Hoopa request for appeal denied 

The Times-Standard 

April 21, 2007  

A request by the Hoopa Valley Tribe for an appeal of the decision to distribute $91 million in trust fund money to the Yurok Tribe has been denied.

The U.S. Interior Department recently decided that the money it held in trust under the Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act belongs with the Yuroks. The money comes from timber sales on the Hoopa Reservation, which was split in 1988.

The Yuroks have long held that it should be compensated because its share of the reservation, a narrow swath of mostly privately owned land on either side of the Klamath River below Weitchpec, doesn't give them access to rich timber like that on the Hoopa Reservation.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe maintains the decision was illegal and against the department's own past rulings, calling it “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.”

The Hoopa Tribe tried to appeal the decision to the U.S. Department of the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, but that request was denied.

Hoopa Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall said the tribe is considering its legal options including forcing the U.S. government to pay damages for the loss of tribal trust money.

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Source:   http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_5721918