Indian Nations Law Update - October 2022

SELECTED COURT DECISIONS

In United States v. Fowler, 2022 WL 4138598 (9th Cir. 2022), the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation (Fort Peck Tribes) had entered into a cross-deputization agreement with the State of Montana and various local governments authorizing state and local law enforcement officers to be deputized to enforce tribal law against Indians on the Reservation, and, conversely, allowing tribal officers to be deputized to enforce state law there. While driving on a highway that runs through the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Fowler, an Indian, was stopped by a Montana state trooper and later charged with federal crimes based on evidence revealed by the stop. He moved to suppress on the ground that, based on the Tribe's lack of authority to delegate authority and other technical defects in the agreement, the state trooper lacked jurisdiction to stop him on the Reservation. The district court denied the motion and the Ninth