Klickitat County’s Board of Commissioners is bringing suit in federal district court against the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs, seeking a determination that the Glenwood Valley is not part of the Yakama Nation Reservation.
Prosecuting Attorney David Quesnel filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington this week in which the county asks the court for a declaratory judgment that the disputed Tract D of the Treaty of 1855 — which includes language that roughly sketches the reservation’s external boundary — is not within the boundary established by a 1904 act of Congress.
The county alleges, “The Department of the Interior and BIA acted in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, limitations and short of statutory right by not expressly excluding Tract D from the government’s acceptance of the [Washington] State’s retrocession, thus implicitly assuming federal jurisdiction over Tract D and approving concurrent tribal jurisdiction without authority to do so.“
Moreover, the county is seeking a permanent injunction barring the Department of Interior and BIA from exercising jurisdiction over Tract D, alleging, “The United States’ acceptance of the State of Washington’s retrocession of partial civil and criminal jurisdiction was unlawful.”
The county’s lawsuit comes at a time when the Yakama Nation has begun policing tribal members who live in Tract D. The Yakama achieved this level of self-determination when the U.S. Secretary of Interior granted the nation’s petition for retrocession in 2015. In other words, the federal government has returned to the Yakama from the State of Washington partial jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters involving tribal members.
Quesnel told The Enterprise last week the county’s longtime position has been that Tract D is part of the county, and that was the status quo until retrocession took effect on Tuesday, April 19.
“At this point, the status quo is no longer satisfactory,” Quesnel said of the some 98,000-acre area that is now in question. He said the need to seek a legal determination “has been put off but we can’t do that anymore.”
The Prosecuting Attorney and Commissioner David Sauter (R-Lyle), whose district includes the Tract D area, met with 40-50 Glen-wood residents to bring them abreast of new developments and to assure “people the county is speaking with one voice and that there is no change in Tract D as far as the county is concerned.”
Quesnel added that the filing of the lawsuit “is the start of that’s going to be around for a while, un-fortunately.”
Quesnel explained that the county’s motion for declaratory judgment and injunctive has two fronts: retrocession of police powers from the state to the Yakama in Tract D, and the age-old boundary line dispute between Klickitat County and the Yakama Nation.
The county maintains it still holds all police power in the Tract D area. Quesnel said “there will be no change in how law enforcement, officers of the court, and other county officials treat this area,” which has long been under the county’s jurisdiction.
The County Board directed Quesnel to initiate legal action during its March 22 meeting. Com-missioners also asked Quesnel to compile a list of law firms that specialize in this kind of litigation. On April 5, Quesnel presented to the board a Special Deputy Prosecutor Services Agreement with Foster Pepper, of Seattle, specific to the Glenwood/Tract D boundary iss-ue. The board approved it unanimously.
During discussion of the motion, county commissioners “indicated that they were not pleased with having to defend the established boundary line but felt that the matter is something that needs to be settled.”
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