indians within the State of Rhode Island. In response to this argument, the federal government claims that in the absence of federal recognition of the Wampanoag Tribe, the United States owes no them no special duty. The United States relies on Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana, Inc. v. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 255 F.3d 342 (7th Cir.2001), and 25 C.F.R. § 83.2, for the proposition that federal recognition of Indian groups as Indian tribes establishes a government-to-government relationship with the United States and is a prerequisite to the protection, services, and benefits of the federal government available to Indians. Therefore, the United States claims it owes no special duty to a group of Indians where they are not recognized as a tribe by the United States or where Congress has not expressly imposed such a duty. 41 It is not completely accurate to say that the United States has no special duty to Indians who are not recognized as a tribe. In Miami Nation of Indians, 255 F.3d at 345, the Seventh Circuit referred to a number of statutes that do require federal recognition of a tribe before the Indians may partake of the statutory benefits, including the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, 25 U.S.C. § 450b(e), and the Indian Financing Act of 1974, 25 U.S.C. § 1452(c). However, we have previously found that the Indian Nonintercourse Act, 25 U.S.C. § 177, establishes a trust relationship between the United States and a tribe with respect to protection of the lands of a tribe covered by the Act, regardless of whether it is federally recognized. See Joint Tribal Council of the Passamaquoddy Tribe v. Morton, 528 F.2d 370, 379 (1st Cir.1975). The Indian Nonintercourse Act expressly prohibits the conveyance of Indian lands to unauthorized third parties. 25 U.S.C. § 177. In Passamaquoddy Tribe, we noted that: 42 Congress is not prevented from legislating as to tribes generally; and this appears to be what it has done in successive versions of the Nonintercourse Act. There is nothing in the Act to suggest that `tribe' is to be read to exclude a bona fide tribe not otherwise federally recognized. 43 Id. at 377. 44 While we find that the United States does have a trust relationship with the Wampanoag Tribe pertaining to land transactions that are or may be covered by the Indian Nonintercourse Act, we do not find that the United States breached its fiduciary duty toward the tribe by failing to compensate the tribe for extinguishing any remaining aboriginal rights they may have had to land in Rhode Island. As we noted above, it is well established that aboriginal title is a mere right of occupancy, the loss of which is not a compensable taking under the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment. See Tee-Hit-Ton Indians, 348 U.S. at 281, 75 S.Ct. 313 (No case in this Court has ever held that taking of Indian title or use by Congress required compensation.). Accordingly, the United States has not breached its fiduciary duty to the Wampanoags for failing to compensate the Tribe for the extinguishment of Indian title.