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Attorney: David Gover, Walter Echo-Hawk
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
in an arbitrary and capricious manner.
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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