Frontier Legacies in Law
American Frontiers in Global Perspective
Jamie Skillen, Calvin College
July 12, 2012
Western politics is
like Kabuki drama:
“we tend to argue
the future by
simply adopting the
costumes, the
masks and the
rhetoric of the
past.”
-Bruce Babbitt
“Places are best
seen as shifting
stages where the
exercise of power
and resistance to it
vie for dominance.”
-John B. Wright
Frontier Legacies in Law
-orWhy History is Essential
for Understanding
Contemporary Land and
Resource Conflicts in
the West
UTAH
Grand
County
A Sagebrush
Rebel in the
White House
UTAH
Grand
County
Garfield
County
Kane
County
San
Juan
County
WHO OWNS THE WEST?
(c) 2004 by Betsy Malloy. All Rights Reserved. http://gocalifornia.about.com/bl_west_map_int.htm
Unique Importance of Property
Ownership in the West
Unique Importance of Property
Ownership in the West
1. Federal land and resource ownership
Unique Importance of Property
Ownership in the West
1. Federal land and resource ownership
2. Complex layering of property rights
and claims
Rectangular Survey
http://www.landprints.com/LpRectangularSurveySystem.htm
Rectangular Survey
http://www.archives.gov/global-pages/larger-image.html?i=/pacific/education/curriculum/images/land-plat-l.jpg&c=/pacific/education/curriculum/images/land-plat.caption.html
Random Location in Iowa
Area East of Eugene, OR
www.nationalatlas.gov
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MAP/terr_hp.html
The 100th Meridian
National Atlas.gov
The 100th Meridian
A Bunch of White Face Cattle, 1915? / photo. by L.C. McClure, Denver.
Copyright © 1995-2004 Denver Public Library, Colorado Historical Society, and Denver Art Museum
Property: A Bundle of Rights
Possession
Use
Exclusion
Alienation
James Montgomery Flagg
Public Domain
Bad Lands of Arizona / photo. by L.C. McClure, Denver.
Copyright © 1995-2004 Denver Public Library, Colorado Historical Society, and Denver Art Museum
Sangre de Cristo Range / photo. by L.C. McClure, Denver.
Copyright © 1995-2004 Denver Public Library, Colorado Historical Society, and Denver Art Museum
Unique Importance of Property
Ownership in the West
1. Federal land and resource ownership
2. Complex layering of property rights
and claims
Region of Split Estate
Split Estate
Surface Estate
Mineral Estate
http://www.stewards.us/fedland/split-estate-rights.asp
Layered Property Rights & Claims
http://www.geologyrocks.co.uk/system/files/u2/image8.jpg
The West:
A Region of Split Estate
1. Water
2. Hard Rock Minerals
3. Oil, Gas, and Coal
Water Rights
Prior Appropriation
Riparian
www.unitedstatesmaps.com
Water Rights
Prior Appropriation
Riparian
www.unitedstatesmaps.com
"Riparian Owner." Dictionary of Real Estate Terms. Barron's Educational Series, Inc, 2004. Answers.com 08 Apr. 2008. http://www.answers.com/topic/riparian-owner
Water Rights
Prior Appropriation
Riparian
www.unitedstatesmaps.com
Montana Water Trust
Water Use/Rights in the Upper
Klamath Basin
• Oregon’s 1909 Water Code
(prior appropriation)
• Klamath Basin Wildlife
Refuges: 1908-1978
• Reclamation Project of 1905
• Individual Water Users 18601905
• Klamath Tribes ~1,000 years
(Treaty of 1864)
Klamath Lake Water Flow
Cited in Meiners, Roger E., and Lea-Rachel Kosnik. "Restoring Harmony in the KIamath Basin." Bozeman, MT: PERC: The Center for Free Market Environmentalism, 2003.
TRIBAL WATER
RIGHTS
“The Tribe is entitled to
'whatever water is
necessary to achieve'
the result of supporting
productive habitat.'"
United States vs. Adair
187 F. Supp. 2d 1273 (D. OR. 2002)
Fish Kill on the
Klamath River, 2002
Photo by EJ Finney
http://www.oregonwild.org/images/Water_River
s/Klamath%20Basin/2002-klamath-river-fishkill/atct_album_image?b_start=5
The Washington Post, June 27, 2007
The Washington Post, June 27, 2007
The West:
A Region of Split Estate
1. Water
2. Hard Rock Minerals
3. Oil, Gas, and Coal
www.mineralpolicy.org/home.cfm
Overlapping Mining Claims
The West:
A Region of Split Estate
1. Water
2. Hard Rock Minerals
3. Oil, Gas, and Coal
Split Estate
Split Estate
Surface Estate
Mineral Estate
http://www.stewards.us/fedland/split-estate-rights.asp
http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/LOguide2005book.pdf
UTAH
Grand
County
Garfield
County
Kane
County
San
Juan
County
The Denver Post, January 20, 2003
Who Owns the West?
“Places are best
seen as shifting
stages where the
exercise of power
and resistance to it
vie for dominance.”
-John B. Wright