Billy House
Republic Washington Bureau
May. 18, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - The federal government has agreed to spend $12 million to
fix the deteriorating buildings and landscaping at Old Fort Apache, the
historic Arizona military outpost on Indian land just south of Whiteriver.
The settlement comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago
the White Mountain Apache Tribe could sue the Interior Department for
failing to take care of buildings at the historic fort since 1960, when
Congress made the department a trustee over the Indian land.
"With the settlement, the tribe can now protect and preserve the fort,
and establish it as one of Arizona's finest tourist destinations," said
Dallas Massey Sr., chairman of the tribe.
Interior Department spokesman Dan DuBray on Tuesday confirmed the
settlement, saying the department recommended approval to the Justice
Department late last year.
The tribe hopes to use the site as part of a cultural and historical
complex that will lure tourism to the reservation.
"Fort Apache brought together in one place Army generals,
Anglo-American soldiers, Chinese workers, African-American Buffalo soldiers,
Apaches, Hispanics and others," Massey noted.
Established in 1871 at its current site under the administration of
President Grant, the Fort Apache Reservation became the base of Army efforts
with the help of White Mountain Apache scouts to pursue renegade Apache
bands. About 7,500 acres were carved from the reservation in 1877
specifically for the fort.
The outpost was to later become a symbol of the Old West through
movies and television programs, including the 1948 John Ford film, Fort
Apache, starring John Wayne.
Today, there are more than 30 buildings and other structures at the
fort, including the officers' barracks, parade grounds and stables used by
the cavalry that first occupied the compound, as well as Indian school
facilities built later.
"It's really an American's historic icon," said Tucson lawyer Robert
Brauchli on Tuesday, the lawyer who argued the legal case on behalf of the
tribe.
But the old Arizona fort has been treated as anything but an icon for
the past half-century.
The Army continued to operate it until 1922, when it was abandoned as
the last cavalry and foot-soldier Army post in the United States. The next
year, Congress authorized establishment of an Indian school there.
In 1960, Congress passed a law transferring ownership of the fort and
its buildings to the tribe, to be held "in trust" by the government, subject
to the right of the Interior secretary to use part of the land for
administrative uses and for the Indian school. The tribe by 1976 sought and
was granted placement of Fort Apache on the National Register of Historic
Places.
But a lack of upkeep and repairs by the Interior Department's Bureau
of Indian Affairs and a decline in the Indian school enrollment eventually
left many of the buildings and land in disrepair. A survey of the property
in 1998 estimated that the cost of re-landscaping the fort and refurbishing
its buildings "as a cultural and economic resource for the tribe" would cost
as much as $14 million.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs attempted to transfer the responsibility
of the buildings to the tribe. Instead, the tribe demanded the buildings and
grounds first be repaired, arguing that Interior Department had breached its
fiduciary duty as a trustee to maintain the historic structures in the
tribe's interest.
The government refused, insisting it could not be sued in a
breach-of-trust action.
But the Supreme Court disagreed in a March 4, 2003, ruling. The 5-4
decision, written by Justice David Souter, held that the government should
not be shielded against such legal actions that would "deter it from wasting
trust property."
Lawyer Brauchli said on Tuesday that the settlement of $12 million
reflects an adjusted figure for what is needed for the repairs. That
reflects inflation as well as $4 million in government grants that has
already gone toward the work. He said congressional hearings are to be
scheduled in Arizona as early as next month to set a framework for how the
settlement fund will be used.