Belcourt Pub. Sch. Dist. v. Davis, No. 14-1541 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseThe Belcourt School District operates within the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. The North Dakota Constitution requires that the District provide education to children who are Indians or reside on Indian reservations. The Tribe and School District have agreed to share responsibility for educating students, both Indian and non-Indian, residing on the Reservation, and entered into agreements in 2006 and 2009 that provided the District with exclusive authority to administer "day-to-day operations" at Turtle Mountain Community High School, including supervision and employment of staff. Tribe members sued, alleging defamation, excessive use of force, and multiple employment-related claims. The Tribal Court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction over the District and its employees for claims related to the employees' performance of their official duties. The Tribal Court of Appeals reversed, reasoning that the District signed the agreements, subjecting itself to Tribal jurisdiction. The federal trial court concluded that the Tribal Court had jurisdiction, based on the agreements. The Eighth Circuit reversed and held that the Tribal Court did not have jurisdiction, reasoning that the District was clearly acting in its official capacity, in furtherance of its obligations under the state constitution, when it entered into the agreements,
Court Description: Smith, Author, with Bye and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Indian law. Where the school district and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippwea Indians entered into an agreement giving the school district exclusive authority to administer the day-to-day operations of the Turtle Mountain High School, the district was acting in its official capacity when it made the agreement and the agreement was not the kind of private consensual relationship which can create an exception to the general rule that tribes do not have authority over non-Indians, see, Montana v. United States 450 U.S. 544 (1981); nor did the claims at issue - claims for defamation, excessive use of force and employment-related claims - fall within Montana's second exception for conduct that threatens the economic security, or the health and welfare of a tribe; since the Band members had failed to carry their burden of establishing that either of the Montana exceptions applied, the Tribal Court lacked jurisdiction over the Tribe members' claims against the school district; the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying the school district's motion for summary judgment on the merits of the plaintiffs' claims.
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