Spirit Lake Tribe v. North Dakota

This case has been in litigation for fifteen years. In 1989, the district court rejected the Tribe’s claims on the merits, ruling that the government had paid for the lakebed. Devils Lake I, 714 F.Supp. 1019 (D.N.D.1989). We reversed, ruling that summary judgment was inappropriate since, as we stated, “The facts of the instant case suggest that the parties may have deliberately excluded the lakebed from the 1977 settlement because they considered it part of the Reservation. Admitting such a possibility, it would be counterintuitive to conclude as a matter of law that the parties intended the…