In a recent judicial decision involving the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Tribe has faced a setback in establishing a casino near Detroit, Michigan. The case of Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians v....more
In a momentous legal development, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason has vacated and remanded a decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to place a 787-square-foot parcel of land in downtown Juneau into...more
In a significant legal development, the Alaska Supreme Court recently expanded tribal sovereign immunity to include tribal consortiums, overturning a precedent set two decades ago. The groundbreaking decision of Ito v. Copper...more
Generally, tribal lands held in trust by the federal government are exempt from state and local taxation under Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (the Act). However, when non-Indians are involved in ownership...more
3/27/2024
/ Appeals ,
AZ Supreme Court ,
Commercial Leases ,
Economic Development ,
Indian Reorganization Act ,
Preemption ,
Property Ownership ,
Property Tax ,
Tax Exemptions ,
Tribal Economic Development Projects ,
Tribal Lands
In the complex landscape of Indigenous rights and jurisdiction, the question of tribal authority over Alaska Native allotments has long been a subject of legal debate. The recent Opinion known as Partial Withdrawal of...more
In a recent decision, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in the case of Sipp v. Buffalo Thunder Inc. that state courts do not have the authority to adjudicate tort claims filed by casino visitors. The unanimous decision...more
1/23/2024
/ Appeals ,
Bodily Injury ,
Casinos ,
Damages ,
Immunity ,
Indian Gaming ,
Indian Gaming Regulation Act ,
Jurisdiction ,
State Law Tort Claims ,
Termination Clauses ,
Tribal Lands ,
Tribal-State Gaming Compacts
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), in an effort to improve and streamline the tribal land acquisition application process, recently announced changes to the pertinent federal regulations, 25 CFR Part 151. Prior to the...more
On February 10, 2023, the Honorable Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts ruled that the U.S. Department of the Interior acted legally when it took into trust 321 acres of land (two noncontiguous...more
On November 16, the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior issued Opinion M-37076, clarifying that the Secretary of the Interior does in fact have authority to acquire land in trust within the State of Alaska. The...more
In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, on June 29, that the Federal Government and the State have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against...more
In a 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a Native American defendant who was previously prosecuted in a special federal administrative tribal court can be charged in a federal court for the same incident...more
On April 26, 2022, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a significant unanimous decision addressing the applicability of a state ad valorem property tax on a power plant located on Indian land. The Arizona Supreme Court held that...more
On June 1, in a landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unanimously that tribal police officers have the authority to temporarily detain and search non-Natives on public rights-of-way through Indian lands if they are...more
In a decision that impacts entities and individuals doing business in Indian Country, the Arizona Court of Appeals sided with the Taxpayer in its challenge to the state and county’s power to tax property on tribal land in the...more
5/10/2021
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Arizona ,
Bureau of Indian Affairs ,
Department of Revenue ,
Preemption ,
Property Tax ,
Summary Judgment ,
Tax Court ,
Tribal Lands ,
Vacated
Last week, the Department of the Interior issued Memorandum M-37069 regarding the Secretary of the Interior’s land into trust authority in Alaska, in keeping with the current administration’s expressed priority of recognizing...more
On December 21, 2015, new rights-of-way regulations on Indian lands will go into effect. These new regulations likely will have an immediate and substantial impact throughout Indian Country, for both Tribes and businesses...more
On December 12, 2014, Judge Anthony Battaglia of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted the State of California’s Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the Iipay Nation of...more
On June 17, 2014, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) published proposed revisions to 25 CFR Part 169, whereby the new rule seeks to comprehensively update and streamline the process for obtaining BIA grants of Rights-of-Way...more
In response to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Carcieri v. Salazar, 555 U.S. 379 (2009), the Office of the Solicitor for the United States Department of the Interior issued a memorandum opinion on March 12, 2014,...more
Last year’s decisive (8-1) decision by the United States Supreme Court in Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians v. Patchak, 132 S. Ct. 2199 (2012) (“Patchak”) appeared to be a major blow to tribal gaming and...more
New regulations enacted by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) applicable to tribal leases will have far reaching impacts on businesses, particularly renewable energy projects, utilizing tribal lands....more