Manybeads
Manybeads v. United States
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Noonan, J.
Jenny Manybeads et al., (Manybeads) appeal the dismissal by the district court of their suit against the United States. We affirm the dismissal for want of a necessary and indispensable party, the Hopi Tribe.
PROCEEDINGS
The past history of this litigation has recently been set out in Clinton v. Babbitt, 180 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir.1999). We need not repeat what we said there. Suffice to say that Manybeads challenged the constitutionality of 25 U.S.C. § 640d et seq. (1994), contending that it violated the Free Exercise rights of the plaintiffs. The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. On appeal, we arranged for mediation. A Settlement Agreement was reached between the Hopi Tribe and the United States and an Accommodation Agreement agreed to by the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, and representatives of individual Navajos. By this agreement, provision was made for plaintiffs here and *1166 other Navajo families residing on Hopi land to obtain at no cost-75 year leases on homesites and farmlands within land awarded by court decree to the Hopi.
The Manybeads plaintiffs remaining in this case are dissatisfied with the Accommodation Agreement and press their…