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

Mealey's Native American Law

December 11, 2023
In Health Care Dispute, Michigan Federal Judge Denies Tribe’s Motion For Default

BAY CITY, Mich. — The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan is not entitled to default judgment against a health insurance provider that allegedly violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by improperly administering two health insurance plans because the tribe failed to show that the providers’ failure to comply with discovery orders was due to willfulness, bad faith or fault, a Michigan federal judge found in denying the tribe’s renewed motion for default judgment.
December 11, 2023
Sheriff Must Respond To Petition Of Man Convicted In Tribal Court, Judge Says

RENO, Nev. — The sheriff of a county that is holding a man who was convicted by a tribal court must respond to the man’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus under the immediate custodian rule, a Nevada federal judge found in an order disposing of three motions.
December 08, 2023
Claims Court Judge: Fact Issues Exist About Tribe’s Claims Over Agency Building

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States is not entitled to summary judgment on breach of trust and constitutional taking claims raised by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe because questions of fact exist regarding the status of an agency building on tribal land the tribe claims the government abandoned, a U.S. Court of Federal Claims court judge found in partly denying the United States’ motion for summary judgment.
December 08, 2023
Sheriff Must Respond To Petition Of Man Convicted In Tribal Court, Judge Says

RENO, Nev. — The sheriff of a county that is holding a man who was convicted by a tribal court must respond to the man’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus under the immediate custodian rule, a Nevada federal judge found in an order disposing of three motions.
December 08, 2023
Groups Seek Emergency Relief From 9th Circuit In Ongoing Willow Project Opposition

SAN FRANCISCO — A Native Alaskan group and environmental advocates have filed an emergency motion in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking injunctive relief to avoid “the imminent, irreparable destruction of Arctic wetlands and tundra, and harms to wildlife and people” they say will be the result of ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.’s construction of the Willow Project, a hydraulic fracturing operation in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
December 08, 2023
Montana Federal Judge Abstains From Considering Native American Man’s Claims

MISSOULA, Mont. — Performing an in forma pauperis review of a complaint filed by a Native American man who said he did not consent to being prosecuted in state traffic court and received ineffective assistance of counsel in state and tribal court, a Montana federal judge dismissed the claims because abstention was warranted in this instance.
December 06, 2023
Judge Denies Injunction, Rules Willow Project Construction Activities May Proceed

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge in Alaska has denied motions for an injunction pending appeal of her decision to dismiss claims brought by groups that oppose the Willow Project, a hydraulic fracturing operation in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, ruling that the groups failed to satisfy “the Winter factors” and “have not raised a serious question going to the merits.”
December 01, 2023
Tribal Panel: Court Lacks Jurisdiction To Decide If Prisoners Are ‘Indian Persons’

POPLAR, Mont. — Whether two defendants currently being detained by the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribe of the Fort Peck Reservation are “Indian persons” and thus subject to the Fort Peck Tribal Court’s criminal jurisdiction is a factual issue that must be determined by the trier of fact, a Fort Peck Court of Appeals panel found in staying consideration of the two defendants’ petitions for writ of habeas corpus.
December 01, 2023
Tribal Appellate Court: Trial Court Did Not Err In Issuing Custody Order

POPLAR, Mont. — A Fort Peck Court of Appeals panel of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes found that a trial court did not err in granting physical custody to the father of a child who allegedly has a history of drug abuse and domestic violence because the trial court’s decision was supported by sufficient factual findings.
December 01, 2023
Tribal Appellate Court Vacates Criminal Conviction Based On Hearsay Evidence

POPLAR, Mont. — The Fort Peck Court of Appeals of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes vacated a man’s theft and burglary conviction because the tribes’ prosecution was based “almost entirely” on hearsay testimony consisting of a Facebook post and a previously recorded interview with a woman who was not available for cross-examination at trial.
November 27, 2023
Golf Course Is Arm Of Tribe, Entitled To Tribal Immunity, Washington Panel Finds

SEATTLE — A company that owns and operates a golf course is entitled to sovereign immunity from a personal injury suit brought by a man who was injured on the course because the company is an arm of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, a Washington panel found in affirming a trial court’s judgment dismissing the case.
November 27, 2023
Montana Federal Judge Grants Prisoners’ Habeas Corpus Petition Against Tribe

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A man sentenced to more than a year in prison by the courts of the Blackfeet Nation was denied effective assistance of counsel because the tribe sentenced him without the presence of counsel, a Montana federal judge found in granting the man’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
November 27, 2023
United States Urges Supreme Court To Deny Review Of Klamath Water Suit Removal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States says the U.S. Supreme Court should deny a certiorari petition in which the Klamath Irrigation District seeks a writ of mandate to remand to state court its lawsuit asserting primary jurisdiction over the Bureau of Reclamation’s operation of the Kalmath Project and minimum water levels to comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and to benefit two Native American tribes.
November 20, 2023
Supreme Court Grants Cert For Funding Dispute Between Tribes, HHS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 20 granted two petitions for certiorari filed by the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to determine whether the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA) requires the Indian Health Service (IHS) to pay “contract support costs” for expenditures of income collected by Indian tribes from third parties under federal self-determination contracts.
November 14, 2023
Michigan Federal Judge Adopts Recommendation, Dismisses Claims Against Tribal Judge

MARQUETTE, Mich. — A Michigan federal judge adopted a report and recommendation in which a magistrate judge found that claims of due process and equal protection violations brought by a tribal lay advocate against a tribal judge and an attorney for allegedly conspiring against the advocate by not providing him notice of a tribal court hearing fail because the tribal judge has immunity and the attorney is not a state actor.
November 14, 2023
Proposed Consent Decree Filed In Native American Bias Case Against S.D. Hotel

RAPID CITY, S.D. — In South Dakota federal court, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and owners and managers of a hotel jointly filed a proposed consent decree that would resolve the DOJ’s claims that the owners and managers violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against Native Americans.
November 14, 2023
D.C. Federal Judge: Tribe Seeking Recognition Failed To Identify Final Action

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Native American tribe in Connecticut seeking federal acknowledgement failed to identify a reviewable final agency decision in its complaint brought against the U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) Office of Federal Acknowledgement (OFA), a District of Columbia federal judge found in granting the OFA’s motion to dismiss.
November 13, 2023
In Tribal Land Pipeline Dispute, N.D. Federal Judge Severs Trespass Counterclaim

BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota federal judge severed and stayed a counterclaim brought by the United States against the owner and operator of an oil and gas pipeline that formerly operated on tribal land but no longer maintains proper rights of way because the claim was “of a separate nature” than the company’s administrative law claims.
November 10, 2023
Judge Dismisses With Prejudice Groups’ Challenges To Willow Project Approval

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge in Alaska on Nov. 9 dismissed with prejudice all claims brought by environmental groups and Native Americans who oppose the Willow Project, a hydraulic fracturing operation in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, ruling that federal agencies were not “arbitrary and capricious” in reaching the conclusion that the project should be approved.
November 10, 2023
Panel: N.D. Legislature Had Good Reason To Create Native American Subdistricts

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota’s Legislative Assembly did not violate the equal protection rights of two men who said the state’s 2021 voter redistricting created two racially gerrymandered subdistricts that favored Native Americans because the state had good reason to believe that the Native American tribes in those areas would have claims under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) if the subdistricts weren’t drawn that way, a panel of three federal judges found in disposing of three motions for summary judgment.
November 09, 2023
Tribal Appellate Court Declines To Consider Motion Not Raised Before Trial Court

POPLAR, Mont. — The Fort Peck Court of Appeals of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes refused to consider a motion regarding whether a pro se defendant was competent enough to represent himself in a criminal case where he was found guilty because the motion was filed in the trial court after the appeal.
November 09, 2023
1st Circuit: Taking Tribal Land Into Trust Was Not Arbitrary Or Capricious

BOSTON — A U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) decision to take into trust land owned by the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe was not arbitrary or capricious or not in accordance with the law because the tribe meets the definition of “Indian” for the purposes of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming a trial court’s decision.
November 09, 2023
California, Tribe Agree That State Negotiated Gaming Compact In Bad Faith

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge granted a stipulation filed by California and an Indian tribe in which they said the state failed to negotiate a gaming compact in good faith under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) by bringing up topics of family, environmental and tort law.
November 07, 2023
Judge Dismisses Tribal Members’ Challenge Of Crow Water Rights Settlement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge has dismissed on the merits a complaint by several Montana Native Americans alleging that a tribal water rights settlement agreement and enacting legislation deprive them of their senior water rights and devalue their properties.
November 07, 2023
Amici Tell 10th Circuit Biden Exceeded Authority With National Monuments Decision

DENVER — On Nov. 6, multiple parties filed amicus curiae briefs in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in support of Utah and two counties that have appealed the ruling of a lower court on grounds that that court erred when it dismissed the state and counties’ claims against the Biden administration for its decision to reinstate the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments because the action exceeded the scope of the Antiquities Act.