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

Mealey's Native American Law

November 02, 2023
Alaska Native Corporation Is Not An ‘Employer’ Under Title VII, Federal Judge Says

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A former employee of an Alaska Native corporation who says she was discriminated against by the company failed to state her claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because such corporations are expressly excluded from the statute, a Texas federal judge found in adopting a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation.
November 02, 2023
10th Circuit: Prisoner Who Said He Is Not Native American Not Entitled To Appeal

DENVER — A prisoner who argued that Oklahoma had no criminal jurisdiction over him because he was a Native American is not entitled to a certificate of appealability for the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus because he later admitted that he is not a Native American, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found.
November 02, 2023
Oil Company Agrees To Pay $16 Million To Resolve Alleged Royalty Underpayments

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Public Affairs in a Nov. 1 press release announced that a natural gas company has agreed to pay the United States $16 million in exchange for resolution of allegations that the company underpaid royalties it owed to the United States pursuant to federal and Native American land leases under which it produces natural gas.
November 02, 2023
Tribal Officers And Judges Are Entitled To Immunity In Dispute Over Child Custody

SPOKANE, Wash. — Members of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council and several Yakama Nation judges are entitled to either sovereign immunity or absolute immunity from claims brought by a man who alleged that his rights were violated by the individuals after a tribal judge granted custody of his children to his partner, a Washington federal judge ruled in granting the members and judges’ motion to dismiss.
November 02, 2023
Supreme Court Won’t Review 9th Circuit Decision On Water Rights Adjudications

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied an Oregon water district’s petition for a writ of certiorari in which it asked the court to reverse a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that it said gives two Native American tribes “veto” power over state water rights adjudications in the Klamath Basin.
October 31, 2023
Utah Tells 10th Circuit Biden Exceeded Authority With National Monuments Order

DENVER — Utah and two counties on Oct. 30 filed an opening appellant brief in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that a lower court erred when it dismissed their 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.
October 30, 2023
Judge Nixes Lease Dispute, Says Plaintiff Did Not Exhaust Administrative Remedies

BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota has dismissed an oil and gas lease dispute against federal agencies and an energy company and has ruled that a hydraulic fracturing operator’s motion to dismiss is moot in a lawsuit regarding a mineral leasehold interest located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, concluding that the plaintiff must exhaust administrative remedies before bringing suit in federal court.
October 30, 2023
Calif. Federal Judge: Tribal Police Officers Are Protected By Sovereign Immunity

SAN DIEGO — In conducting a preliminary review of a in forma pauperis complaint filed by a man who sought damages for an alleged illegal search by two tribal police officers, a California federal judge found that the man failed to state a claim because the tribe and its officers are protected by sovereign immunity.
October 27, 2023
California Panel: Sovereign Immunity Protects Tribe From Employment Claims

SAN DIEGO — Sovereign immunity protects the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians and two of its employees who were alleged to have violated state law and the U.S. Constitution when they informed a man recently hired by the band that he would have to maintain a gaming license that required him to pay child support to work at the tribe’s hotel, a California appellate court panel found in affirming a trial court’s judgment.
October 26, 2023
U.S. Supreme Court Denies Application To Stay Over Florida Tribe’s Online Gaming Pact

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 25 denied an application filed by two casinos that asked the high court to stay the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ mandate for two cases in which the Circuit Court found that a gaming compact between Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida granting the tribe exclusive rights to offer sports betting services in the state was lawful.
October 26, 2023
Wyoming High Court Affirms Jury Verdict, Says Firm Did Not Steal Funds From Tribe

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — In affirming a jury verdict that determined that a law firm did not steal any money from Wyoming’s Northern Arapaho Tribe after the decades-long relationship between the parties was ended, the Wyoming Supreme Court held that racially charged evidence was erroneously admitted at trial but that the evidence did not ultimately affect the verdict.
October 24, 2023
Appeal Filed Over Access To Native American Sacred Site During Park Rehabilitation

NEW ORLEANS — Two members of a Native American church have appealed to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals an order partly granting their motion for a preliminary injunction in which they argued that San Antiono, Texas, violated state and federal law by limiting access to a sacred site in a city park that is undergoing a rehabilitation project.
October 23, 2023
Minn. High Court Creates New General Rule Of Practice For Indian Child Welfare Act

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court announced in an order that a new General Rule of Practice for the District Courts will go into effect in January 2024 that will require parties and courts in third-party custody actions to take affirmative steps to determine whether a child is an Indian child for the purposes of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
October 23, 2023
Kan. Federal Judge Dismisses Some Of Native American Woman’s Discrimination Claims

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Native American woman who says she was subject to racial harassment and discrimination by her employer failed to allege facts in support of her hostile work environment claim and failed to bring her retaliatory harassment claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a Kansas federal judge found Oct. 20 in partly granting the employer’s motion to dismiss.
October 20, 2023
Miss. Federal Judge: Tribal Remedies Must Be Exhausted Before Filing Federal Suit

NORTHERN JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi federal judge stayed claims brought by two men regarding a COVID-19 mask mandate enforced by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI) at one of the tribe’s casinos because the men failed to exhaust their tribal court remedies before bringing their action in federal court.
October 20, 2023
Fracking Advocates Say Ruling On President Biden’s Lease Moratorium Is Moot

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Hydraulic fracturing advocates have moved in Alaska federal court for vacatur of the court’s ruling granting summary judgment to the Biden administration in a dispute over the president’s moratorium on federal fracking leases, arguing that the claims in the case are now moot because the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has canceled the leases and the cancellation constitutes a new final agency action.
October 19, 2023
9th Circuit: Northwestern Shoshone Band Maintained Hunting Rights In 1868 Treaty

SAN FRANCISCO — The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation maintained its hunting rights in an 1868 treaty it signed with the United States without the condition that the tribe maintain permanent residence on a reservation, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in reversing and remanding a trial court’s decision to dismiss the tribe’s case for declaratory judgment.
October 18, 2023
Washington Panel: Tribes Have Inherent Authority To Tax Tobacco On Reservations

SEATTLE — An arbitration panel fundamentally misunderstood tribal sovereignty when it found that tribal excise taxes on tobacco sales on reservations in Washington were authorized by the state through compact agreements it entered into with several tribes after the state had reached a settlement with tobacco companies over cigarette sales, a Washington appellate panel held in affirming a trial court’s interpretation of the terms of the legislation that was enacted in accordance with the settlement.
October 17, 2023
Following Settlement, High Court Dismisses Clash Over Sacred Tribal Site

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a dispute over the destruction of a sacred Native American site for a highway expansion in Oregon after the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal in which they informed the court that they reached a settlement agreement.
October 16, 2023
Supreme Court Grants Certiorari In 2nd Challenge To Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in a second case challenging the doctrine of Chevron deference and ordered that it be briefed on a schedule allowing argument “in tandem” with a pending case pertaining to the same issue, both of which involve challenges to regulations that require fishing vessels to pay federal monitors.
October 16, 2023
Montana Federal Judge: Prisoner States Plausible Claims Against Blackfeet Nation

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A man sentenced to more than a year in prison by the courts of the Blackfeet Nation plausibly states in his petition for a writ of habeas corpus against the tribe that he was denied effective assistance of counsel and that his sentence was improper, a Montana federal judge found in denying the nation’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
October 16, 2023
Before Supreme Court, Tribes Respond In Health Care Funding Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In two separate cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Northern Arapaho Tribe and the San Carlos Apache Tribe responded to petitions filed by the secretary of Health and Human Services asking the same question: 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 self-determination contracts.
October 13, 2023
Supreme Court Stays D.C. Circuit’s Mandate Regarding Tribe’s Online Gaming Pact

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 12 approved an application filed by two casinos and stayed the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ mandate for two cases in which it found that a gaming compact between Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which grants the tribe exclusive rights to offer sports betting services in the state, was lawful.
October 12, 2023
Ariz. Panel: State Court Lacks Jurisdiction To Hear Tort Case Against Tribe Member

PHOENIX — State courts lack jurisdiction to hear tort cases brought against tribe members for actions that occurred on reservation land even if the actions took place on a state-maintained highway, an Arizona appellate panel found in affirming a trial court’s decision to dismiss two consolidated wrongful death cases arising from a traffic accident for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
October 12, 2023
Tribal Court Says Council’s Actions In Authorizing Suit Were Unconstitutional

MANISTEE, Mich. — The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Council violated the tribe’s constitution by authorizing a suit challenging the validity of the employment of the tribe’s prosecutor in a closed session because the council member’s votes were not recorded, a tribal judge found in granting two motions for summary disposition of the case.