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

Mealey's Native American Law

October 17, 2022
Tribal Appeals Court Upholds Transfer Of Youth Offender To Montana Court

PABLO, Mont. — A tribal court correctly followed tribal law when it transferred the case of a homeless tribal teen with a long criminal history who “was failed by the system” to a Montana youth court for placement in long-term detention, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Court of Appeals held in affirming the trial court’s ruling.
October 12, 2022
Oklahoma Prisoner’s Habeas Bid Based On McGirt Too Late, Federal Judge Rules

TULSA, Okla. — An Oklahoma state court criminal defendant waited too long to seek habeas relief based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Oklahoma v. McGirt that most of the state is still Indian country, a federal judge ruled Oct. 11 in dismissing the petition with prejudice.
October 12, 2022
Cert Sought For 9th Circuit Ruling That Appeal Over Tribal Sacred Site Is Moot

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ rejection as moot of an appeal by Native Americans of dismissal of their lawsuit over the destruction of a sacred site for a highway expansion in Oregon should be reversed based on a misreading of the law, the plaintiffs/appellants say in a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.
October 12, 2022
Federal Judge Stays Wrongful Death Suit Against Indian Health Services Doctors

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana federal judge refused to dismiss a Native American’s lawsuit seeking damages for the death of his brother after being treated at an Indian Health Services (IHS) hospital but instead stayed the action to allow the plaintiff time to pursue an administrative claim first with the Montana Medical Legal Panel.
October 11, 2022
Cert Denied On Oklahoma’s Request For Clear Test To Establish Indian Status

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 11 refused to take up the question presented in two petitions for certiorari filed by Oklahoma of how to determine a criminal defendant’s Indian status for purposes of the Indian Major Crimes Act.
October 10, 2022
New Mexico Federal Judge: U.S., New Mexico, Navajos Immune From Water Lawsuit

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge has granted motions by the United States, New Mexico and the Navajo Nation to dismiss a lawsuit by New Mexico residents that sought to counter a state court adjudication ruling involving Native American water rights in the state.
October 10, 2022
Judge OKs Federal Motion To Remand Rights Of Way For Private Water Pipeline

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A California federal judge granted a motion by the U.S. Department of the Interior to remand the agency’s 2020 decision to approve the use of an old natural gas pipeline to transport water across federal land, saying the government has a right to change its mind and reexamine the application.
October 10, 2022
Tribes, Groups Handed Defeat In Suit Over Pipeline Replacement In Minn., N.D.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Native American tribes and environmental groups lost their challenge to the replacement of a 282-mile section of crude oil pipeline in Minnesota and North Dakota when a District of Columbia federal judge on Oct. 7 granted the pipeline company and federal defendants summary judgment on environmental impact claims, finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “complied with its obligations to assess the environmental consequences associated with its permits” for the project.
October 06, 2022
Navajo Nation Says Cert Not Warranted In Dispute Over Tribe’s Water Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly held that the United States has a fiduciary duty to provide water for the Navajo Nation from the Colorado River, so the U.S. Supreme Court should deny petitions for review from several states and the federal government, the tribe says in its opposition to the petitions.
October 05, 2022
Split 8th Circuit Again Says South Dakota Can Tax Tribal Casino Project

ST. PAUL, Minn. — In a second appeal in a dispute over whether South Dakota’s excise tax on a building contractor for a Native American tribe’s casino project is preempted by federal law, a divided Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 4 again ruled in favor of the state, reversing summary judgment for the tribe and remanding for entry of judgment for state officials.
October 04, 2022
Argument Time Expanded For Consolidated Challenges To Indian Child Placement Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3 extended the time for oral argument and made sure all parties have time to present their cases in a consolidated dispute over the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA).
October 04, 2022
Supreme Court Again Denies Cert For Businessman’s Battle With California Tribe

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3 rejected a second petition for certiorari filed by a businessman over his claims of malicious prosecution by a California Indian tribe that had hired him and his gambling equipment company to provide gaming devices for the tribe’s casino.
October 03, 2022
Supreme Court Grants Cert, Vacates, Remands Another Indian Crimes Case In Oklahoma

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for certiorari from Oklahoma asking the U.S. Supreme Court if, in the wake of its landmark criminal jurisdiction ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, the state has the authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian country was granted Oct. 3, with the high court then vacating a state criminal appeals court’s ruling in the case of a woman convicted of mutilating a corpse in a funeral home and remanding in light of the ruling in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta.
October 03, 2022
Tribal Court Exhaustion Ruling Stands As Supreme Court Denies Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3 declined to hear a business development contractor’s long-running breach of contract dispute with a Utah Indian tribe in which the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in its most recent ruling in the case that the contractor must litigate the action in tribal court.
October 03, 2022
Certiorari Petition Denied For Former Tribal Worker’s Sovereign Immunity Challenge

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 3 denied a petition for certiorari filed by a former employee of an Oregon Indian tribe challenging the dismissal of her fraud claims against the tribe and tribal officials by a California appellate court based on the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity,
October 03, 2022
Indian Land Row Over RV Park In Washington Denied High Court Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A dispute over a recreational vehicle park on Indian trust land in Washington state that arose when the park members were ejected from the land due to an expired lease will not be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which on Oct. 3 denied a petition for certiorari filed by the RV park members’ association.
September 30, 2022
D.C. Federal Judge Dismisses Oklahoma Tribe’s Suit Seeking Creek Reservation Land

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Sept. 29 dismissed the second suit of a small Oklahoma Indian tribe against the Department of the Interior (DOI) seeking a declaration that the tribe is part of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and beneficiary of an 1833 Creek treaty that gives it shared jurisdiction over the vast Creek reservation, finding that the tribe failed to state a valid claim and that its action is barred by collateral estoppel.
September 29, 2022
Negligence, Contract Claims Head To Trial In Dispute Over Law Firm’s Work For Tribe

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge trimmed claims and counterclaims in ruling on four summary judgment motions in a law firm’s suit against the Native American tribe that fired the firm during negotiations with the state for a tribal gaming compact, allowing claims for negligence and breach of contract to go to trial.
September 27, 2022
16 More Tribes Join Department Of Justice Crimefighting Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sixteen more federally recognized Native American tribes have been selected by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to participate in the Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information (TAP), which gives tribal governments a way to access and exchange data with national crime information systems, including the FBI’s database, the DOJ announced Sept. 27 in a news release.
September 27, 2022
Judge Keeps Life Sentence For Man Who Killed Woman On North Dakota Reservation

FARGO, N.D. — A life prison sentence stands for a man who killed a woman on an Indian reservation by beating her, strangling her and throwing her off a bridge after a North Dakota federal judge denied his motion to vacate or correct the sentence based in part on his claim that the murder did not happen in Indian country.
September 26, 2022
7th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of Suit Over Indian’s Eviction Notice

CHICAGO — A federal trial court correctly dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a Native American’s suit seeking to halt his eviction by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) from Indian trust land because there was no “final agency action” to challenge, despite the BIA’s issuance of a trespassing notice, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided.
September 23, 2022
Cherokee Nation Worker Wins $615,000 For Discharge Over Whistleblower Claims

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — A Cherokee Nation tribal court jury awarded a former employee of the tribe a total of $615,000 in damages after finding that the tribe violated its own Constitution in firing the worker and constructively discharged him by retaliating against him for leveling whistleblower claims over lost grant money.
September 23, 2022
N.D. Tribe’s Council Urges 8th Circuit To Uphold Dismissal Of Fraud, RICO Claims

ST. LOUIS — A federal trial court correctly determined that because a business council for a North Dakota Indian tribe did not waive its sovereign immunity, fraud and racketeering claims leveled by a tribal member’s company that entered into a joint venture with the council cannot proceed, the council tells the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a Sept. 22 appellee brief.
September 19, 2022
Tribe Petitions Supreme Court Over Bankruptcy Code Waiver Of Immunity

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided ruling by the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the U.S. Bankruptcy Code “unequivocally” abrogates Indian tribes’ sovereign immunity should be vacated because the holding “deepens an acknowledged circuit conflict” and “flouts” U.S. Supreme Court precedents on tribal sovereign immunity, a Wisconsin tribe in a payday lending case tells the high court in a Sept. 8 petition for a writ of certiorari.
September 16, 2022
Negligence Per Se Claim Rejected By N.M. Federal Judge In Mine Blowout Row

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal judge in New Mexico on Sept. 8 granted a government contractor judgment on the pleadings that it cannot be held negligent per se in connection with a mine blowout because there is no private cause of action under the state and federal environmental laws invoked in the case.