BLT: DOJ Promises Increased Crime-Fighting in Indian Country

From BLT:

The Justice Department announced today a renewed effort to improve law enforcement on tribal land through a partnership among Native American leaders and the federal government.

Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, addressing more than 500 attendees at the National Congress on American Indians in New York, said the department later this year will convene a Tribal Nationals Listening Conference to address public safety concerns on tribal land. Click here for a copy of Perrelli’s prepared remarks, provided by the Justice Department.

The listening conference and a planned series of regional summits are expected to address, among other topics, federal prosecution in Indian country, development of tribal courts, domestic violence, substance abuse, civil rights and litigation involving tribes. The initiative, Perrelli says, is “tremendously important.”

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Oklahoma Ct. of Criminal Appeals Holds that Seminole Parcel Not Indian Country

In Magnan v. State, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that a parcel of land in which Seminole Indians retained 4/5 of mineral rights was still no longer Indian Country. The case is interesting for two reasons. First, the whole debate about Indian Country:

This Court considered a similar question in Murphy v. State, 2005 OK CR 25, 124 P.3d 1198.  In Murphy, a murder occurred on a state road that at one time had been Indian allotted land.  Over time, the surface estate on which the road was located, and 11/12ths of the mineral estate, had been conveyed to non-Indians.  Applying a contacts and interests analysis analogous to the familiar “minimum contacts” test set out in International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 158, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), the Murphy court concluded that the Oklahoma’s contacts and interests in the surface property overwhelmed any fractional interest the Indian heir of the original allottee owned in the unseen mineral estate.  According to Murphy, that conclusion was necessary because allowing an unobservable fractional interest to control the enforcement of laws on the surface of a property would lead to a checkerboard of alternating jurisdictions that would seriously burden the administration of state and local governments.  Murphy, ¶¶ 42-43, 1206.  Murphy held, therefore, that a fractional interest in an unobservable mineral interest is a contact with the surface estate that is insufficient to deprive the State of Oklahoma of criminal jurisdiction.  Id. ¶ 42, 1206.

But more amazingly, the court had the benefit of a federal court case reaching the same outcome 10 years earlier regarding the same property!:

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HRI, Inc. v. EPA — Dependent Indian Community Determination

A split panel of the Tenth Circuit concluded that the EPA was within its authority to find that a checkerboarded area of northwestern New Mexico was Indian Country for Safe Drinking Water Act purposes. Here is the opinion.

Here are just some of the many briefs filed in this case (I think I got all the important ones):

hri-appellant-brief

national-mining-assoc-amicus-brief

new-mexico-amicus-brief

navajo-nation-intervenor-brief

epa-brief

hri-reply-brief

interior-land-status-determination

Yankton Sioux Indian Country Case

Yet another Yankton case involving the fallout from the continuing Podhradsky litigation. This one is captioned Yankton Sioux Tribe Head Start Concerned Parents v. Longview Farms, out of the District of South Dakota. Here is the opinion: yankton-head-start-v-longview-farms-dct-order

An excerpt:

The Tribe does not have regulatory authority over the construction of the farrowing facility by Defendant, a non-Indian entity, because such facility is located on land which is not within reservation boundaries. Any claim by Plaintiffs that Defendant need present the farrowing operation to Yankton Sioux Tribe in accordance with the Article 1, section 1 of the Bylaws or Yankton Sioux Constitution is therefore without merit and must be dismissed.

Saginaw Chippewa v. Granholm Update — Motions to Certify Case for Interlocutory Appeal Denied

The City of Mount Pleasant and the County of Isabella had moved the Eastern District of Michigan to certify the earlier decision not to allow the defense of laches for an interlocutory appeal to the Sixth Circuit, but all the other parties (including co-defendant State of Michigan) objected. And so the district court rejected the motions.

city-of-mt-pleasant-motion-for-certification

isabella-county-motion-for-certification

state-of-michigan-opposition-to-motions

us-response-to-motions

sag-chip-response-to-motions

sag-chip-v-granhold-dct-order-on-motion-for-certification

Senate Hearing on DOJ/US Attorney Declinations in Indian Country

From the SCIA:

Here is the witness list and links to written testimony:

Panel 1
THE HONORABLE DREW WRIGLEY
U.S. Attorney for North Dakota, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC

MR. W. PATRICK RAGSDALE
Director, Office of Justice Services Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington. DC

Panel 2
MR. THOMAS B. HEFFELFINGER
Partner, Best and Flanagan, LLP, Minneapolis, Minnesota

MR. M. BRENT LEONHARD
Deputy Attorney General. Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Pendleton, Oregon

MR. JANELLE DOUGHTY
Director, Department of Justice and Regulatory, Southern Ute Indian Tribe. Ignacio, Colorado

THE HONORABLE THOMAS W. WEISSMULLER
Board Member and Tribal Representative of the National Criminal Justice Association and Chief Justice of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal atio”, fashantucket, Connecticut

Biden Promises More Justice on Reservations

Biden promises more justice on reservations
By JODI RAVE of the Missoulian

KALISPELL – On Sunday, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joe
Biden said an Obama-Biden administration would increase federal
prosecutions in Indian Country and strengthen tribal court
jurisdiction over crimes occurring within reservation borders,
regardless of the race of the criminal.

“There will be a much, much, much heightened sensitivity to
legitimate causes within reservations that, quite frankly, we’ve just
been taking advantage,” said Biden, author of the 1994 Crime Bill.
Tribal justice systems “should have greater say. I tried to get that
in the original crime bill when I wrote it. I find it absolutely
fascinating that we have this dual jurisdiction.”

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Kemp v. Osage Nation Cert Opposition Brief

This case, which I suspect has a fairly good chance of being granted, involves the Osage Nation’s successful suit against the Oklahoma Tax Commission to declare its Indian Country boundaries. The cert petition post is here, which includes the lower court decision and the relevant briefs. Here is the opposition brief.

osage-cert-opp-brief

HRI v. EPA — Navajo Indian Country Case — Updated Materials

Here are the briefs (Indianz coverage here):

hri-opening-brief

state-of-new-mexico-amicus-brief

epa-brief

navajo-nation-brief

hri-reply-brief

state-of-new-mexico-amicus-reply-brief-unfiled

HRI v. EPA — Navajo Uranium Case

Here are the briefs (Indianz coverage here):

hri-opening-brief

[EPA Brief]

[Navajo Brief]

hri-reply-brief

PACER is down right now. We’ll add the rest if we can….