In the Matter of Cougar Den, Inc.
Yakama Indian Nation
Brutal, Tragic Case Out of Yakama: Government Limits Liability for Negligent Death of Teenage JobsCorps Worker
Here are the materials in Challinor v. United States (E.D. Wash.), where the court concludes:
In summary, because the Estate’s FTCA negligence claims colorably fall within FECA’s scope, the Court must dismiss this lawsuit for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. See Moe, 326 F.3d at 1068 (requiring dismissal of a claim that is “colorably within” FECA’s scope). Although the United States may face liability under the FTCA if an injury occurs to a non-Job-Corps participant at YFP because that individual may not be a federal employee, the Court recognizes this question is not before it at this time. The Court is hopeful that the BIA and YFP take the appropriate necessary steps to ensure that all workers, especially those young Job Corps students with so much life ahead, are not subjected to such serious safety violations. See Marly’s Bear Med. v. United States, 241 F.3d 1208, 1216-17 (9th Cir. 2000) (finding that fatal injuries to anon-federal employee during a logging operation conducted pursuant to a BIA contract were recoverable under the FTCA because the BIA’s responsibility to ensure that safety precautions were implemented was not a discretionary function). The Court is also hopeful that Congress will soon address the shameful inadequacy of FECA’s $10,000.00 death gratuity payment. While the law required this decision, the Court sympathizes with Mr. Challinor’s parents for the loss of their son.
Federal NAGPRA/NHPA Claims re: Mt. Hood Road Construction Survive Motions to Dismiss … For Now
Here are the materials in Slockish v. FHA (D. Or.):
Washington SCT Decides Five Corners Family Farmers v. State — Groundwater Allocation Case
Here is the majority and here is the dissent.
Here is the tribal amicus brief.
Removal Begins on Washington’s Condit Dam
A portion of the article from the Seattle Times:
Yakama Nation tribal elders have called the area a “paradise,” recalling stories about tribal members fishing, hunting and gathering berries and other native plants before the dam was built. Tribal houses and drying sheds sat at the confluence with the Columbia for processing abundant salmon, steelhead and lamprey.
Removal of the dam opens up at least 33 miles of habitat for steelhead. Habitat for tule fall chinook will double.
Yakama Nation chairman Harry Smiskin likened the return of fish to the river’s upper stretches to “welcoming back a relative that has been missing for many years.”
“It is sad that the dam is coming out, but again, it is a return to something our Creator, our Mother Nature, created for us and to put it back to as close to its natural state as it can be,” he said.
Drug Cartels on Washington Reservations
An excerpt from The Seattle Times:
In the backcountry of the Yakama Indian Reservation, a handful of law-enforcement officers spent part of last summer searching for two things: marijuana and the people growing it.
Tribal police and officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were acting on a tip about a vast marijuana plantation in the forested highlands of the sprawling reservation. Such tips often yielded abandoned fields of cannabis, but none of the culprits.
But the team hit pay dirt last August by uncovering a grow operation with 8,850 marijuana plants, as well as the suspected grower, an armed Mexican national in camouflage clothing who federal prosecutors say had been tending the plot for almost four months.
Tribal reservations, some with hundreds of square miles of rugged backcountry, have become the front line for law-enforcement eradication of marijuana grow operations in Washington, says Rich Wiley, who heads the State Patrol’s Narcotics Division. Growers are targeting the outskirts of Indian country for their marijuana farms, knowing tribal lands are sparsely populated and less policed, he said. Continue reading
Ninth Circuit Affirms Major Crimes Act Conviction (Out of Yakama)
Here is the unpublished opinion in United States v. Gomez.
State v. Yallup — Wash. Court of Appeals Decides PL 280 Criminal Jurisdiction Case
Here is the opinion.
An excerpt:
Elon Yallup challenges his conviction for felony driving while under the influence (DUI), arguing that the State cannot enforce the implied consent laws against an enrolled member of the Yakama Nation driving on state highways on the reservation. We conclude that the implied consent statute is primarily a criminal statute rather than a civil regulatory statute as that distinction is applied by the United States Supreme Court in cases interpreting Public Law 280.
Appellant brief is here.
Respondent brief is here.
Materials on Prison Inmate Religious Freedom Issues
Ninth Circuit Reverses Horsely Sohappy’s Conviction for Violation of Probation Conditions
Here are the materials (unpublished opinion here):
Turtle Talk 
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