Opinion ID: 751394
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Total acreage of Indian lands

Text: 65 The final step in allocating net benefits is apportioning the share of net benefits due the land between individual landholders, on the basis of the percentage of total lands owned by each. The district court found: 66 4. Percentage of Land Owned by the Tribe. 67 The District sought to persuade the Court that it should determine the total number of acres from the high water mark (2034) from one side of the river to the other including all the river bed, resulting in a figure of 1.47% representing the percentage of land owned by the Tribe. The U.S./Tribe claimed 13% and attempted as part of their rebuttal to increase that figure to 17%. The Court disallowed plaintiffs' latter figure as being in violation of the Court's pretrial orders and improper rebuttal. On cross examination, the District submitted figures that showed that the portion of the land at issue on the riverbank between 2028 and 2035 was 8.1%. (This was based on a determination of 2,274 acres divided by 186.07 acres held by the United States for the benefit of the Kalispel Indian Tribe and individual allottees.) The Court has determined that the 8.1% figure most closely approaches a reasonable basis on which to determine damages. 68 The determination of the area of the Tribe's submerged land, and the total acreage of the submerged land in the ribbon, is a purely factual question. The Tribe argues that the total acreage of submerged incremental land was not 2,274 acres but 1,105 acres, based on testimony submitted from the 1987 trial. Other testimony, however, supports the finding that 2,274 acres of incremental land was submerged. 69 It is not possible to evaluate the accuracy of the measurements on appeal. The district court made its findings after hearing extensive testimony and evaluating the different methods of measurement. We do not find the result to be clearly erroneous. 70 The Tribe also complains that the district court improperly excluded evidence supporting its alternative calculation. The district court knew of the 13 percent figure arrived at by Dr. Taylor, and refused to allow further testimony from another expert witness using different survey maps, on the ground that it should have been presented as part of the case in chief. The United States and Tribe argued that it was rebuttal evidence. The district court refused to allow the testimony after an offer of proof in which the witness testified that he would estimate the Indian's percentage at 17.8 percent. The district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 403, which provides Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. The district court reasonably could have concluded that introducing in rebuttal yet a third, much higher estimate of the percentage of Tribal land would needlessly complicate the issue and unduly delay the proceeding.