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

Mealey's Native American Law

September 23, 2022
N.D. Tribe’s Council Urges 8th Circuit To Uphold Dismissal Of Fraud, RICO Claims

ST. LOUIS — A federal trial court correctly determined that because a business council for a North Dakota Indian tribe did not waive its sovereign immunity, fraud and racketeering claims leveled by a tribal member’s company that entered into a joint venture with the council cannot proceed, the council tells the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a Sept. 22 appellee brief.
September 19, 2022
Tribe Petitions Supreme Court Over Bankruptcy Code Waiver Of Immunity

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided ruling by the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the U.S. Bankruptcy Code “unequivocally” abrogates Indian tribes’ sovereign immunity should be vacated because the holding “deepens an acknowledged circuit conflict” and “flouts” U.S. Supreme Court precedents on tribal sovereign immunity, a Wisconsin tribe in a payday lending case tells the high court in a Sept. 8 petition for a writ of certiorari.
September 16, 2022
Negligence Per Se Claim Rejected By N.M. Federal Judge In Mine Blowout Row

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal judge in New Mexico on Sept. 8 granted a government contractor judgment on the pleadings that it cannot be held negligent per se in connection with a mine blowout because there is no private cause of action under the state and federal environmental laws invoked in the case.
September 16, 2022
9th Circuit: 1891 Law Allows Alaskan Indian Community To Fish Off-Reservation

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 8 ruled that an 1891 federal law grants Alaska’s Metlakatla Indian Community the right to fish in off-reservation waters where they have traditionally fished.
September 15, 2022
2 Native American Companies Will Pay New York $56M In Tobacco Taxes

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on Sept. 13 entered a stipulated judgment resolving a dispute over sale of untaxed cigarettes in New York state between New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Canadian First Peoples cigarette manufacturer and its New York-based distributor, with the two companies agreeing to pay the state more than $56 million.
September 14, 2022
Majority Reverses Ruling In Cherokee Nation’s Favor In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

OKLAHOMA CITY — A majority of the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Sept. 13 held that Cherokee Nation's losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic did not trigger business interruption insurance coverage because the insured “did not sustain immediate, tangible deprivation or destruction of property,” reversing a lower court’s ruling in favor of the insured.
September 09, 2022
9th Circuit: Klamath Water Case Requires Tribes, But They Have Sovereign Immunity

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 8 affirmed dismissal of a declaratory action by Klamath Project water users because two tribes are required parties but cannot be joined because of their sovereign immunity.
September 06, 2022
Ute Tribe Appeals Dismissal Of Federal Claims Court Water Rights Action

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Native American tribe on Aug. 30 told the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the Federal Claims Court erred in ruling that the United States had no trust duties to protect the tribe’s water rights on its Utah reservation.
September 06, 2022
Ute Tribe OK’d To File Amended Complaint About Its Federal Water Rights

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah federal magistrate judge on Aug. 22 issued an opinion allowing the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation to file a third amended complaint against the United States and Utah for allegedly discriminating against the tribe’s water rights.
September 06, 2022
Dueling Summary Judgment Motions Filed In Dispute Over Land For Cape Cod Tribe

BOSTON — A 2021 decision by the Department of the Interior to take land into trust for a Massachusetts Indian tribe after originally turning down the request was proper and should be affirmed, the tribe says in a Sept. 2 summary judgment motion in federal court after the local residents who sued over the decision called it “transparently political” in an earlier summary judgment bid.
September 02, 2022
Klamath Project MDL Faces Unanimous Opposition; Movant Cites 2 Other Water MDLs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While all responding parties on Aug. 24 opposed centralization of seven federal lawsuits involving the United States’ management of water in the Klamath Project in Oregon, the moving Klamath Irrigation District (KID) on Aug. 31 told the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) that the panel faced the same issues in 2007 and 2003 when it created two MDLs related to federal operation of water systems in Georgia and Missouri.
September 02, 2022
Judge Dismisses Tribe’s Federal Suit Over State Court Contract Row

MARQUETTE, Mich. — A Michigan tribal gaming authority’s federal court bid to halt breach of contract claims brought in state court by two casino development companies based on sovereign immunity is barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA), a federal judge ruled Aug. 24 in granting motions to dismiss.
September 01, 2022
High Court To Consider Petition Of Co-Op That Cut Power To Elderly Tribesman

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 31 set a conference date for a case asking whether the Crow Tribe in Montana has jurisdiction over a nonprofit electric cooperative for allegedly violating tribal law by disconnecting power to an elderly tribal member, after the tribal member and officials waived their right to respond.
September 01, 2022
Sovereign Immunity From Suit ‘Well-Settled,’ Tribe Tells Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A challenge by a former employee of an Oregon Indian tribe to dismissal of her fraud claims against the tribe and tribal officials should be rejected because a California appellate court correctly relied on “well-settled areas of law” in finding the claims barred by tribal sovereign immunity, the tribe and officials argue in an Aug. 24 brief in opposition to the ex-worker’s U.S. Supreme Court petition.
September 01, 2022
No Habeas Relief For Oklahoma Man Claiming Crime Was In Indian Country

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — An Oklahoma federal judge on Aug. 29 dismissed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for causing a fatal crash while driving drunk and sought to challenge his state court convictions by claiming that he is a tribal member and the crash happened in Indian country, so the federal government had jurisdiction.
August 31, 2022
Utah Says President Biden Abused Authority With Decision On National Monuments

SALT LAKE CITY — The powers of the president under the Monuments and Antiquities Act and the dimensions of two national monuments, two issues that have been hotly contested across multiple presidential administrations, are once again at issue in litigation as Utah and two counties on Aug. 24 sued President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in Utah federal court challenging his decision to reverse his predecessor’s order that decreased the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Bears Ears National Monument, which has implications for potential hydraulic fracturing activity in the region.
August 31, 2022
9th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of Contract Row Over Tribe’s Casino Plans

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 18 affirmed the dismissal of a company’s suit for breach of a development agreement for a gaming facility against a Nevada Indian tribe, saying the trial court correctly tossed the case for lack of federal subject matter jurisdiction.
August 31, 2022
Anti-Discrimination Law For Unvaccinated Not Valid On Indian Land, Suit Says

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana economic development agency sued the state’s Human Rights Commission in federal court Aug. 30 to challenge the application of a state law on Indian land that prohibits discrimination based on a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status.
August 30, 2022
Judge Tosses Most Charges Against Navajo Man For Selling Hawk, Eagle Feathers

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge on Aug. 26 dismissed six of the seven criminal counts against a Navajo man accused by the federal government of illegally selling eagle and hawk feathers, finding that his treaty rights trump Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) regulations.
August 29, 2022
Shinnecock Members Get Partial Win In 2nd Circuit In Bay Fishing Dispute

NEW YORK — Three members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation seeking to have their fishing rights affirmed can pursue declaratory and injunctive relief against New York environmental officials but fail in their claim that they were discriminated against due to their race because “there is no evidence in the record that would permit an inference of discriminatory intent,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Aug. 25 in affirming in part, vacating in part and remanding a summary judgment ruling.
August 26, 2022
Tribes, U.S. Government Say Indian Child Placement Law Valid, Constitutional

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is not unconstitutional because it “operates at the core of the” U.S. government’s “trust obligation” to Indian tribes and because “the Constitution expressly authorizes Congress to legislate specifically for Indians,” three Native American tribes say in an Aug. 12 amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the statute amid challenges by some states and adoptive parents.
August 23, 2022
California Tribe Sues State Over ‘Bad Faith’ Gaming Compact Demands

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California Indian tribe sued the state in federal court on Aug. 22 claiming that it is negotiating in bad faith for a new gaming compact between the tribe and state by trying to impose compact provisions that have nothing to do with gambling, in violation of federal law.
August 22, 2022
Oregon Irrigation District Wants 7 Klamath River Suits Centralized In An MDL

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) on Aug. 11 said it will hear arguments on Sept. 29 on a motion by an Oregon irrigation district to centralize seven federal lawsuits involving the management of water in the Klamath Project that serves Native American tribes, farmers and fishermen in Oregon and Northern California.
August 19, 2022
EPA Announces Wetland Protection Grants For Indian Tribes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Aug. 17 that $3.6 million is available to federally recognized Native American tribes and intertribal groups to develop or refine wetland programs. The agency said it expects to award funding for up to 25 projects “that help build wetland capacity, strengthen nation-to-nation relationships, promote equity, and improve climate resilience.”
August 19, 2022
Judge Dismisses Lumber Company’s Contract Suit Against Coeur D’Alene Tribe

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — An Idaho federal judge on Aug. 16 dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a breach of contract lawsuit filed against a Native American tribe by a lumber company over a lease agreement to operate a lumber mill, finding that no diversity jurisdiction exists over the tribe.