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

Mealey's Native American Law

January 05, 2023
Law Firm, California Tribe Seek Dismissal After Settlement Reached

SAN DIEGO — A long-running breach of contract dispute between a law firm and a California Indian tribe, which fired the firm during negotiations with the state for a tribal gaming compact, has ended in a settlement, with the parties jointly moving to dismiss all claims and counterclaims in federal court.
January 04, 2023
Ex-Worker Of Tribal Agency Can Amend Some Wrongful Termination Claims

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — An Oklahoma federal magistrate judge on Jan. 3 dismissed some claims in a wrongful termination action filed against a tribal housing agency by a former employee but allowed the worker to amend his suit to provide “further factual support” for the surviving two civil rights claims.
January 03, 2023
9th Circuit Panel Upholds Dismissal Of Washington Tribe’s Suit Over Fish Passage

SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 30 affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a Native American tribe over the lack of a migratory fish passageway at a hydroelectric dam, finding no subject matter jurisdiction because the suit was subject to the Federal Power Act (FPA), which grants jurisdiction to the federal courts of appeals over objections to orders by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
January 03, 2023
City Pays Yakama Nation $295,000 To Settle CERCLA Litigation

YAKIMA, Wash. — A federal judge in Washington has entered a judgment in favor of the Confederate Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation in their dispute with the city of Yakima over contamination at a former municipal landfill.
December 23, 2022
Indians Evicted From Homes Denied Injunctive Relief By Nevada Federal Judge

RENO, Nev. — Ten tribal members who have been evicted from their homes on a 20-acre reservation in Nevada by the tribe’s interim government are not entitled to a preliminary injunction because they did not show that they will probably succeed on their challenge to the eviction actions, a federal judge in the state ruled in denying the members’ motion.
December 22, 2022
DOI Says It’s Not Obligated To Provide Navajo Nation With Colorado River Water

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States’ trust relationship with the Navajo Nation does not require the federal government to oversee the tribe’s right to use water from the Lower Colorado River, the Department of the Interior (DOI) says in its opening brief on the merits in the U.S. Supreme Court.
December 19, 2022
Fracking Company Says Current Lease Appeal Should Not Be Assigned To Prior Panel

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hydraulic fracturing company engaged in a federal lease dispute with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) filed a brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that it should deny a motion by an intervenor Native American group seeking to have the appeal assigned to the same panel that heard a prior, related appeal. The fracking operator says that while the attempt is “an understandable litigation tactic,” it is still “inappropriate.”
December 15, 2022
Wife Dismissed From Husband’s Suit Challenging Tribal Court Divorce Action

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on Dec. 14 dismissed a tribal member wife from her husband’s lawsuit against her tribe and its tribal court seeking to undo a ruling in the divorce proceeding that the wife initiated in the tribal court, finding that the husband’s complaint fails to state a valid claim against the wife.
December 14, 2022
Ohio Supreme Court Affirms Actions To Preserve Earthworks As Public Park

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld rulings in favor of the state’s historical society in its lawsuit seeking to appropriate the lease interest of a country club so the prehistoric mounds of the Octagon Earthworks can be converted from a golf course to a public park that will be nominated as part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks for international recognition on the United Nations’ World Heritage List.
December 13, 2022
9th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Tribal Member’s Suit Over Banned Graduation Cap

SAN FRANCISCO — A Native American woman sufficiently alleged at the motion-to-dismiss stage that her high school violated her constitutional rights by not allowing her to wear a graduation cap adorned with beads and an eagle feather, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in reversing and remanding.
December 12, 2022
Supreme Court Denies Review For Crow Tribe’s Regulation Of Utility

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A rural electricity cooperative on Dec. 12 lost its bid for U.S. Supreme Court review of federal court rulings that it must abide by a Montana Indian tribe regulation that limits the conditions under which utility companies can shut off residential service during the winter.
December 08, 2022
Fracking Advocates Seek Ruling Biden Administration’s Lease Pause Was ‘Unlawful’

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Groups that advocate for hydraulic fracturing activity in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) have moved in Alaska federal court seeking summary judgment declaring the Biden administration’s actions unlawful with regard to his decision to issue a moratorium on federal lease sales in that region.
December 07, 2022
Tribe’s Chief Judge Selected For Michigan Appeals Court Open Seat

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s governor on Dec. 6 appointed the chief judge of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Trial Court as the first tribal citizen to sit on the Michigan Court of Appeals.
December 07, 2022
Juul, MDL Plaintiffs Announce 4 Settlements Of Illegal Marketing Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and the co-lead counsel representing plaintiffs suing it in federal multidistrict litigation and a California state court coordinated proceeding announced Dec. 6 that they have reached four global settlements to resolve thousands of lawsuits against JLI for illegally marketing its products to youth and forcing government entities and tribes to divert resources to address youth vaping.
December 06, 2022
Tribe, Water Districts Seek Extended Stay Pending Mediated Settlement

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A Native American tribe and two water districts have asked a California federal judge to extend for three months his stay of their water rights case because they believe that private mediation can result in a settlement.
December 06, 2022
Water Takings Suit Remanded To Oregon State Court As Untimely Removed

MEDFORD, Ore. — An Oregon federal judge has granted a motion by Oregon to remand to state court a complaint that tribal water rights result in the uncompensated taking of a ranch’s property.
December 06, 2022
United States, Utah, Water District Seek Dismissal Of Tribe’s Water Rights Claims

SALT LAKE CITY — The United States, the state of Utah and a Utah water district have filed briefs asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah to dismiss in whole or in part a lawsuit brought by a Native American tribe alleging a breach of duty to provide water and water rights since the creation of the reservation in the 1900s and through several water projects and water agreements.
December 06, 2022
Sauk-Suiattle Tribe Sues Washington Over Collection Of Retail Sales Tax

SEATTLE — The Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe in Washington filed a lawsuit Dec. 5 in federal court seeking to stop the state’s collection of retail sales taxes on products bought online and delivered to the tribe’s members on its reservation.
December 05, 2022
6 New Mexico Residents Appeal Dismissal Of Challenge To State Water Adjudication

DENVER — Six New Mexico residents are appealing to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a federal court’s dismissal of their lawsuit seeking to counter a state court adjudication ruling involving Native American water rights in the state.
December 05, 2022
Oklahoma Tribe’s Appeal Delayed For Ruling On Reconsideration Motion

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals put on hold an appeal by an Oklahoma Indian tribe until the trial court can decide the tribe’s request for reconsideration of dismissal of its second suit against the Department of the Interior (DOI) alleging that the tribe is part of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and beneficiary of an 1833 Creek treaty that gives it shared jurisdiction over the vast Creek Reservation.
December 05, 2022
Federal Review Of Fracking Permits Was Insufficient, N.D. Tribe Tells 8th Circuit

ST. LOUIS — Federal government officials “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in approving permits for a non-Indian energy company’s hydraulic fracturing well project along Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota on the reservation of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) Nation, the tribe says in an opening brief in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging a summary judgment ruling for the government defendants.
December 02, 2022
Bank Allowed To Intervene In Suit Over Canceled Lease Between Tribe, Campground

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana federal judge on Dec. 1 allowed a bank that loaned money to a campground company to intervene in litigation between the company and the Blackfeet Indian Nation over the tribe’s cancelation of the lease for the campground land on its reservation.
December 02, 2022
FBI, BIA Will Work Together On Enforcing The Law In Indian Country

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Dec. 1 that the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) have signed an agreement to improve law enforcement in Indian country, updating a memorandum of understanding that was first signed in the 1990s.
December 01, 2022
In Gold King Mine MDL, Theories Of CERCLA Liability Are Rejected

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Nearly three months after it was awarded judgment on the pleadings on claims of negligence in a case over the Gold King Mine blowout, a government contractor has won dismissal in New Mexico federal court of allegations that it is liable for contamination of the Animas and San Juan rivers as a transporter of impounded water.
December 01, 2022
Without ‘Indian’ Children, Mother’s ICWA Claims Fail, Magistrate Judge Says

FRESNO, Calif. — A mother lacks standing to challenge California’s removal of her three children from her custody under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) because she is not a parent of an “Indian child” as defined in the statute, a federal magistrate judge in the state held Nov. 30 in dismissing her petition for review for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.