## Facts

- Ambrose and Minnie Whitefoot were enrolled members of the Yakama (Yakima) Nation who claimed individual rights in specific fishing stations at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River.
- Under Yakama custom, particular fishing stations at Celilo Falls were treated as family or individual holdings, identified by long usage, inheritable, and accompanied by related improvements (including cableways).
- The 1855 treaty reserved to the Yakama the right to take fish at usual and accustomed places, including off-reservation locations such as Celilo Falls.
- Congress authorized construction of The Dalles Dam; completion of the project inundated Celilo Falls and permanently destroyed access to and use of the plaintiffs’ claimed stations and improvements.
- The United States paid the Yakima Nation a lump sum (about $15 million) described as consideration for destruction or inundation of usual and accustomed fishing stations; the Tribe distributed the funds per capita (about $3,270 per member).
- The Whitefoots asserted the per capita distribution did not reflect the value of Minnie Whitefoot’s inherited interests in six specific fishing stations and related structures.
- Plaintiffs sued in the Court of Claims for just compensation, alleging a Fifth Amendment taking of their individual property.

## Issues

1. Whether individual fishing-station interests recognized by tribal custom and supported by treaty-reserved fishing rights constitute compensable property under the Fifth Amendment when destroyed by government-caused inundation.
2. Whether a prior lump-sum payment to the Tribe and per capita distribution to members bars or fully satisfies an individual member’s separate takings claim for specific fishing-station interests.

## Decision

- The court held the plaintiffs’ interests in specific fishing stations and related improvements were compensable individual property interests.
- The court concluded the inundation and destruction caused by The Dalles Dam constituted a taking of those individual interests requiring just compensation.
- The court ruled the tribal lump-sum settlement and per capita distribution did not, by itself, extinguish or fully satisfy plaintiffs’ claims for additional compensation for proven individual interests.
- The court treated amounts received through the tribal distribution as relevant to avoiding double recovery, but not as conclusive of just compensation.

## Legal Principles

- Treaty-reserved fishing rights at usual and accustomed places can constitute property interests protected by the Fifth Amendment.
- Individual property interests may be recognized in federal takings litigation when they are definite and longstanding under tribal custom, including inheritable, exclusive-use fishing stations and related improvements.
- Government destruction of the ability to exercise a protected property right through permanent inundation can amount to a compensable taking.
- A tribe’s negotiated lump-sum recovery and per capita distribution does not automatically bar individual members from obtaining additional compensation for distinct, demonstrable individual property taken by the United States.

## Conclusion

The Court of Claims recognized that specific, custom-based Yakama fishing stations and improvements at Celilo Falls could be individually owned property protected by the Fifth Amendment, and held that government-caused inundation from The Dalles Dam took those interests, permitting additional recovery beyond a general tribal lump-sum settlement where necessary to reach just compensation.


Whitefoot v. United States, 293 F.2d 658 (Ct. Cl. 1961)