Wayne Taylor, Jr., Chairman of the Hopi Tribal Council v. Kelsey Begay, President of the Navajo Nation

This appeal concerns a very narrow portion of our opinion in Masayesva v. Hale that dealt with the extent of the Navajo Tribe’s obligation to pay owelty to the Hopi Tribe. Masayesva v. Hale, 118 F.3d 1371 (9th Cir.1997). We there remanded for the district court, among other things, to determine the extent to which the existence of improvements on the Navajo land enhanced the value of the land itself. Id. at 1380 .

The facts in this epic and tragic history of the Navajo-Hopi occupation of joint land are contained in our earlier opinion. Id. at 1375-76 . We do not repeat them here.

The land partitioned to the Navajo had a variety of improvements upon it, none of which were owned by the tribe. We remanded to the district court for additional proceedings to determine whether the existence of the improvements on the land enhanced the value of the land itself. Id. at 1382 . The Hopi now appeal from the district court’s ruling that the value of the land was not enhanced as a result of any of the improvements.

We conclude that the district court did not err in finding that the schools, chapter houses, medical facility, and airstrip on the Navajo partitioned land added no value to the…