A federal prisoner’s challenge to an upward departure from the sentencing guidelines based on past tribal court convictions was rejected.
tribal courts
More GTB Election Drama
Holy cow! It just won’t stop. 😦
From the Record-Eagle:
TRAVERSE CITY — Yet another challenge has arisen in the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ quest to install a chairman.
On Sept. 24, Derek Bailey defeated two-term incumbent chairman Bob Kewaygoshkum 256 to 186 for the four-year chairman position. That election was scheduled after a tribal court threw out the regularly scheduled May chairman election, in which Kewaygoshkum beat Bailey 233 to 210.
Bailey said it’s his understanding eight people filed nine separate challenges to the recent election, but he couldn’t provide details.
“I do recognize and honor the election challenge process,” he said. “(But) all of these challenges are personal character attacks and, or, are an … attack on the tribal judiciary’s ruling that was reached in August.”
New GTB Chairman Derek Bailey
From Indianz:
Bailey defeated incumbent chairman Robert Kewaygoshkum in a second matchup that was ordered by the tribal court. He won by 70 votes, after losing by 23 votes in a disputed election in May. At 35, Bailey will be the youngest person to serve as chair. The term lasts four years.
Get the Story:
Challenger elected tribal chairperson (The Traverse City Record-Eagle 9/26)
Tribal Court Decision:
Bailey v. GTB Election Board (August 8, 2008)
GTB Election Today
Ugghhh. I wish we just had one election, instead of two or more every time….
From the Record-Eagle (H/T Indianz):
PESHAWBESTOWN — Members of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians will have another shot at selecting a tribal chairman today.
A tribal court in August ruled the band’s election board improperly censured candidate Derek Bailey shortly before the initial vote in May. A new election was ordered, and polls will be open today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Peshawbestown, East Jordan, Traverse City and Benzonia.
Bailey lost by 23 votes to two-term incumbent chairman Robert Kewaygoshkum in the regularly scheduled May 21 election. But Bailey challenged the results because the band’s election board issued an e-mail censuring him for using a tribal computer to visit his campaign Web site.
The mass e-mail was sent less than 24 hours before the election to all tribal gambling and government employees. A tribal appeals court eventually ruled the action was “far outside the scope of the authority granted to the election board under the Constitution.”
Bailey, who served as a tribal councilman before running for chairman, is pleased to see the new election.
Louisiana Supreme Court Rejects Tribal Court Exhaustion Doctrine
A badly divided Louisiana Supreme Court held that state courts need not apply the tribal court exhaustion doctrine in Mayer and Assoc. v. Coushatta Tribe (opinion).
Eighth Circuit: Oglala Sioux Tribe Waiver of Immunity
The Eighth Circuit held in Oglala Sioux Tribe v. C&W Enterprises that the tribe waived its immunity from suit in an enforcement action in state court despite the fact that the tribe had not expressly waived its immunity via the contract. Here are the materials:
Coquille Tribe Recognizes Same Sex Marriages
This May the Coquille Tribe on Oregon’s Southern Coast adopted a policy recognizing same-sex marriages.
It’s believed to be the first tribe in the country to do so. As Andrew Theen reports, one tribal member and her partner plan to be legally married in Oregon next spring.
Kitzen and Jeni Branting have been together for over a decade. They are domestic partners in the state of Washington where they live, and Jeni already changed her last name to Branting.
Since May Jeni has already been recognized as a tribal spouse. She is eligible for the tribe’s healthcare benefits.
Colville Employment Case in Tribal Court — News Coverage
From the Wenatchee World:
NESPELEM — A judge for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation has upheld an administrative law judge’s decision ordering the tribe to rehire and give backpay to five employees who were fired during budget cuts last November.
But the July 23 ruling by Colville Tribal Chief Judge Steven Aycock also asks the employees and tribal government to “sit down and discuss a resolution that all can live with” given the tribe’s budget troubles.
Aycock wrote that relief is “problematic,” due to the tribes’ financial problems. “The positions are not budgeted. No monies have been budgeted for backpay,” he wrote. Instead, he’s asked each party to file a recommendation for appropriate relief within 60 days, and the court will revisit the issue of relief on Sept. 15.
Snoqualmie Tribal Leadership Dispute in Federal Court
Here is the news article. An excerpt:
A federal judge might be the last hope for banished members of the Snoqualmie Tribe who appeared in court Tuesday in their effort to regain tribal membership.
U.S. District Court Judge James L. Robart said he would issue a written ruling later as to whether the case is even properly before him or should be dismissed.
Only then — if he rules in favor of the banished members — would he get to the merits of the case.
And here are the materials:
petition-for-writ-of-habeas-corpus
snoqualmie-rule-19-motion-to-dismiss [!!!]
Yet Another Opinion from CA9 in the Blackfeet Housing Authority Case
Here is the relevant change:
In our earlier opinions, we declined to require Plaintiffs to exhaust their tribal court remedies. Instead, we held that the Blackfeet Tribe had waived tribal immunity through the enabling ordinance that established the Housing Authority. Marceau II, 519 F.3d at 842-44; Marceau I, 455 F.3d at 978-83; see also Kiowa Tribe of Okla. v. Mfg. Techs., Inc., 523 U.S. 751, 754 (1998) (noting that “an Indian tribe is subject to suit only where Congress has authorized the suit or the tribe has waived its immunity”). Our doing so was in error, and we now vacate that holding and decline to reach the issue. Whether or not the Tribe waived tribal immunity, the tribal court must have the first opportunity to address all issues within its jurisdiction, including that one.
Turtle Talk 
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