Chenoweth Takes On Tribe

At Congressman Helen Chenoweth’s request, a property rights group tied to former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese will represent two Kamiah residents in a land dispute with the federal government.

Nancy Marzulla, president of Defenders of Property Rights, said Thursday that the legal foundation will represent Reynold Allgood and Lorna Boykin in their battle against the U.S. Department of Interior.

“It is a classic case of government overkill and government overreach,” she said in a telephone interview from her Washington, D.C., office. “We think there are all sorts of constitutional questions raised by the potential taking of the Allgood’s property.”

The dispute started over an alleged survey error in 1966. Some members of the Nez Perce Tribe contend Allgood and Boykin are illegally occupying land that the government allotted to their Indian forebears.

The non-Indians in the dispute say they purchased the properties totaling less than 20 acres in good faith and have legal documentation to support their claims.

Two weeks ago, attorneys for the Indians involved asked the Interior Department to issue trespass notices and collect damages from the non-Indians.

Robert McCarthy of the Idaho Legal Aid Services’ Indian Law Unit in Lewiston, who represents the Indian families involved, said there is no legal basis for a claim that trespass notices on behalf of his clients would amount to “taking” the non-Indians’ property.

“How can you take your own property?” he asked. “It is just bizarre. Takings is when government takes somebody’s property for public use. That has nothing to do with this case.”

McCarthy said he would sue unless Interior Department officials issue trespass notices on Monday.

Chenoweth said she asked the private property rights group on Wednesday to help Allgood and Boykin. Its advisory board includes Meese, one-time U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and Idaho Sen. Larry Craig.

“There is a whole body of law and constitutional private property rights that are being ignored by the Department of Interior,” Chenoweth said. “My way of resolving it was trying to get the best legal help for the people involved. I am just making sure due process is instituted and just compensation.”