Land Decision For Nez Perce Correct, Federal Lawyer Says

A 1994 decision that land south of Kamiah belongs to Nez Perce tribal members should stand, a U.S. Interior Department attorney has concluded.

In a letter to U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, Leslie Turner, counsel to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, said Craig would have the opportunity at a meeting today to offer suggestions for relief to the non-Indian occupants of the property.

Turner’s interpretation upholds an Aug. 31, 1994, decision by the Interior Board of Land Appeals. The ruling said the erroneous survey in question was based on a private and unrecorded land measurement done in 1966, not a century-old Bureau of Land Management survey, said Robert McCarthy of the Idaho Legal Aid Services Indian Law Unit on Monday.

Turner’s letter said no motion for reconsideration was filed following the 1994 decision, and there apparently was no basis for reconsideration.

Turner suggested the non-Indian landholders could pursue their case in federal court, but McCarthy said the deadline for filing a suit there might have passed.

The Idaho Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors revoked the license of the man who did the 1979 survey, citing gross incompetence, McCarthy said.

The land has been sold and subdivided over the years and now is in the hands of five non-Indians: Lorna L. Boykin, Reynold L. Allgood, Warren Staats, Robert Hammer and Velma Tompkins. They say they purchased the property in good faith, hold deeds to the land and have built homes.

Turner’s finding is a step forward in resolving the issue, McCarthy said, but he still expects to have to sue the government to enforce the 1994 decision. That likely will mean issuing trespass notices to force the residents off the land.

McCarthy blamed political interference by Craig and U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, for prolonging the battle.