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Attorney: Walter Echo-Hawk, David Gover
Case Update
On January 30, 2006, NARF as part of a legal team, filed an amici curia brief in the Spirit Cave repatriation litigation captioned Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe v. United States Bureau of Land Management in the United States District Court of Nevada. We are representing the National Congress of American Indians, Morning Star Institute, Association of American Indian Affairs and the Medicine Wheel Coalition of Sacred Sites in North America in this important NAGPRA repatriation litigation. The brief supports the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe's efforts to repatriate the remains of their ancestor from the United States Bureau of Land Management.
On September, 21, 2006,
the Court granted the Tribe's Motion for
Summary Judgment and remanded the matter
to the BLM for reconsideration. Judge Hicks
determined that the BLM failed to fully
and fairly review the Tribe's scientific
evidence or address the NAGPRA Review Committee's
findings that opposed the BLM's initial
determination. This failure by the BLM
violates the NAGPRA and the Administrative
Procedures Act and, therefore, necessitated
a finding that the BLM acted arbitrary
and capricious. The order, however, does
not require the BLM to reverse its determination
of non-affiliation. Instead, the Court
ordered the BLM to compare its initial
determination with the Tribe's evidence
and the Review Committee's findings, and
to "explain why its determination is, or is not, still the most correct finding available."
On November 21, 2006, the United States appealed Judge Hicks' decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Tribe, in turn, filed a cross-appeal on December 4, 2006. We are pleased to announce that on April 5, 2007 the United States opted to dismiss their appeal to the ninth circuit. In turn the Tribe also dismissed their cross-appeal and intend on obtaining a positive resolution to the matter through the remand process.
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