Mealey's Native American Law : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Native American Law

May 26, 2023
Judge Denies Dismissal Of Oglala Tribe’s Suit For More Police Funding

RAPID CITY, S.D. — The United States has a “unique” treaty duty with a South Dakota Indian tribe “to provide protection and law enforcement cooperation and support” on the tribe’s reservation, a federal judge in the state held in denying the government’s bid to dismiss the tribe’s suit seeking an immediate increase in police funding.
May 24, 2023
Tribe Member Sues School District For Disallowing Eagle Feather On Mortarboard

TULSA, Okla. — A member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma sued her school district in Oklahoma state court for allegedly violating her rights to free speech and religion under the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions after district employees prevented the member from wearing an eagle feather plume attached to her mortarboard at her high school graduation ceremony.
May 24, 2023
Judge: Plea Agreement For Man Charged With Indian Country Crimes Correctly Rejected

PHOENIX — A plea agreement for a man charged with three crimes under the Indian Country Crimes Act (ICCA) was properly denied for imposing too long of a sentence, as the court considered the man’s criminal history and the sentencing guidelines when rejecting the plea deal, an Arizona federal judge found in denying the United States’ motion to reconsider.
May 24, 2023
More Discovery Time Granted In Suit Over Canceled Lease Between Tribe, Campground

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Noting that courts have broad discretion over discovery matters, a Montana federal judge granted a motion for additional time to complete supplemental discovery filed by a company that leased land from the Blackfeet Indian Nation for a campground on its reservation and was sued by the tribe when the lease was canceled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
May 22, 2023
Federal Judge Dismisses Sauk-Suiattle Tribe’s Sales Tax Collection Claims

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge dismissed, with leave to amend, the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe’s claims for declaratory and injunctive relief it pursued for the purposes of ending the state’s collection of retail sales taxes on products bought online and delivered to the tribe’s members on its reservation.
May 22, 2023
Oklahoma Appeals Court: State Might Maintain Criminal Jurisdiction On Reservations

OKLAHOMA CITY — A majority of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals found that acts of Congress did not disestablish the reservations of the Ottawa and Peoria Indian tribes but remanded a trial court’s dismissal of three pending criminal charges against an Indian who argues that Oklahoma has no jurisdiction over him in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court case.
May 19, 2023
North Dakota Federal Judge Says Tribal Entities Have Immunity Against Tax Claims

BISMARCK, N.D. — Four tribal entities have sovereign immunity from claims of declaratory and injunctive relief brought by a contractor who was taxed by the tribe for metal work performed at a school located on a reservation, a North Dakota federal judge found in partly granting the tribal entities’ motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
May 12, 2023
Tribal Detainees’ Demand For Inmate-Run Auto Plant Suffers Dismissal Loss

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Four pretrial detainees in an Oklahoma jail lost their bid to have the Cherokee Nation open a $2 billion training center where prisoners could build cars for the country’s first line of Native American autos when a federal judge in the state on May 11 dismissed the civil rights class action they filed over the lack of speedy arraignments for those charged in tribal court.
May 11, 2023
Supreme Court Wants Response From Seattle To Tribe’s Petition Over Fish Passage

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has requested a response from Seattle and its hydroelectricity agency to a petition for certiorari filed by a Washington Indian tribe seeking review of the dismissal of its suit over the lack of a migratory fish passageway at one of the city’s dams.
May 09, 2023
United States, Klamath Water Users Oppose Yurok Tribe’s Injunction Motion

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal government agencies and water users in the Klamath Basin in Oregon and California have filed oppositions to a motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining the federal government’s drought-related management of water in Klamath Lake and the Klamath River.
May 05, 2023
Utah Tribe Sues Rancher In Federal Court In Latest Attempt To Enforce Water Rights

SALT LAKE CITY — After having a tribal court judgment in its favor nullified by two federal courts in a trespass and water rights dispute with a rancher, a Utah Indian tribe has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah seeking declaratory relief and damages on claims that also include theft by conversion and nuisance.
May 04, 2023
8th Circuit Affirms Tribal Member’s Meth Trafficking Conviction

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Native American’s jurisdictional challenges to his drug trafficking conviction based on the crimes taking place on a reservation and involving only other Indians “are foreclosed by precedent,” the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled May 3 in affirming the defendant’s conviction and 30-year prison sentence.
May 04, 2023
Dismissal Of Suit Over Sale Of Airport Land To Tribe Upheld By 9th Circuit

SAN FRANCISCO — A California citizen group created to preserve the history of a World War II Japanese internment camp cannot have a federal court set aside the sale of an airport at the camp to a Native American tribe because its claims do not support federal subject matter jurisdiction, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in affirming dismissal of the group’s lawsuit.
May 02, 2023
9th Circuit: Tribe’s Coho Salmon Regs Violate 1974 Fishing Grounds Ruling

SEATTLE — A Washington Indian tribe’s attempt to regulate fishing for coho salmon in two areas of the Skagit River is foreclosed by a nearly 50-year-old federal court finding that the main stem of the river was not a historical fishing ground for the tribe, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held May 1 in affirming summary judgment for another tribe that does hold fishing rights to the main part of the river.
May 02, 2023
Native American Group Drops 9th Circuit Willow Project Appeal, Seeks Resolution

SAN FRANCISCO — A Native American organization has voluntarily dismissed its appeal against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) related to the Willow Project in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, saying it aims to resolve the case on the merits at the district court level before commencement of “further ground-disturbing activities” during the 2023-24 winter construction season.
May 01, 2023
Lack Of Proper Application Dooms Bid For Federal Recognition, D.C. Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man’s attempt to gain federal recognition for a Native American tribe was shot down by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which affirmed dismissal of his lawsuit for failure to comply with the administrative process when seeking official recognition from the government.
April 28, 2023
Judge: Tribal Companies Need Not Pay Escrow For Tobacco Sales On Reservation

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge on April 27 granted in part a motion for summary judgment filed by two entities that are subsidiaries of a Winnebago Tribe-owned company, finding that the state may not collect escrow payments from tobacco sales on the Winnebago Reservation but also granting in part the state’s motion for summary judgment and finding escrow payments required for sales on another tribe’s reservation.
April 28, 2023
Panel: Tribe Fails To Show COVID-19 Caused Physical Property Damage To Casino

VENTURA, Calif. — A California appeals court panel on April 27 found that an insured Indian tribe and its experts failed to present sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the COVID-19 virus caused property damage to the tribe’s casino and resort, affirming a summary judgment ruling in favor of the insurer in the tribe’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the pandemic.
April 24, 2023
Tribes’ Sovereign Immunity In U.S. Bankruptcy Code Debated At Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Are Indian tribes domestic or foreign governments? If Congress intended to abrogate the sovereign immunity of tribes in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, why didn’t it use the word “tribes”? The U.S. Supreme Court grappled with these questions April 24, with a Wisconsin tribe in a payday lending dispute and the federal government on opposing sides of the fight.
April 24, 2023
New York Tribe Sues County Seeking End To Taxation On Vehicle Use

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — An upstate New York Indian tribe filed suit in federal court seeking an end to a county’s collection of its vehicle use tax from tribal members who live in Indian country and a refund to tribal members of the taxes paid, with interest.
April 19, 2023
Government Responds To Supreme Court Query In Navajo Nation Water Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government does not track how much water the Navajo Nation uses and is not able to determine the tribe’s per capita or total water use, the solicitor general says in a letter to the U.S. Supreme Court in response to a question posed by one of the justices during oral argument in March.
April 18, 2023
Utah Monuments Plaintiffs: Intervention Order Does Not Require A Response

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah municipalities suing the Biden administration for its decision to reinstate the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments filed a brief in federal court contending they are not required to respond to a brief filed by parties which were denied the right to intervene because the order that denied them permission was non-dispositive and the plaintiffs are not required or authorized to respond to proposed intervenors’ objections unless the court orders them to do so.
April 18, 2023
U.S. High Court Denies Review Of Tribal Water Rights Case Affecting Other Users

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition by two individuals and a landowners’ association to review a federal agreement for tribal reserved water rights that the petitioners say subjects their water rights to federal enforcement.
April 18, 2023
Arizona Federal Judge: 2 Landowners Forfeited Decreed Water Rights By Nonuse

TUCSON, Ariz. — An Arizona federal judge has ruled that two landowners forfeited their decreed rights to Gila River water for not putting the rights to beneficial use for five consecutive years, rejecting arguments that previous floods made the land unsuitable for irrigation and cultivation.
April 17, 2023
Having Lost Injunction, Tribe Defends Summary Judgment Bid In Trinity River Case

FRESNO, Calif. — After convincing a judge that the balance of harms did not rise to the level required for granting a tribe’s motion enjoining the Trinity River water plan, the government asked the court to stay summary judgment briefing and for expedited consideration of its motion to dismiss. In an April 14 response, the tribe told the federal California court there is nothing stopping the court from receiving briefing on motions to dismiss and for summary judgment and that doing so would conserve judicial resources.