Here’s an interesting development that may have some impact on the Colorado v. Cash Advance case.
The Sisseton tribal council enacted the following resolution designed to “fix” the Northern Plains Intertribal Court of Appeals decision raised by the Colorado AG in the supplemental pleading referred to here.
From NPR:
American Indian casinos are big business in the United States, with an estimated 280,000 people employed across more than 400 sites.
That huge workforce is largely unorganized. Only a few such casinos recognize union contracts. Among them is North America’s largest gaming center, Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.
Its dealers recently struck a deal after a lengthy dispute with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. What makes this agreement different is that it was brokered under tribal law.
Unionizing Casinos
Very interesting recognition of tribal customary law.
The case is Senator v. United States (E.D. Wash.), and arose on the Yakama Indian Nation. Here are the materials:
Senator Motion for Summary Judgment
From the Santa Fe New Mexican via Pechanga:
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. has vetoed legislation that he contends limits the Navajo way of life.
Lawmakers voted last month to amend a set of laws based on the tribe’s centuries-old traditional values and customs. Under the measure, any dispute regarding the validity, application or interpretation of Dine (Din-EH’) Fundamental Law would not be heard in Navajo courts but be resolved consensually through peacemaking.
Shirley struck down the measure last week, saying the laws protect and preserve the Navajo way of life and what makes the tribal government unique. He also says the council’s vote was politically motivated.
Lawmakers can override the veto with 59 votes, representing two-thirds of the 88-member Tribal Council.
The appeal focused on the Michigan court of appeal’s decision to drop Miller Canfield from the suit. It sounds like the suit against Bouschor and some of the other co-defendants will go to trial next.
The materials are here:
Sault Tribe Motion for Leave to Appeal
Lower court materials are here.
If this story is true, then this tribe should do the right thing. This bad press for all of Indian Country.
From the San Diego Union Tribune via Pechanga:
During a visit to Sycuan Casino five years ago, Sarah Harris walked into a restroom altercation that she says changed her life.
Now, after what feels like countless hearings on the Indian reservation and in federal court, the 75-year-old former diesel engine mechanic still doesn’t have the $160,000 an arbitrator says she’s due.
Although tribal law says arbitration awards are to be enforced in federal court, the tribe has convinced a federal judge that he has no jurisdiction over the case.
* * *
Sycuan’s lawyers say it wasn’t an intentional dead end.
“The ordinance surely wasn’t written to steer parties to a forum the tribe knew was not going to enforce something; that was not at all the tribe’s intent,” said lawyer Jay Shapiro. “Sometimes documents get written at times when it’s not clear what the law is, or what cases a federal court will hear or not hear.”
I hope this lawyer was misquoted because this statement is awful and wrong. Such an ordinance should be amended immediately, and at a later paragraph in the same article, another tribal lawyer says it will “look at rewording the ordinance.”
The tribe doesn’t want to pay the $160,000 because a tribal arbitrator failed to follow the rules when making the award, which is reasonable in most contexts, but not this one.
The link to the three district court opinions is here.
From Indianz:
The Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians of Michigan are asking the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be treated as a federally recognized tribe.
The Mackinac Bands are considered a part of the federally recognized Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. But the bands say they are a distinct and self-governing tribe.
The bands wrote a new constitution to reflect their status.
Get the Story:
New Anishinabe Constitution presented (The Cheboygan Daily Tribune 2/12)
From ICT:
Imagine this scenario: “If you don’t sleep with me, you can kiss your job goodbye,” the male supervisor warns the female waitress at the tribe’s gaming facility. (We’ll call her Joyce.) She consistently says no. His threats continue and even escalate.
Although he threatens to make her life miserable if she tells anyone, Joyce seeks help from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; EEOC informs her that federal sexual harassment laws exclude tribes. She goes to tribal court. She finds she has no remedy under tribal law. Overwhelmed by her boss’ intimidation, Joyce quits her job. Unemployed and unable to afford her rent, she moves in with her brother, Bob.
| A host of other laws that are silent about their application to tribes pose similar threats to tribal sovereignty. |
Bob, a union organizer, is outraged. He starts talking to Joyce’s co-workers and learns that other women have experienced similar harassment. Other workers complain that management plays favorites with tribal members, giving them better jobs and shifts than non-members. Bob says that with union representation, management would be held accountable for workers’ rights.
For more details, see the Blackfeet Constitutional Reform website.
From the Great Falls Tribune (via Pechanga):
Blackfeet tribal members can help write their new constitution today in Browning.
A constitutional convention will be held today at Blackfeet Community College starting at 5 p.m. Participants will be broken into groups and will draft ideas on articles in the tribe’s new governing document.
A presentation of the ideas will be held later that night, and participants can refine them up until a deadline in February. The event is being put on by the Blackfeet Constitutional Reform Committee.
“The more people we can get to participate and feel ownership, the more success we will have,” said Lona Burns, committee spokeswoman. Continue reading
From local news:
In banishing Christopher Pearson, the former tribal official facing sentencing on federal wire-fraud charges, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Elders Council meted out an ancient form of punishment employed by Indian tribes across the country.
Within weeks of his Nov. 19 conviction in U.S. District Court in Hartford, Pearson was ordered off the Mashantucket reservation, where he owns a home, and to surrender his tribal badge, having “forfeited all rights and privileges of Tribal membership with the exception of services provided by Tribal Health Services.”
The elders council also directed the tribe’s finance department to cut off Pearson’s monthly “incentive” payments — the distributions of Foxwoods Resort Casino revenue that all tribal members in good standing receive.
While the tribe would provide no information about banishments, it’s believed that their frequency has increased since the tribe’s constitution and by-laws granted the elders council “the authority and responsibility” to impose them.
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council resolutions show that 12 people were banished by the tribal council prior to the establishment of the elders council in 1996. Currently, several people are banished each year, maybe more, according to Thomas Weissmuller, chief judge of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court. Continue reading
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