Gila River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community v. United States

These are interlocutory cross-appeals from a ruling of the Indian Claims Commission setting the date of extinguishment of aboriginal title to an area in south-central Arizona previously found by the Commission to have been held by the Pima-Maricopa Indians (see 24 Ind. Cl. Comm. 301 (1970)). Neither side challenges, on these appeals, the extent of the acreage determined to have been held by Indian ownership ; the only issue now before us is the date of “taking” (in the non-eminent-domain sense) by the Federal Government.1

The Pimas 2 and Maricopas are two distinct tribes who have *140lived…