Faras v. Hodel

845 F.2d 202 Margarite FARAS, Chairperson for the Redress Grievance Committee, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Donald P. HODEL, Secretary of the Interior, in his official capacity; and Ross O. Swimmer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, in his official capacity, Defendants-Appellees. No. 87-2198. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Feb. 8, 1988. Decided April 22, 1988. William E. Morris, Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Inc., Tucson, Ariz., for plaintiff-appellant. Angus E. Crane, Dept. of Justice, Land & Natural Resources Div., Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. Before FARRIS, BRUNETTI and THOMPSON, Circuit Judges. BRUNETTI, Circuit Judge: BACKGROUND 1 Appellant, Margarite Faras ("Faras"), is a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe ("Tribe") living on reservation land in Arizona. Faras, and other Tribal members, became concerned with deteriorating living conditions on the reservation. In response, they formed a grievance committee in which Faras has acted as chairperson. Faras believed that the Tribe was misappropriating funds received from the federal government…