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

Mealey's Native American Law

April 18, 2023
U.S. High Court Denies Review Of Tribal Water Rights Case Affecting Other Users

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition by two individuals and a landowners’ association to review a federal agreement for tribal reserved water rights that the petitioners say subjects their water rights to federal enforcement.
April 18, 2023
Arizona Federal Judge: 2 Landowners Forfeited Decreed Water Rights By Nonuse

TUCSON, Ariz. — An Arizona federal judge has ruled that two landowners forfeited their decreed rights to Gila River water for not putting the rights to beneficial use for five consecutive years, rejecting arguments that previous floods made the land unsuitable for irrigation and cultivation.
April 17, 2023
Having Lost Injunction, Tribe Defends Summary Judgment Bid In Trinity River Case

FRESNO, Calif. — After convincing a judge that the balance of harms did not rise to the level required for granting a tribe’s motion enjoining the Trinity River water plan, the government asked the court to stay summary judgment briefing and for expedited consideration of its motion to dismiss. In an April 14 response, the tribe told the federal California court there is nothing stopping the court from receiving briefing on motions to dismiss and for summary judgment and that doing so would conserve judicial resources.
April 17, 2023
Convicted Child Sex Offender In Kansas Fails In Petition For Habeas Relief

TOPEKA, Kan. — The landmark criminal jurisdiction ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma provides no relief for a Kansas man convicted of rape and sexual assault of a child, a federal judge in the state held April 14 in denying the man’s request for post-conviction relief.
April 17, 2023
Navajo Nation Claim For Damages Over Mine Blowout Not Preempted By CERCLA

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The limitations on natural resource damages set forth in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) apply to Indian tribes, a federal judge in New Mexico has concluded.
April 14, 2023
McGirt Provides No Relief To Oklahoma Inmate, 10th Circuit Rules

DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 13 denied a certificate of appealability sought by an Oklahoma prisoner based in part on the decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, finding that “reasonable jurists could not debate” that his application to appeal was untimely.
April 13, 2023
Hawaii Judge Clears Way For Criminal Defendant’s Extradition To Tribe

WAILUKU, Hawaii — A man wanted on criminal charges by an Arizona Native American tribe can be extradited by Hawaii at the request of the tribe, a Hawaiian judge ruled in denying a motion to dismiss the extradition proceeding filed by the now-incarcerated man, who argued that the tribe is neither a state not a federal territory under Hawaii’s extradition law.
April 11, 2023
North Dakota Denied Summary Judgment In Native Americans’ Voting Suit

FARGO, N.D. — A challenge by two Indian tribes and three Native American voters to North Dakota’s redrawn legislative districts under the Voting Rights Act (VRA) will proceed after a federal judge on April 10 denied the state’s attempt to have the case dismissed on summary judgment.
April 11, 2023
Immunity Does Not Extend To Tribal Oil Company, Montana Supreme Court Rules

HELENA, Mont. — A tribal company created to develop oil and gas resources on tribal land is not protected by two tribes’ sovereign immunity from a suit by oil companies seeking to invalidate the tribal entity’s interests in 41 oil and gas leases, the Montana Supreme Court held in reversing a trial court’s ruling.
April 11, 2023
Federal Government Rejects Tribe’s Sovereign Immunity In Bankruptcy Code

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The words in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and how they are used leave no doubt that the sovereign immunity of Native American tribes is abrogated, as it is for all other governmental units, the federal government tells the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus curiae brief urging affirmance of a divided First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision.
April 07, 2023
Ousted Tribal Council Head Seeks To Amend Claims Against Other Council Members

LAFAYETTE, La. — The former chairman of a Louisiana Indian tribe is asking a federal court to alter its judgment barring his claims against the tribal council members who ousted him due to sovereign immunity so he can file an amended complaint against them with “far greater detail” about his malicious prosecution and abuse of process allegations.
April 06, 2023
Sauk-Suiattle Tribe Takes Fight For Fish Passage At Dam To Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The “futility doctrine” in the federal remand statute needs to be scrapped because it “is contrary to established principles of federalism and comity toward state courts,” a Washington Indian tribe tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for certiorari challenging dismissal of its suit over the lack of a migratory fish passageway at a hydroelectric dam.
April 06, 2023
Native American Group Files Emergency Motion In 9th Circuit To Stop Willow Project

SAN FRANCISCO — A Native American organization on April 5 moved in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for an emergency injunction pending appeal to halt all construction activities associated with the hydraulic fracturing development project in the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope known as the Willow Project, arguing that if it is allowed to proceed, it will “irreparably harm fragile Arctic tundra, permanently alter wetlands, and displace subsistence and recreational use.”
April 04, 2023
Judge Stays Briefing In National Monuments Case Against Biden Administration

SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge in Utah on April 4 granted a motion by the Biden administration staying the briefing in a lawsuit brought by the state of Utah and two municipalities over the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, ruling that threshold legal issues must be resolved before addressing the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment.
March 30, 2023
Bankruptcy Code Clearly Cancels Tribes’ Sovereign Immunity, Supreme Court Told

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As domestic governments, Indian tribes’ sovereign immunity from suit is revoked in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code as it is for all other governments, even though the word “tribe” is never used in the code, a debtor tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a respondent brief on the merits.
March 29, 2023
Rail Company Owes Tribe Profits For Willful Trespass, Washington Federal Judge Says

SEATTLE — BNSF Railway Co. owes a Washington Indian tribe the profits it made from willfully trespassing on the tribe’s land by running 100-car trainloads of crude oil across a reservation easement for nearly nine years without permission from the tribe, a federal judge in the state held on remand after a bench trial.
March 24, 2023
New Mexico High Court Suspends Lawyer For Attacks On Judge In Tribal Water Case

SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Supreme Court has suspended for at least 18 months an attorney for making “unfounded” statements that a judge presiding over a Native American water rights case had a conflict of interest and might fix the case in favor of the tribe.
March 24, 2023
10th Circuit: New Mexico Tribe Holds Title To Tract In Volcanic Caldera Preserve

DENVER — A Native American tribe in New Mexico still holds aboriginal title to a tract of land that is now part of a national preserve, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in reversing a federal trial court’s finding that the tribe had lost title to the land by not using it continuously through the years.
March 21, 2023
Native American Group Seeks Intervention In Case Opposing Willow Project Approval

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Native American organization on March 20 moved to intervene in a lawsuit brought by other Native Americans who oppose the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) decision to allow a hydraulic fracturing development project in the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope known as the Willow Project. The organization seeking to intervene says it has the right to do so because it represents the community of Nuiqsut, Alaska, the village closest to the project.
March 21, 2023
9th Circuit Partly Reverses Dismissal Of Claim That Canal Fix Will Hurt Aquifer

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal district court correctly dismissed environmental claims involving a federal repair of a leaky irrigation canal but abused its discretion by not granting a city leave to file an amended complaint, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled.
March 20, 2023
United States’ Trust Duty For Navajo Nation Water Argued Before Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the Southwest United States experiencing extreme drought conditions at a time when the average Navajo Nation resident in Arizona uses only 7 gallons of water a day, the federal government needs to exercise its treaty-promised trust duty to the tribe to see if it can obtain water from the lower Colorado River, an attorney for the tribe told the U.S. Supreme Court this morning in a long-running water rights dispute.
March 20, 2023
Tribal Member’s Supreme Court Petition Over Police Jurisdiction Is Denied

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 20 denied a Native American’s petition for certiorari seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals finding that the federal government can use state law to prosecute a tribal member for eluding tribal police on tribal land, which the petitioner said conflicts with high court precedents.
March 20, 2023
U.S. Must Face Claims Over Delayed Remediation Of PCBs At Surveillance Site

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — On remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a federal judge in Alaska denied the United States’ motion to dismiss allegations that it is liable for the delayed cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at one of the White Alice Communication System sites used to surveil the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
March 16, 2023
9th Circuit Revives Alaska’s Claim Over Special Hunt For Natives During Pandemic

SAN FRANCISCO — A challenge by an Alaskan agency to a decision by the federal government to open a subsistence hunt for a Native American village due to the COVID-19 pandemic is not moot, but the state’s challenge to a second order closing a hunting area to the public to aid subsistence hunters during the pandemic is, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in reversing in part, vacating in part and remanding.
March 14, 2023
No Federal Jurisdiction For Native American’s Simple Assault Plea, U.S. Judge Rules

DENVER — A federal magistrate judge correctly rejected a plea agreement between a Native American and the United States in a domestic disturbance case because a tribal court is the only venue that has jurisdiction over the agreed-to offense of simple assault in Indian country, a federal judge in Colorado held in overruling objections to the magistrate’s ruling.