Masayesva

We affirm in most but not all respects the district court decision dividing land between the Hopi and Navajo tribes. The issues *1450 arise from application of a statute Congress passed to deal specifically with this dispute.

I. Litigation History.

For centuries, the Hopi and Navajo peoples have disagreed on their tribes’ respective rights to lands in northeastern Arizona. The dispute has been the subject of extensive litigation and legislation. See, e.g., Hopi Tribe v. Navajo Tribe, 46 F.3d 908 (9th Cir.1995), citing 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). After a district court decision in 1978, Sekaquaptewa v. MacDonald, 448 F.Supp. 1183 (D.Ariz.1978), we remanded for additional findings. Sekaquaptewa v. MacDonald, 619 F.2d 801 (9th Cir.1980). The judgment we review now is based on three separate decisions: Masayesva v. Zah, 816 F.Supp. 1387 (D.Ariz.1992) (partitioning land and lifting development freeze); Masayesva v. Zah, 793 F.Supp. 1495 (D.Ariz.1992) (deciding question of where Hopis were located in 1934); Masayesva v. Zah, 792 F.Supp. 1155 (D.Ariz.1992) (holding land acquired from…