Puyallup Indian Tribe v. Port of Tacoma

This case involves a question of title to part of the former bed of the Puyallup River. The Port of Tacoma appeals from a ruling by the district court that the Tribe received title to the riverbed by treaty in 1857 and that a river rechannelization project in 1948-50 that exposed the former riverbed was an avulsive change of the river’s course which left title to the bed in the Tribe as the pre-avulsion owner. See Puyallup Tribe of Indians v. Port of Tacoma, 525 F.Supp. 65 (W.D.Wash.1981). The Port further challenges the court’s ruling that the State of Washington and the United States need not be joined as necessary parties. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1976) and affirm.

I

Prior to the arrival of white settlers in the mid-nineteenth century, the Puget Sound area and the rivers that drain into it, including the Puyallup, were inhabited by Indians known as Coast Salish. In 1854, representatives of various bands and groups of these Indians entered into the Treaty of Medicine Creek with the United States. In return for a number of reservations, a guarantee of continued fishing rights, and other promises, the Indians gave up their claim to their aboriginal…