Facts
- In 1855, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes entered the Treaty of Hell Gate, ceding large areas while reserving land for their exclusive use and occupancy, later known as the Flathead Reservation.
- In 1904, Joseph Vanderburg, a tribal member, received an allotment within the reservation.
- The allotment later passed out of Indian ownership; it was conveyed by fee patent to a non-Indian (Gladden) in 1927.
- Mike and Vladimir Vulles acquired the parcel in 1951 as non-Indian fee owners.
- The Vulles parcel lay within the reservation and separated a tribal area known as Range Unit 5B from other tribal lands.
- A truck trail (often referred to as the Vanderburg truck trail) crossed the Vulles parcel and had been used since at least 1933 to reach Range Unit 5B.
- Tribal members used the trail for multiple purposes, including cutting and gathering wood, berry picking, and hunting, often without seeking the fee owners’ permission.
- The United States maintained and used the trail to administer and manage Range Unit 5B (including range management activities tied to tribal lands and leasing).
- In 1964, the Vulleses padlocked a gate across the trail, blocking access; tribal members removed the locks.
- The United States, acting as trustee for the Tribes, sued to enjoin obstruction of the claimed right-of-way and to recover lost revenues tied to impaired access to leased tribal grazing lands.
- The Tribes intervened after the district court denied preliminary injunctive relief.
- The district court recognized a right-of-way for access and management uses related to Range Unit 5B (such as trail maintenance and land-use administration), but denied use by individual tribal members for hunting, berry picking, or recreation.
- The Tribes alone appealed, limited to the portion of the judgment denying individual-member use for hunting, berry picking, and recreation.
Issues
- Whether tribal members had a legally enforceable right-of-way across non-Indian fee land within the reservation to reach tribal lands for hunting, berry picking, and recreation, based on the treaty, reservation status, the federal trust relationship, or long-standing use of the trail.
Decision
- The Ninth Circuit addressed only the narrow question raised by the Tribes’ appeal: individual members’ claimed right to cross the Vulles parcel for hunting, berry picking, and recreation on tribal lands beyond.
- The court held the Tribes failed to establish a legal basis for that broader, individual-member access right across the Vulles’ fee land.
- The court affirmed the district court’s denial of the claimed right-of-way for hunting, berry picking, and recreation.
Legal Principles
- Treaty and reservation status do not, by themselves, impose a general servitude on non-Indian fee land within a reservation granting tribal members passage for all desired uses; an enforceable access right must rest on a specific legal source.
- A federal trustee relationship authorizes the United States to act in litigation to protect tribal property interests, but it does not create new property burdens on privately owned fee land absent treaty, statute, or a recognized property interest.
- Long-standing use of a road across another’s land does not automatically create an easement for all asserted purposes; the claimant must show a recognized basis for the scope of the use claimed (and courts will distinguish between limited management-related access and broader personal recreational access).
- When a trial court grants limited access tied to administration of tribal lands, an appellate claim seeking to expand that access to hunting and recreation requires a separate showing of authority for the expanded scope.
Conclusion
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s refusal to grant tribal members a right-of-way across the Vulleses’ non-Indian fee parcel for hunting, berry picking, or recreation on tribal lands beyond, concluding that neither the Treaty of Hell Gate, reservation status, the federal trust relationship, nor the history of trail use established that broadened individual-member access right.