Mealey's Native American Law
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March 09, 2023
Native American Tribes Say Case Challenging National Monuments Order Fails
SALT LAKE CITY — A group of Native American tribes moved to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the state of Utah and two municipalities over the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, contending that President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s proclamation reestablishing them is consistent with the Antiquities Act and, therefore, the lawsuit challenging the president’s decision fails.
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March 08, 2023
Washington Appeals Court Revives Tribe’s Nuisance Claims Over Hydroelectric Dams
SEATTLE — A Washington Indian tribe’s allegations that Seattle’s promotion of its hydroelectric project as being the “Nation’s Greenest Utility” harms the tribe are pleaded adequately enough for two of its nuisance claims to survive a motion to dismiss, a state appellate court ruled in partly reversing dismissal of the tribe’s suit against the city.
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March 08, 2023
Native American Groups Oppose Fracking Advocates In Case About Drilling Moratorium
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Native American tribal government and other tribal parties filed a brief in Alaska federal court contending that it should deny a motion for summary judgment sought by hydraulic fracturing advocates who say the Biden administration unlawfully imposed a moratorium on fracking. The tribal government says the fracking proponents’ arguments are “based on fundamental misapprehensions” regarding both executive actions and the analysis conducted by federal agencies.
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March 07, 2023
Tribe Files 3rd Motion For Injunction Against Trinity River Water Plan
FRESNO, Calif. — California’s Hoopa Valley Tribe has asked a federal court to issue a preliminary injunction against a Trinity River water flow plan that the tribe says will come at the expense of a reduced flow for the spring and summer.
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March 07, 2023
Split 10th Circuit Panel Says Tribe Owed Support Costs For Health Care Program
DENVER — A divided 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 6 reversed dismissal of an Arizona Indian tribe’s suit against the government seeking additional federal funding to pay for health care services under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA), with all three judges coming to different conclusions when interpreting the statute and a majority only agreeing that the tribe wins, but for different reasons.
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March 06, 2023
United States Didn’t Accept Trust Duty For Navajo Nation Water, Supreme Court Told
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Navajo Nation’s attempt to hold the federal government liable for breaching its trust duty to provide water for the tribe, including from the Colorado River, fails because the claim “does not rest on any specific trust duty that the government has expressly accepted,” the government argues in its March 3 reply brief on the merits in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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March 03, 2023
New Jersey Judge Sides With State In Dispute Over Mine Pollution By Ford
HACKENSACK, N.J. — A New Jersey judge largely denied a request by Ford Motor Co. for dismissal of a complaint by state environmental regulators over the discharge of toxic substances at a former mine.
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March 03, 2023
Minnesota Tribe Clears Dismissal Hurdle In Suit Against Land Deal For Mine
DULUTH, Minn. — A Minnesota Indian tribe has standing to challenge the U.S. Forest Service’s exchange of land with a mining company for an open pit copper nickel mine because it has hunting and fishing rights for the land under an 1854 treaty, a federal judge in the state has ruled in denying the mining company’s motion to dismiss the tribe’s complaint.
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February 28, 2023
Oklahoma Gets Win In Tribe’s Challenges To Gaming Compacts With State
OKLAHOMA CITY — Neither Oklahoma’s changes to state laws expanding the availability of lottery games nor its expansion of hours of operation for electronic casino-type games at racetracks violates the gaming compacts the state has with Indian tribes, a federal judge in the state ruled in granting Oklahoma summary judgment on a tribe’s last challenges to the gaming deals.
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February 27, 2023
U.S. Won’t Respond To Tribal Member’s Supreme Court Petition Over Jurisdiction
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on Feb. 24 waived its right to respond to a Native American’s petition for U.S. Supreme Court review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals holding that the government can use state law to prosecute a tribal member for eluding tribal police on tribal land, which the petitioner says runs afoul of high court precedents.
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February 27, 2023
U.S. Reaches Agreement With Citizen Plaintiffs In Gold King Mine Case
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The federal government announced that it has reached a settlement with two citizen groups in multidistrict litigation over a 2015 mine blowout that polluted the Animas and San Juan rivers.
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February 24, 2023
Tribe Says Question Of Immunity In Bankruptcy Code Is Congress’ Job, Not Courts
WASHINGTON, D.C. — If tribal sovereign immunity is to be stripped from Native Americans in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, it needs to be done in a clear statement by Congress and not by the parsing of statutory text by the courts, a Wisconsin tribe tells the U.S. Supreme Court in its brief on the merits in a payday lending dispute.
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February 22, 2023
9th Circuit: Trump WOTUS Rule Wasn’t Ruled Unlawful Before Remand For New Rule
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 21 said a federal district court lacked authority to vacate and remand a Trump-era waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule without first holding that it was unlawful.
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February 21, 2023
Judge Denies Tribe’s Motion To Enjoin Changes To Operation Of Central Valley Project
FRESNO, Calif. — A California federal judge denied a motion by a Native American tribe to issue a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) for adopting a new plan governing the release of water from the Central Valley Project without the tribe’s concurrence.
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February 21, 2023
Washington Federal Judge: Natural Resource Damages Claim Not Unripe
SPOKANE, Wash. — A bid for summary judgment by a smelter accused of disposing millions of tons of toxic slag and liquid effluent into the Columbia River was rejected Feb. 17 by a federal judge in Washington, who said a claim for natural resources damages is ripe.
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February 17, 2023
Convicted Child Sex Abuser Denied Certificate To Appeal By 10th Circuit
DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 16 denied a certificate of appealability for a Native American man seeking to challenge his Wyoming state court conviction for second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, rejecting his claims of ineffective counsel and denial of his right to practice his religion.
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February 16, 2023
Immunity Protects Cape Cod Tribe From Suit Over Shellfishing, Panel Says
BOSTON — Tribal sovereign immunity protects a Cape Cod Indian tribe from trespass and nuisance claims leveled by an island owner who accuses the tribe’s commercial shellfishing business of trashing the island and its private tidelands, the Massachusetts Appeals Court determined Feb. 15 in affirming dismissal of the property owner’s commonwealth court suit.
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February 14, 2023
DOI, Massachusetts Tribe Win Summary Judgment In Reservation Land Dust-Up
BOSTON — The Department of the Interior’s decision in 2021 to take land into trust for a Massachusetts Indian tribe after originally turning down the request was not random or impulsive, a Massachusetts federal judge held in awarding the agency and tribe summary judgment on claims by local residents who have been fighting the land designation for 15 years.
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February 10, 2023
DOI Ordered To Complete Record For Tribe’s Suit Over Recognition Denial
SEATTLE — The federal government must provide a complete administrative record for its decision not to include a Washington Indian tribe on the list of federally recognized tribes because the tribe produced evidence showing that it was the only tribe out of 16 that did not have its recognition petition reviewed under new regulations, a federal judge in the state determined Feb. 9.
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February 10, 2023
Dozens Of Tribes, Others Back Navajo Nation In Supreme Court Water Rights Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — It is “blackletter law” that the United States, as trustee of reserved water rights for Indian tribes, is obligated to identify the waters reserved for tribes like the Navajo Nation, a group of large tribes tells the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus curiae brief in a dispute over water from the Colorado River.
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February 08, 2023
Insurance Row Over Tribe’s COVID-19 Losses Stays In Tribal Court, Judge Rules
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over an insurance company in a dispute over the tribe’s claims for business interruption losses at its casino caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge in California held in awarding summary judgment to two tribal judges in the insurer’s federal declaratory judgment suit.
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February 07, 2023
Inmate’s Habeas Petition Based On McGirt Filed Too Late, Judge Says
OKLAHOMA CITY — Neither an inmate’s claims of innocence nor the change in criminal jurisdiction in Oklahoma brought about by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma can save the inmate’s untimely bid for habeas relief, which was filed 25 years into a 30-year prison sentence, an Oklahoma federal judge ruled in granting dismissal.
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February 07, 2023
Landowners Appeal Process Used In Tribal Water Rights Case In Washington
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two individuals and a landowners association have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a writ of certiorari for a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision that they say deprived them of their day in court in a tribal water rights case.
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February 07, 2023
Judge Rejects Challenges By Tribes, Others To Approval For Nevada Lithium Mine
RENO, Nev. — The Bureau of Land Management needs to review on remand one aspect of a proposed lithium mine, but otherwise its approval of the project stands, a Nevada federal judge decided Feb. 6 in ruling on various motions for summary judgment, including two filed by intervening Native American tribes challenging the project.
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February 07, 2023
Judge: Endangered Species Act Preempts Oregon Order For Federal Water Releases
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Feb. 6 ruled that the Endangered Species Act (ESA) preempts an order by the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) that prohibited the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from releasing water from the Upper Klamath Lake to preserve downstream endangered fish species during drought conditions.