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

Mealey's Native American Law

February 06, 2024
Tribal Supreme Court: Criminal Jurisdiction Extends To Potential Tribe Members

OKMULGEE, Okla. — In reversing a trial court’s decision to dismiss a criminal case for lack of jurisdiction, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Supreme Court ruled that the definition of “Indian” for the purposes of tribal criminal jurisdiction under the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022 (VAWA 2022) includes not only tribal members but also individuals who are eligible for membership in any federally recognized Indian tribe.
February 06, 2024
Tribal Supreme Court Says Trial Court Did Not Err By Letting Man Withdraw Plea

OKMULGEE, Okla. — The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Supreme Court found that a tribal trial court did not err in allowing a man to withdraw his criminal plea despite filing his motion to withdraw after he had already been sentenced because the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Code allows judges to do so to correct a manifest injustice.
February 02, 2024
Mich. Panel: United States Is Necessary Party In Property Dispute Involving Tribes

DETROIT — State courts lack jurisdiction to hear two property owners’ claims to quiet title because the United States, as trustee for several federally recognized Indian tribes, maintains an interest over the disputed land even though the property owners argued that the land at issue is separate and distinct from any interest of the United States, the majority of a Michigan panel found in affirming a trial court’s decision to dismiss the case.
February 02, 2024
In Approved Consent Decree, Nebraska Tribes, County Agree To New Voting Districts

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge approved a consent decree that requires Thurston County, Neb., to implement a new voter redistricting plan that will give the members of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska a majority in four of the county’s seven Board of Supervisor districts.
February 01, 2024
Consent Decree Filed To Resolve CWA Claims For Oil Spill That Damaged Indian Land

OKLAHOMA CITY — The United States and two oil companies filed a proposed consent decree in which the companies agreed to pay $7.4 million to resolve claims under the Clean Water Act (CWA) arising from a discharge of heavy crude oil from the companies’ Osage pipeline that contaminated a creek, as well as lands owned by members of the Sac and Fox Nation.
February 01, 2024
Utah Couple Given Chance To Amend Petitions Challenging Alleged Banishment

SALT LAKE CITY — A man and woman who allege that they were unlawfully banished from the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation may amend their inadequate petitions for writ of habeas corpus within 30 days, a Utah federal judge found after observing that the man is not a member of any federally recognized Indian tribe and is subject to filing restrictions in the court.
January 30, 2024
Tribes And Citizen Groups Sue To Stop Powerline Project In Arizona Valley

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Tohono O’odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe and two citizen groups filed a complaint against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Arizona federal court, alleging that the agencies violated the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by approving construction of a powerline project in an area of cultural importance, Arizona’s San Pedro Valley.
January 29, 2024
N.J. Federal Judge: Loan Company Associated With Tribe Is Not Entitled To Immunity

NEWARK, N.J. — A payday loan company that is alleged to have engaged in usurious practices is not entitled to sovereign immunity as an “arm of the tribe” that wholly owns it because several factors in a balancing test weigh against such a finding, a New Jersey federal judge found in denying the company’s motion to dismiss.
January 29, 2024
Groups: Current Dimensions Of National Monuments Are Needed To Protect Land

DENVER — Conservation advocates and archaeology groups have filed separate amicus curiae briefs in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the current boundaries of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, which were reinstated by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., are needed for the proper care and management of the resources in those lands, and the dimensions of the monuments are lawful under the Antiquities Act as it has been interpreted for more than a century.
January 26, 2024
Tribal Corporation Is Immune In Cigarette Sales Dispute, Calif. Federal Judge Finds

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A tribal corporation is entitled to sovereign immunity from claims brought against it by California for the corporation’s allegedly illegal sales and distribution of cigarettes because the corporation acts on behalf of Alturas Indian Rancheria to the extent that it is an “arm of the tribe,” a California federal judge found in partly granting the corporation’s motion to dismiss.
January 25, 2024
Wash. Federal Judge Says Yakama Nation Is Immune From Man’s Conspiracy Claims

SPOKANE, Wash. — Employees of the Yakama Nation and judges of the tribe’s courts are entitled to sovereign immunity from claims brought by a man who says the tribe and its judges are conspiring against him to deprive him of his parental rights because the tribe is the real party in interest, a Washington federal judge found in granting the tribe’s motion to dismiss on Jan. 24.
January 25, 2024
10th Circuit Reverses Man’s Convictions Due To Lack Of Evidence Of Indian Status

DENVER — The convictions of a man charged with sexual abuse of a minor and abusive sexual contact must be reversed because the United States failed to sufficiently present evidence of the man’s non-Indian status, an essential element of crimes brought under the Indian Country Crimes Act, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found Jan. 24 in reversing the man’s convictions.
January 22, 2024
Alaska Supreme Court Upholds Shareholders’ Debt Forgiveness For Tribal Entity

JUNEAU, Alaska — The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed a state superior court’s decision to approve the vote of a shareholder class to forgive the remaining debt owed to it by a tribal corporation, finding that the lower court’s decision satisfies requirements for considering class claims.
January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
January 17, 2024
County Did Not Need Permission To Enter Land Near Tribal Casino, Calif. Panel Says

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — San Diego County did not trespass on private land by allowing the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians and a local transit district to build a traffic light and a bus stop on the land, which is across the street from the tribe’s casino, because the county presented substantial evidence to show that it maintained a valid right of way crossing the land since 1935, a California appellate court panel found in affirming a jury verdict in favor of the county and the transit district on claims of trespass and private nuisance raised by the landowner.
January 17, 2024
New Mexico Supreme Court: State Courts Lack Jurisdiction To Hear Casino Tort Cases

SANTA FE, N.M. — Two previous federal court opinions triggered a termination clause within New Mexico’s tribal gaming compact regarding waiver of sovereign immunity because the opinions held that jurisdictional shifting of tort claims that arose at tribal casinos from tribal to state court is not authorized by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), the New Mexico Supreme Court found Jan. 16 in holding that the state’s courts lacked jurisdiction to hear a tort casing brought against the Pueblo of Pojoaque for injuries suffered by a worker at the tribe’s casino.
January 17, 2024
Company Appeals Order Finding Lease For Campground On Tribal Land Was Terminated

SAN FRANCISCO — A company that signed a lease agreement with the Blackfeet Indian Nation for a campground on tribal land appealed to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a Montana federal court order finding that the lease was terminated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) when the company failed to timely make its payments.
January 17, 2024
Idaho Federal Judge: Bus Driver Sued As Individual Doesn’t Enjoy Tribal Immunity

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — A bus driver who was allegedly involved in an altercation that led to a man’s wrongful arrest is not entitled to sovereign immunity as an employee of the federally recognized Coeur d’Alene Tribe because he was sued in his individual capacity, an Idaho federal judge found in denying the bus driver’s motion to dismiss.
January 12, 2024
Alaska Supreme Court Affirms Findings In Dispute Over Herring Fishing Rights

JUNEAU, Alaska — In upholding three findings issued by a trial court, a majority of the Alaska Supreme Court held that the court did not err in finding that the Sitka Tribe of Alaska would not be irreparably harmed in absence of a preliminary injunction enjoining the Alaska Department of Fish and Game from opening the 2019 herring commercial fishing season.
January 12, 2024
Oklahoma Federal Judge Orders Ejectment Of Wind Turbines From Osage Nation Lands

TULSA, Okla. — Relying upon a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion from earlier in the case, an Oklahoma federal judge found that three energy companies that constructed and operate a wind farm on Osage Nation lands committed trespass, continuing trespass and conversion and issued a permanent injunction in the form of completely removing the wind turbines.
January 11, 2024
Panel: Trial Court Did Not Err In Denying Injunction In Tribal Casino Loan Dispute

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A trial court did not err in denying a motion for an injunction in which the La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians requested that the Yavapai-Apache Nation (YAN) be enjoined from pursuing claims in its own tribal courts arising from a loan between the two tribes to fund a casino that eventually failed because La Posta failed to meet its burden of showing that an anti-suit injunction was appropriate, a California appellate court panel held in affirming the trial court’s judgment.
January 10, 2024
Groups Tell 10th Circuit National Monuments Decision Should Stand

DENVER — Environmental advocates and Native American groups filed response briefs in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 9 in the litigation over President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s decision to reinstate the original dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments under the Antiquities Act. The environmental groups contend that the court should affirm the trial court’s holding that Biden had the authority to make the decision, and the Native American groups say the parties challenging it lack standing.
January 10, 2024
Oklahoma Federal Judge: Tribal Town May Withdraw Waiver Of Sovereign Immunity

TULSA, Okla. — The Thlopthlocco Tribal Town has sovereign immunity from cross-claims in the courts of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN) and may withdraw any waiver of sovereign immunity because sovereigns may not be subjected to cross-claims without prior consent, an Oklahoma federal judge said in granting declaratory relief to the Tribal Town, which previously faced cross-claims in the MCN’s courts from a man who attempted to take control of the town’s government.
January 09, 2024
8th Circuit: Trial Court Did Not Err In Relying On Man’s Tribal Convictions

ST. LOUIS — A federal court did not err by upwardly departing from sentencing guidelines based on a man’s 26 prior tribal court convictions because courts are entitled to do so and the court adequately explained its reasoning for increasing the man’s sentence, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming the man’s 90-month sentence.
January 08, 2024
U.S. High Court Won’t Decide If State Has Jurisdiction In Klamath ESA, Tribal Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 8 denied a petition by the Klamath Irrigation District for the high court to order that the district’s lawsuit against the federal government’s operation of the Klamath Project be remanded to state court and included in a water adjudication.