## Facts

- Congress authorized withdrawal of 6,774.65 acres from the Coeur d’Alene Reservation and conveyance to Idaho for use as a public park.
- In 1911, the United States issued a patent to Idaho requiring the land be “held, used, and maintained solely as a public park,” with title to “revert to the United States, in trust for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe,” if the land was not so used or was “alienated by said state.”
- Beginning in the 1920s, Idaho issued permits for float homes and leases for waterfront cottage sites within the park.
- In 1976, the Department of the Interior asserted the leasing and permitting program violated the patent conditions.
- Idaho sued the Secretary of the Interior for declaratory relief that the program complied with the patent; the Coeur d’Alene Tribe intervened asserting breach and seeking reversionary relief.
- The district court granted summary judgment for Idaho and later ruled the Tribe had no power of termination or forfeiture even if a breach occurred.

## Issues

1. Whether Idaho’s float-home permits and cottage-site leases violated the patent’s requirement that the land be used “solely as a public park” or constituted an “alienation” triggering reversion.
2. Whether the Coeur d’Alene Tribe possessed an enforceable power of termination or forfeiture over Idaho’s interest under the patent’s reversion language.
3. Whether the Tribe could pursue the appeal despite lacking an enforceable termination right.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Idaho.
- The court held the Tribe could pursue the appeal, but it was not entitled to forfeiture of the land.
- The court concluded the patent created a conditional estate in Idaho with a reversionary interest held by the United States (to be held in trust for the Tribe upon reversion), not a termination power vested in the Tribe.
- The court held Idaho’s limited, time-bound permits and leases for recreational use were consistent with operation of a public park and did not amount to “alienation” as used in the patent.

## Legal Principles

- A federal patent conditioning state title may create a conditional estate with a possibility of reverter in the United States; naming a tribe as trust beneficiary upon reversion does not, without more, grant the tribe a legal power of termination.
- “Alienation” in a patent condition is generally construed to bar transfer of title or comparable proprietary control, not all limited or revocable permissions incidental to park use.
- A “public park” use restriction permits historically recognized, recreational, accessory uses that do not convert the land to non-park purposes or relinquish overall public character.
- A beneficiary’s stake in a trust-labeled reversion can support participation in litigation over compliance with conditions, even if the beneficiary cannot unilaterally enforce forfeiture.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit upheld Idaho’s leasing and permitting program in Heyburn State Park as consistent with the federal patent’s public-park conditions and held that any reversionary enforcement power remained with the United States, leaving the Coeur d’Alene Tribe without an enforceable right to terminate Idaho’s title.


State of Idaho v. Hodel, 814 F.2d 1288 (9th Cir. 1987)