Makah Indian Tribe v. Quileute Indian Tribe; Quinault Indian Nation

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
MAKAH INDIAN TRIBE,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
QUILEUTE INDIAN TRIBE; QUINAULT
INDIAN NATION,
Defendants-Appellants,
HOH INDIAN TRIBE; et al.,
Real Parties in Interest.
No. 18-35369
D.C. No. 2:09-sp-00001-RSM
MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Washington
Ricardo S. Martinez, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted September 27, 2019**
San Francisco, California
Before: HAWKINS, McKEOWN, and NGUYEN, Circuit Judges.
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
FILED
SEP 30 2019
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

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2
We remanded this case to the district court to redraw the western boundaries
of the ocean Usual and Accustomed Grounds and Stations (“U&A”) for the
Quileute and Quinault tribes. The facts are familiar to the parties, and detailed in
our earlier opinion, so we do not repeat them here. See Makah Indian Tribe v.
Quileute Indian Tribe, 873 F.3d 1157, 1159–60 (9th Cir. 2017).
On remand, in redrawing the precise boundary for where the Quileute tribe
could fish, the district court started with the same northernmost point it had
previously used and drew a line forty miles west. See id. at 1167–68. But instead
of following the longitude to set the western boundary, as it did in its first
delineation, see id. at 1168, it drew a line south that was parallel to the coastline. It
did the same for the Quinault tribe, using the relevant thirty-mile boundary from
the Quinault U&A.
We conclude that sufficient evidence supports the redrawn boundaries and
that they are fair and consistent with our previous decision. See id. at 1168. The
boundaries set by the district court capture the respective outermost points that the
Quileute and Quinault tribal fishermen would have traveled in 1855 in accordance
with the U&A, and we affirm the district court.
AFFIRMED.

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