Court Opinion

ID: 8911107
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-27 03:02:22.017146+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:08:32.287697
License: Public Domain

SETH, Chief Judge,
dissenting:
I must dissent from the majority opinion for several reasons.
I would begin the analysis of the issues presented in this appeal at a very early date to place the matter in its historical context. Thus, in my view, the consideration of this appeal should not start with an analysis of “sovereignty,” as the Secretary urges, as this includes too many assumptions and generalizations which are questionable but which nevertheless influence the outcome. As so often happens when a start is made too far along the sequence of events or the development of doctrines the selection of a place to start determines where the writer is going to come out. Thus I would start instead with an examination of the fundamental relationships as they existed initially between the federal government and the Jicarilla Apaches, and this relationship as influenced by the creation of the State of New Mexico.
The Jicarilla Apaches were then and now are in the area ceded to the United States after the war with Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico in 1848 (9 Stat. 922) contained provisions for the recognition of land titles, and the proprietary interests of the citizens of Mexico within the area ceded. No separate mention is therein made of Indian lands or any recognition given to Indian groups other than border problems. These groups had been under the rule of Spain and of Mexico for two hundred years. They were in an area settled by Spain and Mexico and in frequent contact over the years. The Pueblo Indians had received grants of land as had non-Indian groups. The Treaty treats all persons within the ceded area in the same way. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus spoke for all persons within the geographical area concerned, as would any treaty. There was no separate treatment of particular areas or groups and there was no reason why there should have been. All persons had been subjects of the Spanish crown and the government of Mexico for several hundred years. The sovereignty was thus transferred from the government of Mexico to the United States. This was not an area being occupied by the first foreign sovereign to come on the scene wherein it would be expected that the various groups of inhabitants would be dealt with separately or differently. Instead it was the conclusion of a war between two nations one of which, with its predecessor, had exercised complete authority and sovereignty over the land and all the people for several hundred years. With the end of the war and the peace treaty all the persons in the ceded area who stayed automatically came under the complete authority of the United States. They were thereby transferred from one sovereign to another. The citizenship issues have been treated by a number of authorities and need not be considered here because there is no question as to the complete authority of the new sovereign over all the people as a consequence of the Treaty with Mexico and the position as a successor.
*552At the end of the Spanish occupation there were in New Mexico and Arizona some six or eight independent Apache tribes. One of these was the Jicarilla Apaches. In 1846 after the period of Mexican sovereignty the Jicarillas numbered about 500 according to Governor Bent. There were then in all ten to twelve groups, each consisting of eight to ten family units, with a total of about forty-five individuals. Albert H. Schroeder, Apache Indians I (Garland Publishing Co. reprints, reports and exhibits) [hereinafter cited as Schroeder]. The basic unit was the family group. There were no clans or gentes. M. E. Opler, referring to the Jicarillas (as quoted by Schroeder), writes:
“The Tribe was a rather nebulous entity of its members. The band was a man’s immediate concern.
“They were semi-nomads, following wild food harvests.
“The people living in one section of the tribal range would seldom meet their tribesmen of a more distant quarter.”
Opler also writes that the local groups would form a loose confederation for social purposes, and for defense or aggression. When the small units banded together for war a leader was accepted by agreement, but each individual was free to come or go at will or reject the leader (Shroeder). As early as 1796 Colonel Don Antonio Cordero, as to all Apaches, reported (per Schroeder): “At present they do not compose one nation of uniform customs, usages and tastes.” There was, of course, no central authority for the Jicarillas at any time. Each autonomous group would winter around their geographic landmark near the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and in summer move about with the availability of food, and move eastward to hunt buffalo. These groups used an area of some 5,000 to 7,000 square miles. See generally H.R.Rep.No.2503 (1953). There was thus self-determination within the so-cio-religious-family relationships. This went with the small groups wherever they went as it had no geographical significance nor relationship to any other group. There were several small groups who farmed near Taos and Cimarron. For descriptive purposes the Spanish referred separately to the eastern groups, the Sand group, and the more western group. An eastern group leader was dealt with for a time in the pre-American period.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the American occupation necessarily displaced all existing authority in the area, and there were then created the only governmental entities in New Mexico which were to exist during the interim period. Thus a new government came on the scene to supplant entirely the old. This was not an unfamiliar event in the history of the world.
Thus with the substitution of the government of the United States for the government of Mexico all the individuals in the area started anew with only their property. Thus there is nothing to build on in New Mexico to create a concept of sovereign power in any group remaining from Spanish or Mexican times. The start is from a zero base with the American occupation for all persons in the area. This new structure was established by the code promulgated by General Kearney in September of 1846. It was a complete code of laws and created the framework of the government with many details. Thus there were no vestiges preserved of any governmental powers whatever in the Indian groups in New Mexico who did not occupy pueblos. The Jicar-illa Apaches had no such powers over others, and if they had any they would have been lost by the American occupation.
The act organizing the territory of New Mexico was effective in September of 1850 (9 Stat. 446). This was a skeleton of organization and contained no mention of land ownership nor of the Indians. This was followed by the Enabling Act for the State of New Mexico (36 Stat. 557, Act of June 10,1910). This Act contains the first reference to the Indians as a group. This Act recognized them only as landowners or possible landowners. The Act as to non-Indians provides in part that “people inhabiting said proposed state” disclaim all proprietary *553claims to the lands of the United States and of the Indians. The Act also acknowledges the exclusive jurisdiction in Congress over Indian lands. This disclaimer is by the “people” and only of proprietary interests. It has nothing to do with a disclaimer of sovereign power of the state, and again relates only to lands in an attempt to retain the status quo, and the rights under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
The Enabling Act, of course, contemplated the creation of a state under the United States Constitution with the vesting of broad powers in the new state. The Constitution contemplates that the states are to create within their boundaries the counties, parishes, cities and villages. The states thus establish a 11 the local bodies and all entities having governmental powers within their boundaries. The federal government under its residual powers retained no authority to create governmental bodies within the states. The state-created entities are the ones in which the opportunity for participation extended to all persons within the boundaries. These are the foundation of governmental authority as it exists in the United States. Not only are there no federally created governmental entities within the states provided for by the Constitution, but it also does not contemplate the existence of other “nations” within the boundaries of the United States. Obviously there is no place for them in the governmental structure therein created.
It is significant in this respect that the Court in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191, 98 S.Ct. 1011, 55 L.Ed.2d 209, quoted from United States v. Kagama, 118 U.S. 375, 6 S.Ct. 1109, 30 L.Ed. 228 the following:
“ ‘Indians are within the geographical limits of the United States. The soil and people within these limits are under the political control of the Government of the United States, or of the States of the Union. There exist in the broad domain of sovereignty but these two. There may be cities, counties, and other organized bodies with limited legislative functions, but they . . . exist in subordination to one or the other of these.’ ”
As to the Jicarillas, long after the American occupation legislation began to fill the vacuum as to their internal matters, their relation with the federal government and New Mexico, their money, and their tribal businesses, but all within Constitutional limitations. The place or location in New Mexico to be occupied by the Jicarillas after the American occupation changed several times. There were a series of executive orders promulgated and revoked. Finally, a location was established and the Executive Order recites that a described tract is “set apart as a reservation for the use and occupation of the Jicarilla Apache Indians.” This is obviously something other than “ownership” but for our purposes it is no different from any other real estate “owned” by an individual or a group. It is no different from the Spanish and Mexican community land grants existing and recognized in New Mexico from the earliest times. These grants are also managed, used, and owned by groups in a community. The combination of land ownership and self-determination for anyone does not add up to anything more than the elements separately considered. The combination does not create a governmental agency or entity recognized or contemplated by the Constitutions of the United States or of New Mexico.
The sovereignty argument advanced by the Secretary must lose significance for purposes under consideration because nonmembers of the tribe (including Indian nonmembers) are excluded from participation. This is an express exclusion based solely on tribal membership. Perhaps this is as it should be for self-determination; however, such a group of tribal members excluding all others cannot exert governmental authority over those excluded. It is obvious that our whole governmental structure is based on representation with an opportunity to participate. When this is provided authority exists to govern. Here we cannot add the exclusive group self-determination to land ownership and come out, as to the outsiders, with anything more than the *554rights of a private landowner. “Self-determination” for such an exclusive group is in substance what any socio-religious group has in this country, and should have. If such group owns a tract of land, there is the same combination of self-determination and private property which again adds up to private property as to' non-members. This is typical of community land grants in New Mexico. The added element as to the Jicar-illas is the control by Congress and the limited land “ownership.” These for all practical purposes must be negative elements.
The plenary power of Congress over the Indians and their lands is obvious, but it must be recognized as a power “over the Indians” and not a power over non-Indians. The power of Congress over the Indians and their lands cannot include the exercise of such power to diminish the rights of non-Indians. To do so is to exercise plenary power over non-Indians. Thus Congress cannot under the Constitution add sufficient elements or powers to such an exclusive tribal group any more than it can to any other socio-religious group which would enable the members to exercise governmental powers of any nature in New Mexico.
The Secretary here urges that the Reorganization Act added some new ingredient of a governmental nature. Under the Constitution Congress cannot add new governmental entities in New Mexico not theretofore provided for. The federal government cannot by the Reorganization Act or by any other method introduce “nations” or governmental entities within the state. The Reorganization Act is an aspect of the current policy of the federal government seeking to cast self-determination machinery in a form in which it is accustomed to, and which has a “governmental” appearance. The whole concept of self-determination should be taking place and should have been advanced in years past. All must agree that it is most desirable, and to be valid it must be recognized for what it really is — “self-determination.”
It is a mistake to generalize about “Indian rights,” wherever the groups may be in the United States, and to disregard the events in their history, in the history of the states where they may now be located, and the events and sequence of such events in the history of the United States. The differences are too great to permit the broad generalizations which are urged on this appeal by the Government or the basic assumptions made therein.
The State of New Mexico under specific federal statutes and under its sovereign powers has extensive jurisdiction within Indian reservations which it may choose to exercise or not to do so. The Supreme Court in Puyallup Tribe v. Washington Game Dept., 433 U.S. 165, 97 S.Ct. 2616, 53 L.Ed.2d 667, considered and upheld the right of Washington State to control the netting of steelheads by individual Indians within the Puyallup Tribe’s reservation. See also Kake Village v. Egan, 369 U.S. 60, 82 S.Ct. 562, 7 L.Ed.2d 573.
The Court in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191, 98 S.Ct. 1011, 55 L.Ed.2d 209, referred to the many instances where the Court has referred to the limited authority retained by Indian tribes. The Court therein refers to the “quasi-sovereign” reference in The Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Pet. 1, 8 L.Ed. 25, and then states:
“But the tribes’ retained powers are not such that they are limited only by specific restrictions in treaties or congressional enactments. As the Court of Appeals recognized, Indian tribes are prohibited from exercising both those powers of autonomous states that are expressly terminated by Congress and those powers ‘inconsistent with their status.’ ” (Emphasis supplied.)
The Court also refers therein to Johnson v. M’Intosh, 8 Wheat. 543, 5 L.Ed. 681, and stated that:
“We have already described some of the inherent limitations on tribal powers that stem from their incorporation into the United States.”
The Court continued:
“Nor are the intrinsic limitations on Indian tribal authority restricted to limita*555tions on the tribes’ power to transfer lands or exercise external political sovereignty. In the first case to reach this Court dealing with the status of Indian tribes, Mr. Justice Johnson in a separate concurrence summarized the nature of the limitations inherently flowing from the overriding sovereignty of the United States as follows: ‘[T]he restrictions upon the right of soil in the Indians, amount . to an exclusion of all competitors [to the United States] from their markets; and the limitation upon their sovereignty amounts to the right of governing every person within their limits except themselves.’ ” (Emphasis supplied.)
Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191, 98 S.Ct. 1011, 55 L.Ed.2d 209, is a significant decision by the Supreme Court. It is, of course, directly concerned with the authority of an Indian tribe to exercise criminal authority over a nonmember. The decision, however, carries a parallel analysis and statement of reasons applicable to jurisdiction or power by the Indians over all matters relating to nonmembers. We have above referred to portions of the opinion and the references to other Supreme Court opinions therein contained. The decision represents, together with United States v. Wheeler, 435 U.S. 313, 98 S.Ct. 1079, 55 L.Ed.2d 303, a description of Indian “sovereignty” after all its restrictions and limitations are applied, as authority over members of the tribe. This is “self-determination” as it now exists. The Court in Wheeler said:
“It is undisputed that Indian tribes have power to enforce their criminal laws against tribe members. Although physically within the territory of the United States and subject to ultimate federal control, they nonetheless remain ‘a separate people, with the power of regulating their internal and social relations.’ United States v. Kagama, supra, [118 U.S.] at 381-382 [, 6 S.Ct. at 1113]; Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Pet. 1, 16 [, 8 L.Ed. 25].”
In a footnote to the above, the Court added:
“Thus, unless limited by treaty or statute, a tribe has the power to determine tribe membership, Cherokee Intermarriage Cases, 203 U.S. 76 [, 27 S.Ct. 29, 51 L.Ed. 96]; Roff v. Burney, 168 U.S. 218, 222-223 [, 18 S.Ct. 60, 62, 42 L.Ed. 442]; to regulate domestic relations among tribe members, Fisher v. District Court, 424 U.S. 382 [, 96 S.Ct. 943, 47 L.Ed.2d 106]; cf. United States v. Quiver, 241 U.S. 602 [, 36 S.Ct. 699, 60 L.Ed. 1196]; and to prescribe rules for the inheritance of property. Jones v. Meehan, 175 U.S. 1, 29 [, 20 S.Ct. 1, 12, 44 L.Ed. 49]; United States ex rel. Mackey v. Coxe, 18 How. 100 [, 15 L.Ed. 299].”
The Court in Wheeler continued:
“The sovereignty that the Indian tribes retain is of a unique and limited character. It exists only at the sufferance of Congress and is subject to complete de-feasance. But until Congress acts, the tribes retain their existing sovereign powers. In sum, Indian tribes still possess those aspects of sovereignty not withdrawn by treaty or statute, or by implication as a necessary result of their dependent status.”
And again:
“The areas in which such implicit divestiture of sovereignty has been held to have occurred are those involving the relations between an Indian tribe and nonmembers of the tribe.”
And again:
“These limitations rest on the fact that the dependent status of Indian tribes within our territorial jurisdiction is necessarily inconsistent with their freedom independently to determine their external relations. But the powers of self-government, including the power to prescribe and enforce internal criminal laws, are of a different type. They involve only the relations among members of a tribe. Thus, they are not such powers as would necessarily be lost by virtue of a tribe’s dependent status. ‘[T]he settled doctrine of the law of nations is, that a weaker power does not surrender its independence — its right to self government, by *556associating with a stronger, and taking its protection.’ ”
These quotations are especially significant when we consider the history of the Jicaril-las, and the zero base from which they started into the American occupation. Even in United States v. Mazurie, 419 U.S. 544, 95 S.Ct. 710, 42 L.Ed.2d 706, the Court referred to the tribe there concerned as possessing “a certain degree of independent authority over matters that affect the internal and social relations of tribal life.” The two principal cases considered — Oli-phant and Wheeler — oí course, concerned criminal jurisdiction, but again the reasoning and analysis upon which the decisions are based is equally applicable to other “jurisdiction” or “powers” over nonmembers which would originate with any concepts of governmental status or an aspect of sovereignty. See also Puyallup Tribe v. Washington Game Dept., 433 U.S. 165, 97 S.Ct. 2616, 53 L.Ed.2d 667. These several recent decisions, in my view, are determinative of the issue on appeal.
Thus under the most recent cases “Indian sovereignty,” if it may be generalized, means self-determination. It means the right of the Jicarillas to control their internal business-governmental affairs relating to tribal members and, of course, their social and religious affairs. This is added to the usual rights which accompany the ownership of property both real and personal. These rights taken together do not include the taxation power here sought to be exercised. In contrast to the many license cases cited by the parties, if there is a license it is the executed oil and gas lease. The tribe is as any other landowner in relation to the lease for the purposes under consideration. I would thus affirm the trial court.