Opinion ID: 161020
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the service population

Text: 24 The Citizen Potawatomi next claims that Defendants have improperly provided a shared service area for it and the Shawnee and therefore improperly awarded the Shawnee excess funds. Brief for Appellant at 11. Unquestionably the Shawnee can claim an interest in the funding that they receive for the shared service area. Manygoats, 558 F.2d at 558 (The financial and other benefits to the Tribe under the Exxon agreement give the tribe sufficient interest to satisfy the requirements of Subsection (a)(2)(i).). The Citizen Potawatomi argues, however, that we have previously ruled that the Shawnee do not share a reservation with them and that it therefore follows that they do not share a service area with them either. 25 It is true that in Citizen Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Oklahoma v. Collier, 17 F.3d 1292, 1294 (10th Cir. 1994), we held that the United States had failed to adequately demonstrate that the Shawnee and the Citizen Potawatomi share a common former reservation. We did not hold, however, that the United States could not provide that proof. Moreover, our Collier opinion did not decide whether the Shawnee and the Citizen Potawatomi share a common service area, which is the relevant question at issue here. 1 Accordingly, we conclude the Shawnee do not present a patently frivolous claim that they share the service area with the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and thus pursuant to Davis, they can claim an interest in the Citizen Potawatomis' action. 26 Nor do we believe that Defendants can adequately represent the Shawnees' interests. Unlike the claim concerning the funding factors, where potential tribal conflicts were present, on this claim, the government officers would only have to represent one tribe - the Shawnee. Nevertheless, the relevant question under Rule 19(a) is whether the United States and the tribe share the same interest. In this case, Defendants have a duty to implement national Native American policy. The Shawnee, on the other hand, have an interest in receiving the funds at issue in this case. The two interests are not necessarily the same. Manygoats, 558 F.2d at 558 (The Secretary must act in accord with the obligations imposed by NEPA.... The national interest is not necessarily coincidental with the interest of the Tribe in the benefits which the Exxon agreement provides. When there is a conflict between the interest of the United States and the interest of Indians, representation of the Indians is not adequate.). 27 In the circumstances of this case, we believe the district court did not abuse its discretion by holding that the United States could not adequately represent the Shawnees' interest. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion by deciding that the Shawnee were necessary for the purposes of the shared service claim.