## Facts

- Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) sought to build a high-voltage electric transmission line crossing land within the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Thurston County, Nebraska.
- NPPD required a perpetual easement/right-of-way across twenty-nine tracts.
- The tracts included land allotted to individual Indians held in trust and tracts in which the Winnebago Tribe held ownership interests, including undivided future interests.
- NPPD filed a condemnation action under 25 U.S.C. § 357 to obtain the necessary corridor under state eminent-domain procedures.
- Neither the Tribe, the individual allottees, nor the Secretary of the Interior consented to the requested rights-of-way.
- The district court held that the Indian Right-of-Way Act of 1948 impliedly repealed § 357 as to allotted lands and also held § 357 did not reach tribal interests; it denied condemnation.

## Issues

1. Whether the Indian Right-of-Way Act of 1948 (25 U.S.C. §§ 323–328) impliedly repealed 25 U.S.C. § 357 as a means to condemn allotted Indian lands for public purposes.
2. Whether 25 U.S.C. § 357 authorizes condemnation of property interests owned by an Indian tribe (including undivided future tribal interests), or is limited to individual allotments.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit held § 357 was not impliedly repealed by the 1948 Act as to allotted lands held for individual Indians.
- The court reversed the district court’s ruling to the extent it barred condemnation of individual allotments under § 357 absent Secretarial or allottee consent.
- The court held § 357 does not authorize condemnation of tribal land interests, including tribal undivided future interests.
- The court affirmed the district court’s ruling protecting the Tribe’s interests from condemnation under § 357.
- Disposition: affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for further proceedings consistent with these holdings.

## Legal Principles

- Implied repeals are disfavored; a later statute does not repeal an earlier one absent clear congressional intent or irreconcilable conflict.
- The Indian Right-of-Way Act of 1948 and 25 U.S.C. § 357 may operate as alternative mechanisms for obtaining rights-of-way across allotted Indian lands: an administrative route requiring Secretarial authorization and consent, and a judicial condemnation route under § 357.
- Section 357 applies to “lands allotted in severalty to Indians” and does not extend to tribal lands or tribal ownership interests; whether land is “tribal” turns on tribal ownership of the interest, not the identity of the grantor.

## Conclusion

The court allowed condemnation under 25 U.S.C. § 357 for rights-of-way over individually allotted trust lands notwithstanding the 1948 Act’s consent-based process, but barred condemnation of any tribal ownership interests, remanding for proceedings limited to the condemnable allottee interests.


Nebraska Pub. Power Dist. v. 100.95 Acres of Land, 719 F.2d 956 (8th Cir. 1983)