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    TIMPANOGOS TRIBE v. CONWAY

     

    FILED

    United States Court of Appeals

    Tenth Circuit

    APR 15 2002

    PATRICK FISHER

    Clerk PUBLISH

    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

    TENTH CIRCUIT

    TIMPANOGOS TRIBE, Snake Band of ShoshoneNo. 01-4056

    Indians of Utah Territory,

    Plaintiff - Appellee,

    v.

    KEVIN CONWAY, Assistant Director, Utah

    Department of Natural Resources, Division

    of Wildlife Resources; MICHAEL O.

    LEAVITT, Governor of the State of

    Utah,

    Defendants - Appellants.

    UTE INDIAN TRIBE OF THE UINTAH AND

    OURAY RESERVATION, UTAH,

    Amicus Curiae.

    Appeal from the United States District Court

    for the District of Utah

    (D.C. No. 2:00-CV-734-C)

    Philip C. Pugsley, Assistant Attorney General (Mark L. Shurtleff, Attorney

    General, with him on the briefs), State of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, for

    Defendants-Appellants.

    Michael L. Humiston of Heber City, Utah, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

    Sandra Hansen, Office of Legal Counsel, Ute Indian Tribe, Fort Duchesne, Utah;

     

     

     

     

     

    and Tod J. Smith of Whiteing & Smith, Boulder, Colorado, filed a brief for

    Amicus Curiae.

    Before SEYMOUR and HENRY, Circuit Judges, and OBERDORFER,(1) District

    Judge.

    SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge.

    The Timpanogos Tribe, Snake Band of Shoshone Indians of Utah Territory

    and aboriginal inhabitants of the region, filed suit against Kevin Conway,

    Assistant Director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, and Governor

    Michael Leavitt of Utah. The district court denied defendants' motion to dismiss

    on the basis of, inter alia, Eleventh Amendment immunity. Defendants filed an

    interlocutory appeal of the Eleventh Amendment immunity issue and ask us to

    assert pendant appellate jurisdiction over the other issues argued in support of

    their motion to dismiss. We reach only the issues of Eleventh Amendment

    immunity and subject matter jurisdiction, and we affirm.

    I.

    The Tribe's complaint originally sought to quiet title on the Uintah Valley

     

     

    (1) Louis F. Oberdorfer, United States District Judge for the District of the

    District of Columbia, sitting by designation.

     

     

     

     

    Reservation and obtain the following: a declaration that the Timpanogos Tribe,

    and not the Ute Tribe, are the "Indians of Utah" contemplated in the Executive

    Order, see Exec. Order, 1 Kappler 900 (Oct. 3, 1861), and Congressional Act, see

    Act of May 5, 1864, ch. 77, 13 Stat. 63, creating the Reservation; recognition of

    their rights under the Order and Act, specifically rights to hunt, fish, and gather;

    and a declaration that Messrs. Conway and Leavitt have no authority to regulate

    or control the hunting, fishing, or gathering rights of the Timpanogos Tribe on

    Indian lands within the Reservation, except as such authority is explicitly granted

    to the State of Utah by Act of Congress or consented to by the Tribe. Defendants

    filed a motion to dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) raising five issues: (1)

    Eleventh Amendment immunity; (2) res judicata; (3) lack of subject matter

    jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. 1331; (4) failure to join indispensable parties; and

    (5) laches.

    Over the course of a hearing on the motion and at the suggestion of the

    district court, the Tribe narrowed its complaint to come within the Ex parte Young

    exception to Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity. See Ex parte Young, 209

    U.S. 123 (1908). By the end of the hearing, the Tribe had agreed to amend its

    complaint to seek nothing more than prospective, non-monetary, injunctive relief

    as to its hunting, fishing, and gathering rights within the Indian-controlled lands

     

     

     

     

    of the Uintah Valley Reservation.(1) The district court denied the motion to dismiss

    on all grounds.

    II.

    Our initial concern on appeal is jurisdictional. Courts of appeals normally

    have jurisdiction only over final decisions of the district courts. 28 U.S.C. 

    1291. There are exceptions to the final judgment rule. A judgment that is not the

    complete and final judgment in a case is immediately appealable if it "fall[s] in

    that small class which finally determine claims of right separable from, and

    collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and

    too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be

    deferred until the whole case is adjudicated." Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer

    Auth. v. Metcalf & Eddy, 506 U.S. 139, 143 (1993) (quoting Cohen v. Beneficial

    Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 546 (1949)).

    It is well-established that orders denying individual officials' claims of

    absolute and qualified immunity are among those that may be immediately

    appealed. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511 (1985) (qualified immunity);

     

     

    (1) The district court made clear in the hearing on the motion to dismiss that

    the Tribe's claims as to rights within the boundaries of the Uintah Valley

    Reservation do not relate to lands within the reservation that have been explicitly

    withdrawn.

     

     

     

     

    Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731 (1982) (absolute immunity). In Puerto Rico

    Aqueduct, the Court extended the Cohen collateral-order doctrine to denials of

    states' and state entities' claims to Eleventh Amendment immunity. See Puerto

    Rico Aqueduct, 506 U.S. at 147 ("We hold that States and state entities that claim

    to be `arms of the State' may take advantage of the collateral order doctrine to

    appeal a district court order denying a claim of Eleventh Amendment immunity.").

    We thus properly exercise appellate jurisdiction over the Eleventh Amendment

    claim.

    Defendants also urge us to exercise pendant appellate jurisdiction over the

    other claims asserted in their motion to dismiss, although none of them would

    warrant an interlocutory appeal on its own. Those issues include res judicata,

    subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1331, failure to join necessary and

    indispensable parties under Fed. R. Civ. P. 19(b), and laches. In addition,

    defendants contend the complaint should be dismissed for the alleged failure of

    the Tribe to exhaust administrative remedies for federal tribal recognition under

    25 C.F.R. Part 83.

    We have jurisdiction over an extremely narrow class of claims raised

    interlocutorily. The collateral order doctrine sets a high bar for any interlocutory

    appeal, allowing appeal from only those decisions that are conclusive, resolve

    important questions separate from the merits, and are effectively unreviewable on

     

     

     

     

    appeal from final judgment. See Cohen, 337 U.S. at 546. In Swint v. Chambers

    County Comm'n, 514 U.S. 35 (1995), the Supreme Court held the Cohen doctrine

    applies to pendent claims as well. Pendant claims are thus appealable "if, and

    only if, they too fall within Cohen's collateral-order exception to the final-

    judgment rule." Id. at 49.

    In urging us to take jurisdiction over their pendent claims, defendants cite

    to only one case: the Fifth Circuit's pre-Swint decision in In re Nissan Motor

    Corp. Antitrust Litigation, 552 F.2d 1088 (5th Cir. 1977). Nissan held

    interlocutory review may include related, threshold issues raised in the same

    motion which have the potential of being dispositive. Id. at 1096. Our circuit,

    however, has taken a different approach to the issue in light of Swint.

    We have recognized that the exercise of pendent appellate jurisdiction "is

    generally disfavored." Armijo by and through Chavez v. Wagon Mound Pub. Sch.,

    159 F.3d 1253, 1264 (10th Cir. 1998) (quoting Moore v. City of Wynnewood, 57

    F.3d 924, 929 (10th Cir. 1995)). With that in mind, we have interpreted Swint to

    mean that pendent appellate jurisdiction may still be appropriate "where the

    otherwise nonappealable decision is `inextricably intertwined' with the appealable

    decision, or where review of the nonappealable decision is `necessary to ensure

    meaningful review' of the appealable one." Moore, 57 F.3d at 930 (quoting

    Swint, 514 U.S. at 51); see also Armijo, 159 F.3d at 1264-65.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    [A] pendent appellate claim can be regarded as inextricably intertwined

    with a properly reviewable claim on collateral appeal only if the pendent

    claim is coterminous with, or subsumed in, the claim before the court on

    interlocutory appeal Ä that is, when the appellate resolution of the collateral

    appeal necessarily resolves the pendent claim as well.

    Id.

    Defendants do not provide any reasons why their pendent claims based on

    res judicata, Rule 19(b), exhaustion, and laches are "inextricably intertwined"

    with their Eleventh Amendment interlocutory claim. In fact, they do no more

    than cite to Nissan. Having reviewed these claims in light of the precedents in

    this circuit, we are unable to find any justification that would allow us to exercise

    appellate jurisdiction over them.

    We reach a different result with respect to defendants' claim that the Tribe

    has failed to identify a basis for the exercise of subject matter jurisdiction under

    28 U.S.C.  1331. The Supreme Court recently reiterated its longstanding rule

    that jurisdiction is a threshold question which an appellate court must resolve

    before addressing the merits of the matter before it. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for

    a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83 (1998). "`On every writ of error or appeal, the

    first and fundamental question is that of jurisdiction, first, of this court, and then

    of the court from which the record comes.'" Id. at 94 (quoting Great S. Fire Proof

    Hotel Co. v. Jones, 177 U.S. 449, 453 (1900)). "[I]f the record discloses that the

    lower court was without jurisdiction this court will notice the defect . . . .[W]e

     

     

     

     

    have jurisdiction on appeal, not of the merits but merely for the purpose of

    correcting the error of the lower court in entertaining the suit." Id. at 95 (internal

    quotations omitted).

    In concluding we must address defendants' argument that the district court

    lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the Tribe's claim, we agree with the

    Second Circuit's determination in Merritt v. Shuttle, Inc., 187 F.3d 263 (2d Cir.

    1999), that deciding the jurisdictional issue in an interlocutory appeal does not

    run afoul of Swint. As in Merritt, our examination of the basis for the district

    court's subject matter jurisdiction over the Tribe's claim is necessary to ensure

    meaningful review of the district court's order denying Eleventh Amendment

    immunity on that claim. See id. at 269; see also ANR Pipeline Co. v. Lafaver, 150

    F.3d 1178, 1186 (10th Cir. 1998) (reviewing district court consideration of

    subject matter jurisdiction on interlocutory appeal necessary to provide "plenary

    review to issues under the Eleventh Amendment").

    The existence of subject matter jurisdiction goes to the very power of

    the district court to issue the rulings now under consideration.

    Indeed, as the Supreme Court recently reminded, "[f]or a court to

    pronounce upon [the merits] when it has no jurisdiction to do so is,

    by very definition, for a court to act ultra vires."

    Merritt, 187 F.3d at 269 (quoting Steel Co., 523 U.S. at 101-02) (internal citation

    omitted).

    In sum, because we have appellate jurisdiction over the interlocutory appeal

     

     

     

     

    of defendants' assertion of Eleventh Amendment immunity, we also have

    appellate jurisdiction to determine whether the district court had subject matter

    jurisdiction over the Tribe's underlying claim against defendants in the first

    instance.(2) As we ordinarily do, we turn first to the merits of the subject matter

    jurisdiction issue, and then to the merits of the Eleventh Amendment issue.

    III.

    Defendants assert the district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction because

    plaintiffs have failed to state a claim that raises a cognizable federal question.

    The crux of defendants' contention, described in more detail below, is that the

    Tribe has no federal right on which to base a claim because it is not a "federally

    recognized" tribe.

    In assessing whether the Tribe has stated a federal question in asserting its

    right to hunt on the Reservation, we look to the roots of the relationship between

    Indian tribes and the United States government. By the time of the Revolutionary

    War, "[i]t was accepted that Indian nations held `aboriginal title' to lands they had inhabited from time immemorial." County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation

    of N.Y., 470 U.S. 226, 233-34 (1985) (Oneida II).

    It very early became accepted doctrine in this Court that

    although fee title to the lands occupied by Indians when the colonists

    arrived became vested in the sovereignÄfirst the discovering

    European nation and later the original States and the United StatesÄa

    right of occupancy in the Indian tribes was nevertheless recognized.

    That right, sometimes called Indian title and good against all but the

    sovereign, could be terminated only by sovereign act. Once the

    United States was organized and the Constitution adopted, these

    tribal rights to Indian lands became the exclusive province of the

    federal law. Indian title, recognized to be only a right of occupancy,

    was extinguishable only by the United States.

    Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y. v. County of Oneida, 414 U.S. 661, 667 (1974)

    (Oneida I).

    The federal government has formally recognized the rights of Indians to

    specified areas of land through treaties with tribes and by statute and executive

    order. See generally Felix S. Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law, at

    473-81 (1982 ed.).

    Beyond general principles of liberal interpretation of treaties

    in favor of tribes, there are certain rules with respect to the

    interpretation of treaty provisions establishing tribal land ownership.

    So long as a treaty purports to recognize Indian title or permanent

    rights to particularly described land it creates a recognized Indian

    title. Accordingly, phrases in treaty grants such as "use and

    occupancy" or "as Indian lands are held" do not refer to original

    Indian title but are held to vest recognized and enforceable property

    (2) This is so notwithstanding the fact that the denial of a motion to dismiss

    for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is not ordinarily entitled to interlocutory

    review. See Catlin v. United States, 324 U.S. 229, 236 (1945). We emphasize

    that our jurisdiction to review subject matter jurisdiction in this case exists only

    because we have interlocutory appellate jurisdiction over defendants' assertion of

    Eleventh Amendment immunity from the Tribe's claim, the very claim which

    defendants contend the district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to consider.

     

     

     

     

    rights in the tribes."

    Id. at 476.

    The reservation at issue here was created by executive order and approved

    by an act of Congress.(3) The Act authorized and required the collection and

    settlement of the Indians of the Utah territory in the Uintah Valley, which was

    "set apart for the permanent settlement and exclusive occupation of such of the

    different tribes of Indians of said territory as may be induced to inhabit the same."

    Id. Under the accepted construction principles applicable to the creation of

    Indian reservations quoted above, the language of the Act setting apart the Uintah

    Valley for the permanent settlement and exclusive occupancy of Utah Indian

    tribes recognized and guaranteed the Indian rights of the tribes who settled there.

    Those rights include the hunting rights at issue in this case. "As a general rule,

    Indians enjoy exclusive treaty rights to hunt and fish on lands reserved to them,

    unless such rights were clearly relinquished by treaty or have been modified by

    Congress. These rights need not be expressly mentioned in the treaty." United

    States v. Dion, 476 U.S. 734, 738 (1986) (internal citation omitted).

    "It is rudimentary that `Indian title is a matter of federal law and can be

    extinguished only with federal consent' and that the termination of the protection

    that federal law, treaties, and statutes extend to Indian occupancy is `exclusively

     

     

     

    (3) Indian reservations created by statute, agreement, or executive order

    generally have the same legal ramifications as those created by treaty. See United

    States v. Dion, 476 U.S. 734, 745 n.8 (1986); Felix S. Cohen, Handbook of

    Federal Indian Law, at 127-28 (1982 ed.).

     

     

     

     

    the province of federal law.'" Wilson v. Omaha Indian Tribe, 442 U.S. 653, 670-

    71 (1979) (quoting Oneida I, 414 U.S. at 670). Although the Tribe here asserts

    Indian title under a federal statute, defendants nevertheless argue that the Tribe's

    claim does not arise under federal law for purposes of subject matter jurisdiction

    pursuant to section 1331. Defendants contend the Tribe is barred from

    proceeding under section 1331 because the Tribe is not administratively

    recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of Interior pursuant

    to 25 C.F.R. Pt. 83, because the Tribe was not included as one for whose benefit

    the Reservation was created, and because the Act creating the Reservation was

    not intended to create an implied cause of action. The main thrust of all

    defendants' arguments is an assertion that the Tribe's lack of federally recognized

    status is fatal to its ability to proceed under section 1331. We disagree.

    In 1978, the Department of the Interior promulgated regulations

    establishing the procedures by which it would acknowledge "that certain

    American Indian groups exist as tribes." 25 C.F.R.  83.2.(4) Administrative

    recognition of an Indian tribe is now a prerequisite to that tribe's ability to obtain

    "the protection, services, and benefits of the Federal government available to

     

     

     

    (4) These regulations cite as statutory authority for their promulgation 5

    U.S.C. 301; 25 U.S.C. 2, 9; and 43 U.S.C. 1457. See 25 C.F.R. Pt. 83.

    "The term tribe has no universal legal definition. There is no single federal

    statute defining an Indian tribe for all purposes, although the Constitution and

    many federal statutes make use of the term." Cohen, at 3.

     

     

     

     

    Indian tribes by virtue of their status as tribes." Id. However, the federal

    government had previously recognized groups of Indians as tribes in a variety of

    ways for a variety of purposes. See generally Cohen, at 3-7. Even after the

    promulgation of Part 83, "tribes cannot be neatly divided into `recognized' and

    `nonrecognized' tribes for all purposes; rather, a tribe may `exist' for some

    purposes but not for others." Id. at 7.

    Moreover, "[t]he Department of the Interior cannot under any

    circumstances abrogate an Indian treaty directly or indirectly. Only Congress can

    abrogate a treaty, and only by making absolutely clear its intention to do so."

    United States v. Washington, 641 F.2d 1368, 1371 (9th Cir. 1981); see also Dion,

    476 U.S. at 738-40; Wilson, 442 U.S. at 670-71. Thus, the fact that a tribe is not

    administratively recognized does not affect that tribe's vested treaty rights. See

    Greene v. Babbitt, 64 F.3d 1266, 1270 (9th Cir. 1995); see also Menominee Tribe

    v. United States, 391 U.S. 404 (1968) (treaty hunting rights survived despite

    congressional termination of all formal tribal political authority). "[A] tribe's

    recognition or lack of recognition by the Secretary of the Interior does not

    determine whether the tribe has vested treaty rights." Greene, 64 F.3d at 1270.

    "Nonrecognition of the tribe by the federal government and the failure of the

    Secretary of the Interior to approve a tribe's enrollment may result in loss of

    statutory benefits, but can have no impact on vested treaty rights." Id. (quoting

     

     

     

     

    United States v. Washington, 520 F.2d 676, 692-93 (9th Cir. 1975)). Accordingly,

    the Tribe here may establish federal question jurisdiction in asserting its hunting

    rights despite the fact that it is not recognized by the Department of the Interior.

    Defendants rely on Western Shoshone Bus. Council v. Babbitt, 1 F.3d 1052

    (10th Cir. 1993), in arguing that the Tribe's lack of recognized status bars its

    ability to assert its Indian rights under the Act creating the Uintah reservation.

    Western Shoshone is distinguishable, however, due to the nature of the federal

    statute involved in that case. The Tribe in Western Shoshone was seeking to

    assert rights under 25 U.S.C.  81, which requires that contracts with tribes for

    the payment of money be approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Section 81

    created a federal benefit available to Indian tribes officially recognized for that

    purpose. Because the tribe in that case was not administratively recognized, we

    held it was not within the zone of interests protected by section 81 and therefore

    had no standing to bring suit. Here, however, the statute establishing the

    reservation did not create a federal benefit or provide a federal service; rather, it

    recognized and guaranteed preexisting rights. Western Shoshone addressed only

    the ability of an unrecognized tribe to obtain statutory benefits created by the

    federal government; it does not apply to preexisting Indian rights recognized and

    guaranteed by a treaty, statute, or executive order.

    Defendants' remaining challenges to subject matter jurisdiction under

     

     

     

     

    section 1331 may be addressed summarily. Defendants contend the Tribe cannot

    claim rights under the Act establishing the Reservation because it is not a tribe for

    whose benefit the Reservation was created. It does not appear from the scant

    record before us on appeal that defendants presented this argument to the district

    court. In any event, as the district court observed, on a motion to dismiss under

    Rule 12(b)(6) the court "must accept as true all the factual allegations in the

    reasonable inferences in plaintiff's favor." Seamons v. Snow, 84 F.3d 1226,

    1231-32 (10th Cir. 1996). The allegations in the Tribe's complaint, taken as true,

    are clearly sufficient for purposes of a motion to dismiss to demonstrate that the

    Tribe is a group to whom the Act applies.

    Defendants also assert that the Tribe may not maintain an action to enforce

    its rights under the Act which established the Reservation because the Act was

    not intended to create a private cause of action under the analysis of Cort v. Ash,

    422 U.S. 66 (1975). However, the legion of cases in which tribes have sued to

    enforce Indian rights protected by treaties, statutes and executive orders have

    proceeded without undertaking that analysis. See, e.g., Minnesota v. Mille Lacs

    Band of Chippewa Indians, 526 U.S. 172 (tribe sued state entities and officials

    seeking injunctive relief with respect to treaty hunting and fishing rights

    guaranteed by treaty). As the Supreme Court explained in Oneida II, "Indians

    have a federal common-law right to sue to enforce their aboriginal land rights."

     

     

     

     

    470 U.S. at 235. The Court also held that the Nonintercourse Act of 1793, the

    Act claimed by petitioners in Oneida II to preempt the Indians common-law

    rights, did not do so because it "did not establish a comprehensive remedial plan

    for dealing with violations of Indian property rights. There is no indication in the

    legislative history that Congress intended to pre-empt common-law remedies."

    Id. at 237; see also Moe v. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, 425 U.S. 463,

    473 (1976) ("[I]t would appear that Congress contemplated that a tribe's access to

    federal court to litigate a matter arising `under the Constitution, laws, or treaties'

    would be at least in some respects as broad as that of the United States suing as

    the tribe's trustee").

    The only case cited by defendants in support of their argument, Pelt v. State

    of Utah, 104 F.3d 1534 (10th Cir. 1996), is clearly distinguishable. The relevant

    portion of the statute at issue in Pelt provided that a portion of oil and gas

    royalties from tribal leases on lands added to the Navajo Indian Reservation were

    to be paid to the State of Utah and were to be expended by the State for the

    health, education, and welfare of Navajo Indians. The Navajo Indian

    beneficiaries of the royalty fund sued the State of Utah under the statute for

    breach of fiduciary duty. The case presented the question whether the plaintiffs

    had a cause of action for breach of duty under the Act creating the royalty fund

    and under federal common law trust principles. Because Pelt did not involve a

     

     

     

     

    suit to enforce Indian rights recognized by treaty or statute, it is inapposite here.

    We have found no case in which a tribe asserting Indian rights under the treaty or

    statute guaranteeing them was required to satisfy the requirements of Cort v. Ash,

    and we decline to impose such a requirement here.

    We conclude that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over this

    action under section 1331 and we proceed to the merits of the court's ruling on

    Eleventh Amendment immunity.

    IV.

    It is defendants' position that, as state officials, they are protected by

    Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit by the Tribe. The Eleventh Amendment

    generally bars suits against a state in federal court commenced by citizens of that

    state or citizens of another state. See Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 13-15

    (1890). When a party files suit against a state official in federal court seeking

    only prospective, equitable relief for violations of federal law, however, that case

    may proceed. See Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. at 159-160; see also Elephant Butte

    Irrigation Dist. v. Dep't of the Interior, 160 F.3d 602, 607-608 (10th Cir. 1998).

    While the decision whether to apply the Ex parte Young doctrine "is often less

    than clear," Elephant Butte, 160 F.3d at 608, this is not one of those cases.

    The Tribe's original complaint sought broad relief on a number of

     

     

     

     

    questions that would have implicated Eleventh Amendment concerns. In the

    hearing on the motion to dismiss, the district court encouraged the Tribe to

    narrow its claims accordingly. The Tribe represented to the district court it would

    do so. Once amended, the complaint will seek no more than an injunction barring

    Utah state officials from prosecuting members of the Timpanogos Tribe for

    hunting, fishing, and gathering with Tribe-issued licenses on Indian lands within

    the Uintah Reservation. The Tribe acknowledges that it is obligated to file

    amended pleadings conforming to the trial court's ruling. Aplee. Br. at 4. At oral

    argument, counsel for defendants responsibly conceded that if, as we believe is

    the case, the issue now before us involves no more than the Timpanogos Tribe's

    right to hunt and fish on Indian land within the Uintah Valley Reservation, this

    case falls squarely within the exception set out by Ex parte Young and its

    progeny.

    In applying the Ex parte Young doctrine, we follow a four-part framework.

    See Elephant Butte, 160 F.3d at 609. First, we determine whether the action is

    against state officials or the state itself. Second, we look at whether the alleged

    conduct of the state officials constitutes a violation of federal law. Third, we

    assess whether the relief sought is permissible prospective relief or analogous to a

    retroactive award of damages impacting the state treasury. Finally, we analyze

    whether the suit rises to the level of implicating "special sovereignty interests."

     

     

     

     

    Id. (quoting ANR Pipeline Co., 150 F.3d at 1193). The action here meets this test.

    It is against state officials for conduct that allegedly violates the rights of the

    Tribe under the Congressional Act of 1864. It seeks only prospective relief that

    would not in any way retroactively affect the state treasury. Finally, considering

    that the state has no sovereign interests over Indian land, or more particularly, no

    interest in enforcing its gaming laws within sovereign Indian territory, the

    injunction sought implicates no special sovereignty interests. Compare Idaho v.

    Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho, 521 U.S. 261, 281-88 (1997) (holding action

    equivalent to quiet title over navigable waters regulated and controlled by state is

    form of prohibited relief); see also Elephant Butte, 160 F.3d at 611-13. The

    district court correctly held the Eleventh Amendment inapplicable.

    For the forgoing reasons, we AFFIRM the decision of the district court

    denying defendants' motion to dismiss the Tribe's claim against them for lack of

    subject matter jurisdiction or on the basis of Eleventh Amendment immunity.

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