Litigation Support
HRA obtains and analyzes hard-to-find historical records to aid attorneys in developing the most factual basis for their case. Our evidence is used in briefs, motions, trial presentations, and settlement discussions. HRA historians also prepare expert witness reports and provide testimony on a variety of topics, with an emphasis on Native American, environmental, navigability, and rights-of-way litigation. We understand the legal process and the expectations for truthful, unbiased reporting. Our litigation support services are recognized as impeccably researched, focused, and accessible for both attorneys and judges. Our historians have testified in cases related to the following topics:
HRA provides historical expertise in complex water rights litigation and adjudications. Our research assesses claimed priority dates and analyzes the historical uses of the lands on which parties have asserted water rights. Our experience working on Tribal water rights claims, in particular, gives us added background for claims across the country.
Expert Witnesses: Nick Kryloff and Ian Smith.
Additional Experts: Chris Baker, Amalia Baldwin, Jimmy Grant, and Emily Noonan.
Water Rights and Adjudications
Coeur d’Alene-Spokane River Basin Adjudication (CSRBA)
HRA submitted expert reports in support of the United States’ water rights claims on behalf of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe in the CSRBA, analyzing the purposes for the creation of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation and the uses of water by Tribal members within the CSRBA both before and after the reservation’s establishment. The attorneys in the case submitted HRA’s expert reports to the court, which ultimately ruled in favor of the Tribe on nearly all its claims.
Little Colorado River (LCR) Basin Adjudication
HRA historians have worked with the Navajo Nation for nearly three decades on various aspects of the Nation’s water rights claims in the LCR Basin in Arizona. Most recently, HRA has submitted expert reports and provided deposition testimony related to the establishment of and additions to the Navajo Reservation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the historic presence of Navajo groups in the LCR Basin, the Navajo-Hopi land dispute, and the history of on-reservation water development during the first half of the twentieth century.
Tribal Sovereignty and Treaty Rights
HRA conducts research on present-day legal issues involving Native American Tribes. We provide archival research, historical analysis, report preparation, document management, and expert witness testimony on issues from treaty rights to the status of (and jurisdiction over) reservation lands and boundaries.
Expert Witnesses: Amalia Baldwin, Jimmy Grant, Emily Greenwald, Ian Smith, and Keith Zahniser.
Additional Experts: Nick Kryloff.
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes v. Lake Co.
HRA submitted an expert report and provided deposition testimony in a case involving the history of land ownership and road development in the Big Arm Townsite on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. Established under a 1906 amendment to the Flathead Allotment Act, Big Arm was one of nearly two dozen townsites created under congressional authority within the reservation. In addition to analyzing the sale of town lots and the elimination of lands from the townsite, HRA investigated whether any historical evidence showed that county officials complied with federal and state rights-of-way laws that were in effect during the early 1900s. In April 2020, the U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, citing portions of HRA’s report in the ruling.
U.S. v. Joseph Jackson
HRA assisted the attorneys who prosecuted a criminal case involving an attempted murder within the boundaries of the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. Since the alleged incident occurred on lands that the United States had sold to a railroad company under a 1905 law, the defendant argued that Congress had diminished the area from the reservation, making it no longer Indian Country. HRA wrote an expert report and provided trial testimony analyzing Congress’s intent in passing the 1905 act and a subsequent amendment, as well as federal actions surrounding the legislation. Both the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals cited HRA’s expert report and trial testimony when issuing their opinions in this case.
Environmental Litigation
HRA assists attorneys, as well as environmental and engineering firms, to determine which entities are responsible for cleanup costs at contaminated sites. Our historical research into ownership and succession, types and volumes of production, and sources of possible contamination all play a key role in identifying potentially responsible parties.
Expert Witnesses: Emily Greenwald, Heather Miller, and Keith Zahniser.
Additional Experts: Amalia Baldwin and Emily Noonan.
Long Beach Unified School District v. Santa Catalina Island Company, et al.
HRA prepared an expert report and provided expert witness testimony for a case involving historical contamination of a Catalina Island, California, school site. Contamination at the site included lead, dioxins, and PAHs. Before the school was built, a part of what would become school property had been the location of a manufactured gas plant. Based on research at numerous Southern California repositories, HRA wrote an expert report on Catalina Island history and historical waste management practices from 1890 to the mid-1930s.
Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, et al. v. NL Industries, Inc., et al.
HRA prepared an expert witness report and provided testimony for the case which pertains to historical lead-paint contamination from products of the National Lead Company (NL Industries). The project entailed review of extant client records augmented with original research in a variety of sources, including trade journals, newspapers, ephemera, and available online collections of documents related to painting/painters and lead trade associations. HRA wrote an expert report that opined on what and by when NL Industries knew about the human health hazards associated with its lead-based paint. As of winter 2025, HRA’s historian has been deposed and is awaiting trial.
Navigability Litigation
Our research and analysis of lands underlying waterways throughout the United States provide accurate navigability assessments to federal and state agencies in non-litigation contexts. Expert reports and extensive testimony in navigability cases across the United States give our historians a deep understanding of uses of relevant waterbodies.
Expert Witnesses: Emily Greenwald, Heather Miller, and Ian Smith.
Additional Experts: Chris Baker, Amalia Baldwin, and Emily Noonan.
Navigability of the Fortymile River in Alaska
When Alaska became a state on January 3, 1959, the title to federal lands underlying navigable waterways transferred to state ownership. HRA is assisting the U.S. Department of Justice with historical research and expert witness testimony in litigation to determine whether the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Fortymile River in Alaska were navigable at the time of statehood. Historical research for the project includes investigating what types of vessels were commonly used for travel by water and whether the waterbodies at issue were ever used for water-based travel and commerce prior to or at the time of statehood.
State of Montana v. Talen Montana, LLC
HRA submitted an expert report and provided both deposition testimony and trial testimony in this case involving a dispute over the ownership of the bed and banks of a portion of the Clark Fork River in Montana. HRA’s report and testimony analyzed historical evidence of steamboat traffic on the lower Clark Fork (from Thompson Falls to the Montana–Idaho state line), as well as assessing whether any steamboats ever plied the waters on the stretch of river from Thompson Falls to Plains, Montana. The U.S. District Court for Montana ruled in favor of HRA’s client.
Rights-of-Way Litigation
Federal, state, Tribal, and private attorneys rely on HRA’s expertise to help determine whether valid easements exist for roads, pipelines, and railroads. HRA’s research, analysis, and GIS-based mapping help clients understand the historical extent of such easements, enabling them to decide whether trespass may have occurred. HRA historians have reported on and provided expert testimony related to alleged rights-of-way claims, as well as road and railroad easements across Tribal lands.
Expert Witnesses: Chris Baker, Amalia Baldwin, Jimmy Grant, and Ian Smith.
Additional Experts: Emily Greenwald and Emily Noonan.
Wilkins, et al., v. United States
HRA conducted archival research and submitted an expert report on behalf of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Wilkins, et al., v. United States, filed in the U.S. District Court for Montana. The case involved a dispute over the purpose and intent of a Forest Service easement for Robbins Gulch Road over lands owned by the plaintiffs. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the matter. The Supreme Court remanded the case to the District Court, where it was ultimately decided in the government’s favor.
Poñil Ranch LP v. Boy Scouts of America
HRA submitted an expert report and provided deposition testimony on the history of the development and use of two roads in Colfax County, New Mexico, from the mid-1800s to the 1970s. Both roads provide access to a private ranch just northwest of Cimarron, New Mexico, on the historic Maxwell Land Grant. HRA’s research into past land use and road development required collection and review of the incomplete records of the Maxwell Land Grant Company, stored at several New Mexico repositories. HRA used the Maxwell Land Grant Company records and other documents, such as historical maps, newspaper articles, and county commissioner records, to reconstruct the development of travel infrastructure in the region. The research revealed that one road had received county maintenance and served as a postal route, while the other had long been used for ranching. HRA’s client used the report to enter settlement talks with parties blocking road access. The case remains in the U.S. District Court of New Mexico, pending the results of settlement talks.