cultural resources – Page 54

This historic and ongoing tribal fishing ground near Riggins, Idaho was just listed on the National Register of Historic Places, https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-06-07/pdf/2017-11737.pdf. For background, see the draft nomination form.

From page 42 of the draft nomination:

“For some Nez Perce, Rapid River is the only place they get to fish.” Of course, tribal members continue to fish the Clearwater, the Columbia, the Lochsa, the Selway, the Imnaha, the Grand Ronde, the Snake, and their tributaries, but the proximity of Yáwwinma, the relatively small size of the river, and the comparatively large number of returning of hatchery fish each year make Rapid River arguably the most important salmon stream for noncommercial Nez Perce fishermen and their families who depend on it as a ceremonial and subsistence fishery. The river and the grounds of Rapid River House [one of the two lots included in the listing] now literally belong to the Nez Perce Tribe, but traditional Nez Perce people would say just the opposite: we belong to Yáwwinma.

Also, the other listed lot owned by the Tribe is called “Barter Town”. Per pages 43-44, “According to Nez Perce fishermen, this contemporary place name also makes a direct allusion to the place of the same name in the 1985 postapocalyptic film Mad Max Beyond the Thunder Dome starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner. In addition to being a descriptive name, Barter Town is also a prime example of Nez Perce humor and the dynamic vitality of the Nez Perce oral tradition.”

“Presidents Lack the Authority to Abolish or Diminish National Monuments” (Published Version)

June 13, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Mark Squillace, Eric Biber, Nicholas S. Bryner, & Sean B. Hecht have published “Presidents Lack the Authority to Abolish or Diminish National Monuments” in the Virginia Law Review Online. PDF

An excerpt:

The narrow authority granted to the President to reserve land[11] under the Antiquities Act stands in marked contrast to contemporaneous laws that delegated much broader executive authority to designate, repeal, or modify other types of federal reservations of public lands. For example, the Pickett Act of 1910 allowed the President to withdraw public lands from “settlement, location, sale, or entry” and reserve these lands for a wide range of specified purposes “until revoked by him or an Act of Congress.”[12] Likewise, the Forest Service Organic Act of 1897 authorized the President “to modify any Executive order that has been or may hereafter be made establishing any forest reserve, and by such modification may reduce the area or change the boundary lines of such reserve, or may vacate altogether any order creating such reserve.”[13]

Unlike the Pickett Act and the Forest Service Organic Administration Act, the Antiquities Act withholds authority from the President to change or revoke a national monument designation. That authority remains with Congress under the Property Clause.