Turtle Talk

At the Initial Hearing on January 21, 2011, Appellee argued that reading the Code as a whole, and in particular the Domestic Relations Chapter, the Tribes allows non-Indians, including descendants to file other civil family matter cases in the Tribal Court. She gave as examples the custody sections, guardianships, paternity actions, and child support. She asserts that to exclude this class of litigants, i.e. non-Indians and descendants, from dissolutions violates their rights to due process and equal protection, by denying them access to the Tribal Court.

We have long upheld the rights of litigants to equal protection and due process in our Courts, as guaranteed by our Tribal Civil Rights Act, CTC § 1-5-2(h). See, Gallaher v. Foster, 6 CCAR 48, 3 CCTR 50 (2002); R.L. and B.J. v. CCT CFS, 6 CCAR 1, 3 CCTR 39 (2001); and Finley v. CTSC, 8 CCAR 38, 4 CCTR 25 (2006). We cannot find a violation of either in the circumstances of this case. It is true the Tribes has restricted who may file for dissolutions in the Tribal Court, but such restriction does not offend due process or equal protection. The tribal legislatures have made a decision to limit the sovereignty it wishes to exercise over non-tribal members, no matter who their families are. It is up to the tribal Council to change this law, not the Courts.

The statute is clear and unambiguous on its face. Statutory construction begins by looking at the statute’s language, giving words their plain meaning, and proceeding to extrinsic interpretive aids only when the statute contains unclear or ambiguous language. CTC § 1-1-7(b) (providing that words given plain and generally understood meaning). The Constitutional responsibility of the tribal legislatures to decide what jurisdiction it wishes the Tribes to exercise is clear and unambiguous. See Constitution, id.

In the matters of domestic relations, the Tribes has restricted its subject matter jurisdiction over marriages, both in granting them and dissolving or annulling them, to only cases in which one party is a member of the Tribes. CTC § 5-1-32(b) (one of the persons getting married under the Code must be an enrolled Colville tribal member); and CTC § 5-1-101 (one of the parties to a dissolution or annulment action must be an enrolled Colville tribal member). There was no subject matter jurisdiction over the dissolution in this case. We so hold.