The Hopi Tribe, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant v. The Navajo Tribe, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees v. United States of America

We have before us in these consolidated appeals and cross-appeals another in a series of disputes between the Hopi and Navajo tribes stemming from what was once characterized as “ ‘the greatest title problem of the West.’ ” Healing v. Jones, 210 F.Supp. 125, 129 (D.Ariz.1962), aff'd 373 U.S. 758 , 83 S.Ct. 1559 , 10 L.Ed.2d 703 (1963) (per curiam).

The Navajo Nation appeals the district court’s order enforcing an award to the Hopi Tribe under the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act, Pub.L. No. 93-531, 88 Stat. 1712, 25 U.S.C. § 640d, et seq. (1980) (the Settlement Act). On the basis of an appraisal issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and adopted by the Secretary of the Interior (the Secretary), the district court awarded the Hopi Tribe $586,803.60 (the homesite rental determination) for the fair market rental value of homesites occupied by Navajos between 1979 and 1984 in formerly shared lands after their partition and allocation to the Hopi Tribe.

The Navajo Nation appeals this award on the ground that the BIA and the Secretary arbitrarily disregarded relevant factors pertaining to the measurement and valuation of homesite tracts and thereby abused their discretion…