ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20073
No(s). 19-17088 (9th Cir. Apr 28, 2021)

The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of a Native American tribe's breach of trust claim in a lawsuit concerning water rights to the Colorado River. The tribe initially sued DOI, arguing the Department violated NEPA and breached its trust obligations based on its management of the river without considering or meeting the tribe's unquantified federal reserved water rights and unmet water needs. The district court dismissed, holding the tribe lacked standing to bring its NEPA claims and that its breach of trust claim was barred by sovereign immunity. The appellate court agreed that the tribe lacked standing on NEPA, but reversed and remanded on the breach of trust claim. On remand, the district court held that it lacked jurisdiction to decide the claim because the U.S. Supreme Court reversed jurisdiction over allocation of waters in the Colorado River in Arizona v. California, and that although a general trust relationship existed between the tribe and the United States, it failed to identify a specific treaty, statute, or regulation imposing an enforceable trust duty on the U.S. government that could be vindicated in federal court. But the appellate court concluded that the tribe's claim did not implicate the Court's reservation of jurisdiction, and that DOI had an irreversible and dramatically important trust duty requiring it to ensure adequate water for the health and safety of the tribe's inhabitants in their permanent home reservation. It thus held that the district court erred in dismissing the claim, and reversed and remanded with instructions consistent with this ruling.