Opinion ID: 704021
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Eastern Portions of Coal Mine Mesa and Moenkopi Plateau

Text: 63 The court found that Coal Mine Mesa was jointly used. Id. at 1524. As to Moenkopi Plateau, the court found that the evidence clearly support[ed] the Hopi claim of grazing on the western and northern portions of the Plateau. Id. at 1517. The court also found that portions of the central and southern Moenkopi Plateau were used exclusively by Hopis but that other portions were jointly used. Id. at 1521-22. Before the partition phase of the trial, the court delimited a southern boundary to the Moenkopi Plateau joint use area. Id. at 1535. 64 However, the court did not set precise boundaries to the Moenkopi Plateau and Coal Mine Mesa joint use areas until after the partition phase of the trial had ended. Masayesva, 816 F.Supp. at 1399-1401. The Hopis argue that the boundary finally set eliminated the possibility of a contiguous Hopi reservation by creating a Hopi no-use zone between the joint use area and the 1882 Hopi reservation. They contend that there was substantial evidence that Hopis did in fact graze in the no-use zone, up to and past the borders of the 1882 Hopi Reservation. 65 The district court did not commit clear error. The court concluded that one witness's testimony was not credible. Masayesva, 793 F.Supp. at 1521, n. 106; 1535, n. 7. [D]ue regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge of the credibility of the witnesses. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). Another witness's testimony was found not to be specific nor to establish the intensity of grazing. Id. at 1535, n. 7. Our previous determination that the 1934 Act gave the Hopis pockets of land they occupied in the 1934 reservation implicitly rejects the proposition that the areas awarded to them need be contiguous to each other or the 1882 reservation. There is no clear error. 66