FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                   ENR
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1997                       (202) 514-2008
                                              TDD (202) 514-1888

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES SUIT ON BEHALF OF INDIAN TRIBES TO DETERMINE OWNERSHIP OF PARTS OF ARKANSAS RIVER BED

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Indian tribes asserting that two treaties entered more than 150 years ago grant them ownership of certain land along the banks of the Arkansas River.

The Department's papers, filed today in U.S. District Court in Muskogee on behalf of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee Indian Nations, rely on a 1970 decision by the United States Supreme Court, Choctaw Nation v. Oklahoma. That decision held that the treaties of Dancing Rabbit Creek and New Echota, reached in the 1830's, granted the tribes title to land in what is now eastern Oklahoma, including the bed of the Arkansas River.

The United States argues that some of the formerly wet river bed, which has shifted over the years, has become dry land that is still owned by the United States on behalf of the tribes.

Today's suit seeks a determination by the court as to who owns the land. It does not seek damages or an order ejecting those now in possession of the land.

"In filing this suit, we are seeking to honor an historical treaty commitment to the Choctaw, Chicksaw and Cherokee Nations," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "We hope that this case will settle once and for all the question as to who owns the land along the banks of the Arkansas River."

Schiffer added that all of the defendants named in the complaint previously had been sent a letter notifying them of the action and offering them the opportunity to settle the claim. Several potential defendants offered to settle by relinquishing title to disputed land in exchange for dismissing the suit.

After the 1970 Supreme Court decision, the Bureau of Land Management conducted surveys along the entire 96-mile stretch of Indian-owned shoreline from the Arkansas border to Muskogee in order to identify which lands have been created from the river bed. Some of the surveyed tracts near the Arkansas border at Fort Smith are the subject of this lawsuit.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt remarked, "we expect that this suit will be the beginning of a process to resolve all the uncertainties that have resulted from the Supreme Court decision that the three Indian nations are the owners of the bed of the Arkansas River in Eastern Oklahoma."

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