Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall was in Washington, D.C., Thursday when he read a U.S. Interior Department letter that shows the Yurok Tribe will likely get a $90 million fund.

”We never saw it coming,” Marshall said.

The Interior Department's legal analysis led it to make an administrative decision to release the funds to the Yuroks, and none to the Hoopas, as part of the Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act. Marshall said that until he read the letter in the office of the Special Trustee for American Indians Ross Swimmer, he believed the department's long-held position was unchanged.

The complicated and controversial act that split the Hoopa Reservation into two and reserved millions in timber revenues from the reservation has been litigated by the Yurok Tribe. More than a decade ago, the Hoopa Tribe accepted $34 million to resolve its dispute.

The Interior Department changed its stance that the Yuroks had forfeited its right to the fund because of the suit. But Swimmer's letter says that the Yuroks can now agree to waive its claims against the government and access the fund. They must submit the waiver within a month.

Marshall said that the Hoopa Tribe is going to consider its legal options within the month, and pointed out that as of yet, no money has actually been dispersed.

”Nobody's won or lost anything yet,” Marshall said.

On Thursday, Yurok Tribal Chairwoman Maria Tripp said in a statement that the federal decision should allow the two tribes to settle their differences and work together.

But Marshall said it is too early for the Yurok Tribe to be celebrating.

”I appreciate Chairwoman Tripp's words of reconciliation, but this decision reopens rather than heals old wounds,” Marshall said.

John Driscoll can be reached at 441-0504 or jdriscoll@times-standard.com.