Federal District Court & Tribal Court Litigation

While the federal government has special trust obligations to American Indian tribes—protecting tribal lands and resources, defending tribal rights to self-government and providing other important benefits—it does not always meet its obligations voluntarily. Similarly, state and local governments and private businesses sometimes take actions at odds with tribal rights and priorities.

When litigation is necessary to achieve the goals of tribal governments and businesses, our litigators help clients in civil litigation and administrative proceedings in federal, state, appellate and tribal courts of law and agencies.

Our team has had success in all types of litigation, from temporary injunctions to large damage cases on behalf of tribes. We are particularly adept at focusing on the key issues in complex, years-long cases that can affect tribal communities for generations.

We review the long game in litigation, working closely with our award-winning appellate team to help craft trial court litigation to best position our clients to prevail not just in the district courts, but all the way through the litigation process.

To help our clients protect and enhance their interests, we:

Litigate landmark cases in industries critical to American Indian tribes—including oil and gas, renewable energy, gaming, infrastructure and a range of natural resource issues.
Advocate on behalf of tribal nations across the country with support from our lobbying & public policy practice, which can bring in U.S. government support or congressional amici.

Representative Matters

Represented an Oklahoma tribe in the one of the largest-ever settlements of a tribal trust resources claim, resulting in a payment to the tribe of over $380 million as well as significant additional changes in the manner in which the United States managed that trust resource on behalf of the tribe. The settlement was the culmination of 11 years of successful litigation regarding the government’s mismanagement of tribal assets and a series of U.S. Court of Federal Claims victories that forced the U.S. to settle.
Defeated a motion for injunctive relief against the board and manager of an American Indian tribe’s on-reservation irrigation and drainage district and obtained a settlement agreement requiring full payment of the plaintiff’s unpaid debts to our client.
Represented a Montana tribe in litigation to approve a historic water settlement. The tribe had a federally approved water compact, but more than 100 individual tribal members and others filed objections, which threatened to derail the necessary judicial approval of the compact in Montana Water Court. We obtained a judgment overruling the objections, and the compact was judicially approved and implemented. This is a rare case where a tribal water settlement was litigated to conclusion.
Achieved a total victory on behalf of a tribally owned insurance company in a long-standing controversy with a tribal housing agency regarding coverage for a claim on the tribe’s reservation. Our client had a contract requiring that the claim be arbitrated, yet the tribal housing agency sued in its own tribal court. We obtained a permanent injunction against the unlawful tribal court litigation and, after the filing of our brief defending the injunction on appeal, the housing agency agreed to dismiss its appeal and cease tribal court litigation, thereby ending the dispute.

Services In-Depth

Our federal district court and tribal court litigation lawyers help tribes protect—and sometimes extend—their rights in cases involving:

Tribal sovereignty
Protection of treaty rights and disputes involving treaty rights violations
Gaming eligibility determinations
Water rights litigation
Environmental issues and natural resource damage claims
Mismanagement of tribal lands and resources.

Members of our federal district court and tribal court litigation team bring a multidisciplinary approach to cases for our tribal clients, drawing on the support of our lobbying & public policy practice lawyers and practitioners when needed, as well as the resources of a full-service law firm.

To help our clients protect and enhance their interests, we:

Litigate landmark cases in industries critical to American Indian tribes—including oil and gas, renewable energy, gaming, infrastructure and a range of natural resource issues.
Advocate on behalf of tribal nations across the country with support from our lobbying & public policy practice, which can bring in U.S. government support or congressional amici.

Representative Matters

Represented an Oklahoma tribe in the one of the largest-ever settlements of a tribal trust resources claim, resulting in a payment to the tribe of over $380 million as well as significant additional changes in the manner in which the United States managed that trust resource on behalf of the tribe. The settlement was the culmination of 11 years of successful litigation regarding the government’s mismanagement of tribal assets and a series of U.S. Court of Federal Claims victories that forced the U.S. to settle.
Defeated a motion for injunctive relief against the board and manager of an American Indian tribe’s on-reservation irrigation and drainage district and obtained a settlement agreement requiring full payment of the plaintiff’s unpaid debts to our client.
Represented a Montana tribe in litigation to approve a historic water settlement. The tribe had a federally approved water compact, but more than 100 individual tribal members and others filed objections, which threatened to derail the necessary judicial approval of the compact in Montana Water Court. We obtained a judgment overruling the objections, and the compact was judicially approved and implemented. This is a rare case where a tribal water settlement was litigated to conclusion.
Achieved a total victory on behalf of a tribally owned insurance company in a long-standing controversy with a tribal housing agency regarding coverage for a claim on the tribe’s reservation. Our client had a contract requiring that the claim be arbitrated, yet the tribal housing agency sued in its own tribal court. We obtained a permanent injunction against the unlawful tribal court litigation and, after the filing of our brief defending the injunction on appeal, the housing agency agreed to dismiss its appeal and cease tribal court litigation, thereby ending the dispute.