Court Opinion

ID: 9797617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:26:04.457352+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:57:40.326850
License: Public Domain

SUTIN, Judge (dissenting). {36} I respectfully dissent. I do not accept the major rationales underlying the majority opinion’s result. I think the case should be remanded for further proceedings. {37} I do not accept as a justifiable basis for the result cases decided from Clairmont back and cases relying on Clairmont or Bates. See Clairmont v. United States, 225 U.S. 551, 32 S.Ct. 787, 56 L.Ed. 1201 (1912); Bates v. Clark, 95 U.S. 204, 24 L.Ed. 471 (1877). Those cases were decided in contexts and times too far removed to be of assistance in deciding the present case. I am not persuaded by the rationales of reliance by cases on a repealed definition under the 1834 act or of adoption by courts or Congress of a rule stemming for these early cases linking status as Indian country to non-extinguishment of Indian title. {38} I prefer to begin with the 1910 Enabling Act (the Enabling Act) for New Mexico statehood and Sandoval. See United States v. Sandoval, 231 U.S. 28, 34 S.Ct. 1, 58 L.Ed. 107 (1913); New Mexico Enabling Act, ch. 310, 36 Stat. 557 (1910). The Pueblo Lands Act of 1924 (the PLA), of course is important. See Pueblo Lands Act, ch. 331, 43 Stat. 636 (1924). Then, “[i]n the 1930’s the federal Indian policy had shifted back toward the preservation of Indian communities generally” leading to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, ch. 576, 48 Stat. 984. United States v. John, 437 U.S. 634, 645, 98 S.Ct. 2541, 57 L.Ed.2d 489 (1978). Of course, Venetie must be addressed. Alaska v. Native Vill. of Venetie Tribal Gov’t, 522 U.S. 520, 118 S.Ct. 948, 140 L.Ed.2d 30 (1998). {39} The 1910 Enabling Act, the applicability of which has not been argued on appeal, recognized federal dominance and governance over lands then held or occupied by Pueblo Indians. Those lands were considered Indian country. Then came the PLA in 1924. The purpose of the PLA was to remedy the complex and confused land title issues that existed due to the history of non-Indian settlement and ineffectual federal protection of the grant lands. It was not enacted for the purpose of affecting the jurisdictional status of the parcels, the Pueblo communal title to which was extinguished under the PLA. Nothing in the PLA suggests extinguishment of law enforcement jurisdiction, complete alienation of any geographically defined and contiguous portion of Pueblo land grants, or modification of land grant boundaries. Pursuant to the PLA, Taos Pueblo’s communal title to the land in question and to other parcels of land was extinguished. As to those parcels, title was quieted in non-Indians; as to the remainder, title was confirmed and preserved in the Pueblo. {40} Venetie sets out what it takes to establish a dependent Indian community. The definition is based on the Court’s readings of Sandoval, United States v. Pelican, 232 U.S. 442, 34 S.Ct. 396, 58 L.Ed. 676 (1914), and United States v. McGowan, 302 U.S. 535, 58 S.Ct. 286, 82 L.Ed. 410 (1938). Although no case appears to analyze the issue, and although I am not entirely sure how a land grant set aside for the Pueblo occupancy that is subject to federal superintendence encompasses a dependent Indian community but one parcel within the grant’s exterior boundaries under non-Indian ownership due to the PLA is not a dependent Indian community, it does appear that federal cases have applied the dependent Indian community definition to individual parcels. {41} Nonetheless, Venetie did not involve Pueblo land grants or the PLA. It did not involve individual parcels situated within a land grant or even within a reservation. It involved revocation of an entire reservation. In addition, the express purpose of that revocation was “to end the sort of federal supervision over Indian affairs that had previously marked federal Indian policy,” and also to settle land claims “without creating a reservation system or lengthy wardship or trusteeship.” 522 U.S. at 523-24, 118 S.Ct. 948 (internal quotation marks, emphasis, and citation omitted). Venetie is very different. {42} It appears to me that interpretation of 18 U.S.C. § 1151(a) and (b), and future refinement of Venetie, in regard to jurisdiction to enforce criminal law, are works in progress, at least insofar as federal courts are concerned. On the federal level, HRI, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency, 198 F.3d 1224 (10th Cir.2000), indicates, and I suggest State v. Ortiz, 105 N.M. 308, 731 P.2d 1352 (Ct.App.1986), on the state level, shows, that there is room for interpretation of congressional intent favoring a blending of the “reservation” and “dependent Indian community” concepts and the statutory subsections, at least insofar as major crimes are concerned, notwithstanding the rejection by State v. Frank, 2002-NMSC-026, 132 N.M. 544, 52 P.3d 404, of the Tenth Circuit’s community of interest doctrine. See also Blatchford v. Gonzales, 100 N.M. 333, 335, 670 P.2d 944, 946 (1983) (“[I]t is apparent that Indian reservations and dependent Indian communities are not two distinct definitions of place, but definitions which largely overlap.”). We have determined that “the Sandoval Court identified the pueblo in question as a distinctive Indian community in order to conclude that Congress had jurisdiction to legislate with respect to the lands then held or occupied by Pueblo members.” Ortiz, 105 N.M. at 311, 731 P.2d at 1355. As far as I can tell, by its identification of dependent Indian community for the particular purposes stated, Sandoval did not intend the terminology to run a course through statute and case law that would ultimately separate reservations from dependent Indian communities for federal government dominance and superintendence and enforcement of major crimes by Indians against Indians. I am not prepared to hang my hat on Venetie to arrive at an extinguishment of federal jurisdiction to prosecute major crimes. {43} I do not place much stock in the Santo Domingo Pueblo Claims Settlement Act of 2000, 25 U.S.C. §§ 1777 to 1777e (2000) (SDPCSA), which ratified and provided for the enforcement of an agreement between the United States and Santo Domingo Pueblo. S.Rep. No. 106-506 at 1 (2000). The agreement and the statute embody specific land claims settlements and whisk away the land title clouds that existed and were being litigated in aged lawsuits. The agreement “was negotiated in consultation with the State of New Mexico, other pueblos, local governments and private landowners, to settle the Pueblo’s land claims and provide for settlement of decades-old lawsuits involving title to more than 80,000 acres of public, private, and Indian land.” Id. One lawsuit, involving tens of thousands of acres of land that was subject to overlapping Spanish land grants, resulted from a decision of the Pueblo Lands Board under the PLA. Id. at 2-3, 10-11. {44} I do not read Clairmont and Bates, nor do I find any rule of linkage stemming from those cases or developed independently later on, as driving the placement of the jurisdictional provision in, or as codified by, the SDPCSA. No such existing case or case law is set out in Senate Report 106-506 or in the SDPCSA. One can infer from § 1777d(b) that in the give-and-take of settlement, the Santo Domingo Pueblo gave up a claimed right to jurisdiction as to the overlap area, and that the United States, unconcerned, agreed in order to get forty years of litigation concluded once and for all. Senate Report 106-506 reports that the jurisdiction matter was inserted “[i]n order to avoid jurisdictional confusion.” S.Rep. No. 106-506 at 12-13. I think it is a mistake to generally apply § 1777d(b) as a statement of Congress’s intent that all land within New Mexico Pueblos’ exterior boundaries that is held in non-Indian title due to PLA extinguishment is no longer Indian country within the meaning of § 1151. {45} Finally, apropos to our view of legal history from the time of the PLA, Justice Brennan’s dissent in Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Pueblo of Santa Ana, 472 U.S. 237, 105 S.Ct. 2587, 86 L.Ed.2d 168 (1985), is noteworthy: [T]he District Court for the District of New Mexico and the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ... over the last 60 years have consistently held that Pueblo lands are fully governed by the Nonintercourse Act [see discussion of this Act, Mountain States, 472 U.S. at 241-45, 105 S.Ct. 2587] and that such lands are inalienable without explicit congressional authorization .... The decisions below were merely the most recent applications of this settled law. And this settled law not only did not conflict with decisions of this Court, but followed directly from them. Id. at 280-81, 105 S.Ct. 2587 (footnotes omitted) (Brennan, J., dissenting). {46} Nothing express exists to date from Congress from which a court can find a congressional intent to extinguish federal major crimes jurisdiction (which, at the same time, would necessarily entail extinguishment of Pueblo criminal jurisdiction), or to encroach on Pueblo sovereignty. Therefore, it seems to me the burden ought to be on the State to prove extinguishment of federal jurisdiction to prosecute major crimes committed on the land in question by substantial and compelling evidence of a congressional intent to remove the land from Indian country, having considered the consequences that flow from that removal. {47} The Venetie test appears to identify land (as opposed to land and community) as dependent Indian community only if it passes the two-part test. 522 U.S. at 526, 118 S.Ct. 948. However, when the State asserts jurisdiction over a non-Indian owned parcel within the exterior boundaries of a Pueblo land grant, I think it appropriate to require the State to prove the negatives of both “set aside for occupancy” and “federal superintendence.” This proof burden employs a presumption favoring Pueblo sovereignty. It rejects a presumption that extinguishment under the PLA of Pueblo communal title automatically amounted to an extinguishment of federal superintendence and of the parcel’s status as Indian country for major crimes jurisdiction. Cf. Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U.S. 481, 505, 93 S.Ct. 2245, 37 L.Ed.2d 92 (1973) (“A congressional determination to terminate [a reservation] must be expressed on the face of the Act or be clear from the surrounding circumstances and legislative history.”); Seymour v. Superintendent of Wash. State Penitentiary, 368 U.S. 351, 358, 82 S.Ct. 424, 7 L.Ed.2d 346 (1962) (“[T]he State can point to no language in § 1151’s definition of Indian country which lends the slightest support to the idea that by creating a townsite within an Indian reservation the Federal Government lessens the scope of its responsibility for the Indians living on that reservation.”). It at least might blow some life into the notions of “people,” “culture,” and “community,” and their continuity and survival, notions not unreasonably to be considered along with the land as a focus of superintendence. The underlying issues, after all, involve people and culture, and not just land ownership. The Pueblo’s concern about loss of sovereignty through slippery-slope court decisions that eliminate the Pueblo’s authority over its members, and the State’s concern that crimes by Pueblo Indians will not be adequately dealt with outside the State criminal justice system. {48} The issues here involve practical, legal, and sovereignty considerations. As a practical matter, I do not as yet see a compelling reason why major crimes committed by Taos Pueblo Indians against Taos Pueblo Indians on the land in question cannot be prosecuted by the United States. (I can see a practical reason why the United States attorney may prefer not to have to deal with these crimes if the State will step in.) As a sovereignty matter, it is easy to understand the Pueblo’s deep cultural and historical concerns about the loss of federal and Pueblo jurisdiction, particularly when the land in question was a part of the original land grant, remains situated within the exterior boundaries of the land grant, and is land the federal government removed from Pueblo communal title under the PLA. As a legal matter, as I discuss earlier in this opinion, I am not prepared to read into the PLA an intent that was not expressed and probably not present, to apply Venetie by rote, to use the SDPCSA as a statement of congressional intent, or to reject the notion that the United States Supreme Court might refine Venetie or distinguish it in the context of Pueblo land grants and PLA parcels. {49} My instincts tell me that this case should be remanded to the district court for further proceedings. Amicus were not involved in the district court proceedings. Section 1151(b) was not argued below. Defendant argued that § 1151(a) applied; the State argued that § 1151(c) applied. Venetie was hardly mentioned below and was never argued as instructive or controlling authority. Nor was Venetie mentioned in the district court’s decision letter. {50} In addition, the district court proceedings are noteworthy. Defendant was indicted on June 19, 2001. The New Mexico public defender entered an appearance for Defendant on July 3, 2001. On August 13, 2001, Defendant moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Defendant requested an evidentiary hearing on the motion on August 13 and again on October 23, 2001. The hearing was held on November 5 and November 28, 2001. On November 21, 2001, Defendant asked for a continuance of a November 27, 2001, trial setting to develop facts related to new issues the State was raising, namely the extinguishment of Taos Pueblo rights in 1924 and that the land in question was no longer Indian country. Defendant needed time to “perfect the issue of subject matter jurisdiction,” because the State raised “a new evidentiary issue,” requiring time “to perfect the factual basis for his appeal on the issue of subject matter jurisdiction.” Nevertheless, the hearing occurred on November 28, 2001. Defendant offered to plead guilty, conditioned on his right to appeal on the issue of subject matter jurisdiction. The court then heard the jurisdiction issue. Venetie was very briefly mentioned by defense counsel. In the hearing, the court acknowledged that “it’s been a long while since I really dealt with what are termed ‘Indian law issues.’ ... It’s been too many years.” Nothing was mentioned in the hearing regarding Defendant’s motion for continuance, presumably because Defendant offered to enter a conditional plea. The court suggested that Defendant enter his plea, and, although the court took the jurisdiction issue under advisement, the very next day, on November 29, 2001, the court issued its letter decision, stating that the indictment must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. {51} The foregoing procedural recitation indicates that it was likely that neither Defendant nor the district court thought it necessary to continue the case to allow further factual development by Defendant. Considering the district court’s very quick decision, the court may not have been concerned about any lack of factual development before accepting Defendant’s plea. The court probably felt on November 28 that it was going to hold in Defendant’s favor based on the § 1151(a) and (c) arguments, on cases involving reservation diminishment and surplus lands, and on Ortiz. The problem with what occurred is that an appellate court might not affirm the district court’s dismissal, and Defendant could lose without having had the opportunity to make a critical factual record. That is what has now occurred. Whether this was Defendant’s mistake, or the court’s, is of little consequence here. This case is too significant for such a technical inquiry. {52} Further, on appeal, Venetie was not mentioned in the State’s brief in chief and its mention in Defendant’s answer brief is of no consequence. The State’s brief in chief and Defendant’s answer brief are of little assistance. Obviously, the evidence presented in the district court was not honed to the real issue, namely, dependent Indian community under § 1151(b). Amicus stray some from the issues as they were tried below, but they do not hit the real issues on the head. The State does a complete about-face in its reply briefs, not only raising a critical theory and arguments not raised in its brief in chief, but also arguing as its primary and major theory a point that is inconsistent with the major point it raised in its brief in chief. We normally do not consider arguments raised for the first time in a reply brief. State v. Castillo-Sanchez, 1999-NMCA-085, ¶ 20,127 N.M. 540, 984 P.2d 787. Neither Defendant nor any Amicus attempted an additional brief on the State’s new point. There are solid indications that the factual record is not as complete as it ought to be. In its reply brief to Defendant’s answer brief, the State sees the defects and proposes the alternative remedy of remand. {53} I am not interested in deciding a case as important as this on appeal when it was tried solely on inapplicable statutes and issues and for the most part on questionable case law, and when it seems obvious that further evidence material to the applicable statutes, the critical issues, and the applicable case law, would assist the district court in arriving at findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a judgment on the right issue, and would also assist the appellate courts that review the proceedings in the district court. See United States v. Martine, 442 F.2d 1022, 1023 (10th Cir.1971) (discussing significance of evidence as to, among other things, “the relationship of the inhabitants of the area to Indian Tribes and to the federal government, and the established practice of government agencies toward the area” when determining whether an area is a dependent Indian community). As a general rule, we do not review matters not presented below. Campos Enters. v. Edwin K. Williams & Co., 1998-NMCA-131, ¶ 12, 125 N.M. 691, 964 P.2d 855; cf. Berlangieri v. Running Elk Corp., 2002-NMCA-060, ¶ 37, 132 N.M. 332, 48 P.3d 70 (Sutin, J., dissenting) (expressing disfavor with the majority’s decision on an issue neither tried below nor placed before this Court by the parties), ajfd 2003-NMSC-024, 134 N.M. 341, 76 P.3d 1098 (affirming, but not on the issue as decided by the majority). {54} This matter of first impression in our Court is an important one, in need of resolution. As I understand it, the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico has issued an unpublished order that upholds State criminal jurisdiction on land that is in the City of Española and not Indian country although it is within the exterior boundaries of the Santa Clara Pueblo. Perhaps ominous in regard to Pueblo interests, the United States has not intervened in, or requested to supply an amicus brief, in the present case. Although it may be that Defendant will ultimately lose and the Pueblo’s interests will be adversely affected unless they can develop facts that will persuade the district court to stay with dismissal and persuade the majority in this Court to affirm, this Court, our Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court (if the case were to arrive at its doorstep) nevertheless deserve a more fully developed evidentiary record and more fully developed legal positions and arguments, on the practical, legal, and sovereignty issues. The public defender appellate division of the State of New Mexico should not stand alone in the trial on jurisdiction. Interested parties such as the two Pueblos that filed Amicus briefs should take active roles in the trial of the issues on the merits. The United States should be invited to participate and should participate. The issues go far beyond the individual Defendant in this case. I realize that the case can be decided on the present record, but I do not think it judicious or prudent to do so. {55} One lingering and troublesome question that seems to avoid the fray is why, as to federal major crimes jurisdiction, non-Indian owned parcels in reservations should, as a practical, legal, or sovereignty matter, be treated differently than non-Indian owned parcels in land grants. I understand there are historical distinctions between reservations and land grants in regard to Tribal rights to transfer title to property. To the extent distinctions existed, what is the rational basis for bringing them forward into § 1151 as a basis to distinguish between reservations and dependent Indian communities? Does § 1151(b) signal anything but an attempt by Congress to acknowledge the United States Supreme Court’s judicial recognition of dependent Indian communities together with Congress’s own recognition of federal dominance and governance of those communities. I suggest that, if courts must judicially resolve this jurisdictional dispute, it may be time for the courts to refrain from attempting through misfigured pieces to put together a perfect puzzle. The legal backdrop is quaggy and unstable. What exists is a hodgepodge of cases involving a patchwork of statutes, and a mishmash of analyses, stated purposes, arguments, and results, providing, in my view, no common direction for the right result in this case. I am unable to find a congressional purpose that leads me to a definitive, much less right, result. The solution in this case needs a political, not a judicial solution. {56} It is “Congress, in pursuance of the long-established policy of the government, [that] has a right to determine for itself when the guardianship which has been maintained over the Indian shall cease. It is for that body, and not the courts, to determine when the true interests of the Indian require his release from such condition of tutelage.” Sandoval, 231 U.S. at 46, 34 S.Ct. 1 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). This early proclamation merits repeating today, not so much for the protective and paternalistic aspects needed at the time of New Mexico statehood, but as a guide for courts when considering issues that, in the last analysis, concern Pueblo sovereignty and require sensitive and important policy determinations. {57} I recognize that the cry for political solution is of little consequence when the issues are dropped in a court’s lap, particularly in view of Congress’s continued abstinence. Thus, in the vacuum of congressional interest and action, if a policy determination must be made by an appellate court, let us do so on a better record, with fuller analyses and argument. To the extent a judicial solution is required because the matter is here, more than is presently before this Court is required to assure, as best we can, the right result. While the issues are in this Court, they should carry with them the fullest, most effective possible presentation of relevant evidence, of applicable case law, and of the practical and sovereignty consequences of any court decision. {58} It is obvious that, in order to decide a case such as this, in their search for congressional intent courts will naturally hunt for relevant statutory language, legislative history, and generally-held contemporaneous understanding of its effect. In my view, this is, and will continue to be, a largely unsuccessful hunt in the present case. In such a circumstance, a court is compelled to turn to historical federal government, Pueblo, and State actions in regard to relevant lands, to practical consequences, and to what is right for the competing sovereigns, precisely what Congress ought to be addressing. {59} Cases involving reservations, allotments, and surplus lands and involving concepts relating to those circumstances, including the diminishment of reservation boundaries, seem to me to be useful only for phrases taken from them and patched into Pueblo land grant issues in order to reach a particular result. I question whether there exists any analogical benefit from that practice with respect to the issues at hand. {60} I recognize that distancing cases relating to reservations, allotments, and surplus lands from cases relating to Pueblo land grants and the PLA may not fully square with the notion that, for the purposes of jurisdiction, reservations, and land grants perhaps ought to be treated similarly. Nevertheless, it appears to me that it might be sensible to read congressional intent to be that of similar treatment for jurisdiction purposes until Congress expressly states what the majority holds, or at least until the State can present substantial and compelling evidence of such congressional intent. {61} If I were to pick and choose among reservation-related cases, as I indicated earlier I would comfortably reject cases pre-dating Sandoval, and it would seem reasonable to choose to apply to the present circumstances a view similar to that stated in Solem, namely, that “[w]hen both an act and its legislative history fail to provide substantial and compelling evidence of a congressional intention to diminish Indian lands, we are bound by our traditional solicitude for the Indian tribes to rule that diminishment did not take place and that the old reservation boundaries survived the opening.” Solem v. Bartlett, 465 U.S. 463, 472, 104 S.Ct. 1161, 79 L.Ed.2d 443 (1984). {62} Further, I understand that canons of statutory construction generally consist of either a “thrust” and a “parry” or of a “thrust” and a “eounterthrust.” See Karl N. Llewellyn, The Common Law Tradition, App. C (Little, Brown & Co.1976) (1960). In the present case, I prefer to stick with the “thrust,” namely, that “statutes are to be construed liberally in favor of the Indians with ambiguous provisions interpreted to their benefit.” Chickasaw Nation v. United States, 534 U.S. 84, 88, 122 S.Ct. 528, 151 L.Ed.2d 474 (2001) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In her dissent in Chickasaw, Justice O’Connor refers to this rule as “the Indian canon,” and she states that it “presumes congressional intent to assist its wards to overcome the disadvantages our country has placed upon them.” Id. at 99, 122 S.Ct. 528. It carries “the presumption that Congress generally intends to benefit the Nations.” Id.; see also United States v. Thompson, 941 F.2d 1074, 1077 (10th Cir. 1991) (referring to cases that “stand for the proposition that when congressional intent with respect to an Indian statute is unclear, courts will presume that Congress intended to protect, rather than diminish, Indian rights”).