Private Company Does Not Owe Tribe For Timber Sales, Federal Judge Rules

(December 26, 2019, 8:38 AM EST) -- PORTLAND, Ore. — An Indian tribe cannot sue a third-party nontribal business for proceeds from timber taken from the tribe’s reservation because the tribe has already been paid for the timber through its own tribal logging company, which is an arm of the tribe, an Oregon federal judge ruled Dec. 16 in denying the tribe summary judgement (The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon v. Vanport International, Inc., No. 3:17-cv-01649, D. Ore., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 218517)....