Mona Bell Azure, A/K/A Helen Marie Bell Azure v. Rogers C. B. Morton, Secretary of the Interior

This appeal involves claims of a group of Indians of the Fort Belknap Indian Community of Montana to participate in the distribution of funds appropriated by Congress in payment of a judgment by the Indian Claims Commission. The district court granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs, thereby reversing a contrary determination by the Secretary of the Interior. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

The plaintiffs, hereinafter referred to as the Azure Group, were duly enrolled members of the Gros Ventre Tribe of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. Their names had appeared on the 1937 judgment roll of the Tribe. After a judgment by the Indian Claims Commission in 1968 in favor of that tribe, Congress undertook by Public Law 92-254 to prescribe the terms of distribution. Section 2 of the Act of Congress of March 18, 1972 provides:

86 Stat. 64 . (Emphasis added.)

The Secretary of the Interior denied the claims of the Azure Group on the ground that they did not come within the purview of Section 2. In reversing, the district court ordered the Secretary to distribute $976 to each of the 29 plaintiffs who were duly enrolled in the Gros Ven-tre Tribe and participated in its…