| OCR Text |
Show 188 UPDATING THE HOOVER DAM DOCUMENTS However, following a settlement between the plaintiff and the Tribe, the parties, on June 22, 1976, stipulated for dismissal of the action with prejudice. £. 6. Special Master's Findings The Special Master in Arizona v. California, 376 U.S. 340, found that there were 1,900 acres of irrigable Reservation land which, together with related uses, have a maximum annual diversion requirement of 11,340 acre-feet of Colorado River water (page 267 of Special Master's Report, dated December 5, 1960). This finding, of course, preceded the Secretarial Order of November 1, 1974. F. Cocopah Indian Reservation F. 1. Background The Cocopah Indian Reservation, with approximately 431 irrigable acres located in Arizona, was established by Executive Order 2711, dated September 27, 1917. It then contained approximately 446 acres. The Executive Order provided: "It is hereby ordered that the west half of the south-east quarter of section twelve and the west half of the north-east quarter of section thirteen, township ten south, lots two, four, five and six, together with such vacant, unsurveyed and unappropriated public lands adjacent to the foregoing described subdivisions and between the same and the waters of the Colorado River as would, upon an extension of the lines of existing surveys, constitute fractional portions of the north-east quarter and north-west quarter of Section thirty, township nine south of range twenty-four west of the Gila and Salt River Meridian, Arizona, be, and the same are hereby withdrawn and set apart for the use and occupancy of Cocopah Indians, subject to any valid prior existing rights of any person or persons thereto, and reserving a right-of-way thereon for ditches or canals constructed by the authority of the United States (emphasis added)." F.2 Boundary Questions There have been differences of opinion regarding interpretation of the Executive Order. One interpretation is that the Executive Order gave everything to the Cocopah Indians between the Colorado River and the subdivision mentioned. The second interpretation is that reference to fractional portions of the northeast quarter and the northwest quarter of section 30 are words not merely of description but of limitation, and that the Indians could not, therefore, claim any land west of section 30. In a memorandum dated February 26, 1954, the Area Counsel of the Bureau of Indian Affairs questioned whether the Executive Order's description of the lands in the Reservation included an accreted area lying between the Colorado River and west of the subdivisions identified in the Order and suggested referring the matter to the Solicitor. The referral resulted in a Solicitor's Opinion to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (M-36275) of April 15, 1955, which concluded that: ".. .the Indians have no right to the accreted lands west of the boundary fixed by the Executive Order...." The Solicitor's Opinion stated that it was known at the time of the Executive Order that there was already a sizeable area of accreted land between the river and unsurveyed Section 30; hence, the restrictive language in the Order would be superfluous and without meaning which defined the western boundary of the Reservation to include such land "...as would, upon an extension of the lines or existing surveys, constitute fractional portions of the northeast quarter and the northwest quarter of section thirty, township nine south of range twenty-four west of the Gila and Salt River Meridian, Arizona." In effect, E.O. 2711 was held to establish the west boundary of the Reservation as the west boundary of Section 30, T. 9 S., R. 24 W. |
