Opinion ID: 1128253
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Treaty with the Apaches

Text: Petitioners argue that the state is forbidden to exercise jurisdiction because of certain provisions of the 1852 treaty between the United States and the Apache tribe. We acknowledge, of course, the supremacy of federal treaties. U.S. Const., article 6, clause 2. Article I of the treaty in question provides that the Apache Nation shall be exclusively under the laws, jurisdiction and government of the United States of America. Treaty with the Apaches, July 1, 1852, 10 Stat. 979. We note, also, that while our constitutional provision uses the term absolute, the treaty uses the term exclusively. The latter term, of course, is less open to interpretation than is the term used in article 20, ¶ 4. See Surplus Trading Co. v. Cook, 281 U.S. 647, 50 S.Ct. 455, 74 L.Ed. 1091 (1930); Humble Pipe Line Co. v. Waggonner, 376 U.S. 369, 84 S.Ct. 857, 11 L.Ed.2d 782 (1984). However, our duty here is not to interpret the treaty with the Apaches but to interpret the constitution of the state of Arizona. The question of whether federal law, including treaties made by the federal government, prohibits the state of Arizona from exercising jurisdiction to make a general adjudication of water rights was settled for us by the United States Supreme Court in San Carlos, supra. The Court there held that the McCarran Amendment removed all impediments under federal law. 463 U.S. at 564, 103 S.Ct. at 3212. This, of course, should include treaties made by the President and ratified by Congress. Any impediment created by the provision of the treaty with the Apaches is a matter that should have been raised with the United States Supreme Court. We have neither the power nor the inclination to conclude that the Supreme Court erred in failing to consider the provisions of the Apache treaty when it decided San Carlos. We note in passing, however, that this issue, too, has been decided against petitioners in federal courts. See Mescalero Apache Tribe v. O'Cheskey, 625 F.2d 967, 971 (10th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 959, 101 S.Ct. 1417, 67 L.Ed.2d 383 (1982).