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St. Thomas Law Review

First Page

87

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The University of North Dakota School of Law provides training and technical assistance to some twenty-one tribal courts in the Dakotas and Minnesota. These courts vary in size and jurisdiction. For example, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court2in South Dakota, on a per capita basis, handles quite possibly the largest caseload of any court in the nation, and the smaller courts in Minnesota, because of Public Law 280, handles limited disputes. All of these courts, regardless of size or docket pressures, are attempting to resolve disputes that arise within the reservation community in a manner that is loyal to the indigenous methods of dispute resolution while keeping an eye on the dominant society's viewpoint of tribal courts. Modem tribal courts have the unenviable task of doing justice in two worlds. They must be familiar with and incorporate traditional practices in order to maintain internal credibility with the very tribal members that they are appointed to serve, and simultaneously appease the non-Indian judicial world. This is a delicate balance which, when thrown out of kilter, inevitably brings accusations from tribal members that the court is applying the white man's law to assertions from the non-Indian world of incompetence when the court acts in a manner which appears incongruous with anglo-notions of due process. An example of the latter criticism is a recent jury verdict from the Crow Tribal Court in the case of Red Wolf v. Burlington Northern Railroad. This case received substantial attention in the briefs that were filed to the United States Supreme Court in Strate v. A-1 Contractors, dealing with the extent of a tribal court's civil jurisdiction over non-Indian litigants. Burlington Northern is argued by many critics of tribal courts as the justification for stripping tribal courts of civil jurisdiction because of the apparent violations of the non-Indian litigant's due process rights. This article does not defend, nor offer as a paragon of due process, the actions of the Crow Tribal Court. However, this article attempts to exemplify the stark contrast between the anglo-paradigm and the native paradigm of justice.

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