Gilmore v. Weatherford

LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

Decades of lead and zinc mining in northeastern Oklahoma have left behind piles of mine tailings, known locally as “chat,” that now have value as fill and gravel. This case concerns two chat piles, the Sooner and Ottawa piles, which share a convoluted ownership history. Some of the chat in these piles is owned by descendants of members of the Quapaw Tribe who were deemed incompetent to manage their own affairs. These individuals hold undivided “restricted” ownership interests; that is, they cannot freely alienate their interests in the chat as a matter of federal law.…