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<H1>Ruling inflames tribes' $90 million feud</H1>
<H2>Dispute goes back to the 1950s, and a federal agency has revived legal
fight.</H2>
<H3>By David Whitney - Bee Washington Bureau</H3>
<P>Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, March 31, 2007<BR>Story appeared in MAIN
NEWS section, Page A4</P>
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<P>WASHINGTON -- Just when it seemed like a long-standing battle between two
Northern California tribes couldn't be any more convoluted, the U.S. Department
of Interior has issued a ruling adding a new layer to the mess.</P>
<P>Not only did the ruling reverse what had been the position of the Interior
Department in a heated dispute between the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the Yurok
Tribe over more than $90 million, but it resolved nothing.</P>
<P>Instead, the decision appears to have spawned a new legal battle that, in one
way or another, has been raging for 50 years, with two trips to the U.S. Supreme
Court and many others to Capitol Hill. </P>
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<P>At issue is a pot of money from logging on the Hoopa Valley Reservation
dating back to the 1950s. That dispute spawned a lawsuit that went to the U.S.
Supreme Court, after which Congress passed a peacemaking settlement act
championed by former Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif.</P>
<P>The 1988 settlement act divided the reservation, which until then both tribes
had shared for more than a century. It also set up a $65 million settlement
fund, using escrowed timber money, that would go equally to the two tribes if
they agreed not to challenge the act in court.</P>
<P>The Hoopa signed a waiver of their right to sue and took their cut in 1991.
The Yurok tribe filed a lawsuit challenging the settlement.</P>
<P>The lawsuit finally ran its course in 2001, when the U.S. Supreme Court
refused to review lower court rulings against the Yurok.</P>
<P>The end of the lawsuit merely thrust the fight over the money into the lap of
the Interior Department.</P>
<P>The Yurok said they had signed a "conditional waiver" that became final when
the Supreme Court rejected their lawsuit. The money, now amounting to about $90
million even after the Hoopa had taken their $34 million slice, should go to
them, the Yurok said.</P>
<P>The Hoopa said the Yurok clearly weren't entitled to the money because they
had done exactly what the settlement act's incentives were aimed at
preventing.</P>
<P>When the Senate Indian Affairs Committee held a hearing on the dispute in
2002, Interior Department officials said they were in a quandary over what to do
with the settlement money. But they felt it should not go to the Yurok, who
clearly violated the terms of the settlement by filing suit. The department
pleaded for "further instruction" from Congress.</P>
<P>But Congress didn't want to decide between the two tribes.</P>
<P>Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and the state's two Democratic senators,
Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, wrote the Interior Department in 2005,
raising a series of questions, including one asking why the Interior Department
couldn't just decide this on its own.</P>
<P>The Interior Department's answer came earlier this month in a letter to the
two tribes. To the utter shock of the Hoopa, the Interior Department said all
the money should go to the Yurok. </P>
<P>Ross Swimmer, special trustee for American Indians for the Interior
Department, said the Yurok are now willing to sign the unconditional waiver that
the act required for the tribe to receive its share of the proceeds. There was
no time limit on when the waiver must be signed, Swimmer noted.</P>
<P>The Yurok called the Interior Department's new position "monumental."</P>
<P>"With this issue finally resolved, Yurok and Hoopa can put our differences
aside," Yurok tribal Chair Maria Tripp said in a statement.</P>
<P>The Hoopa responded last week by launching a new round of appeals.</P>
<P>In its filing with the Interior Department's Board of Indian Appeals, the
Hoopa called the department's about-face "absurd and unfair" and politically
inspired.</P>
<P>"Here we go again," said the tribe's longtime attorney, Thomas Schlosser.
"The only thing the Interior Department has accomplished here is to create
another round of litigation."</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=atw>
<H4>About the writer:</H4>
<UL>
<LI>The Bee's David Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or <A
href="mailto:dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com"><STRONG><FONT
color=#103d6f>dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com</FONT></STRONG></A>.</LI></UL></BLOCKQUOTE><A
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