Opinion ID: 534558
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Suit Against Tribal Officials

Text: 12 Plaintiffs assert the same claims against the tribal officials that they raise against the Tribe. 6 Although sovereign immunity analysis differs with respect to tribal officials, we do not reach this issue because plaintiffs have failed to state any claims against these defendants. 13 As with plaintiffs' ICRA claims against the Tribe, we need look no farther than the Supreme Court's opinion in Santa Clara Pueblo and our decision in Swimmer to conclude that plaintiffs have failed to state a claim against the Cherokee tribal officials under the ICRA. The Supreme Court in Santa Clara Pueblo, expressly invoking concerns about preserving tribal autonomy and self-government, reasoned that the statutory scheme and the legislative history of Title I of the ICRA indicate Congress deliberately decided not to provide federal remedies other than habeas corpus in order to limit the Act's intrusion into tribal sovereignty. Santa Clara Pueblo, 436 U.S. at 59-72, 98 S.Ct. at 1677-84. For this reason, the Court held that other causes of action against tribal officials could not be implied from the ICRA. Id. at 69, 98 S.Ct. at 1682. In Swimmer, we rejected plaintiffs' efforts to secure federal relief against tribal officials for an alleged violation of the ICRA. The holdings in Santa Clara Pueblo and Swimmer preclude plaintiffs' claims against the Cherokee tribal officials. 7 14 Plaintiffs' civil rights acts claims fare no better. Plaintiffs rely on 42 U.S.C. §§ 1985(3) and 1986, as did the plaintiffs in Swimmer. The analysis in that case controls resolution of those claims here. Plaintiffs must allege violations of independent substantive statutory or constitutional provisions to recover under sections 1985(3) and 1986 because those statutes only provide a remedy for the violation of substantive rights established elsewhere. Swimmer, 835 F.2d at 261-62. Plaintiffs must look to the ICRA as the source of their alleged entitlement to the rights and privileges of tribal membership, because federal constitutional protections extend to individual Indians only to the extent incorporated in the ICRA. Id. at 261; see also Trans-Canada Enter. v. Muckleshoot Indian Tribes, 634 F.2d 474, 476-77 (9th Cir.1980). 15 As this court observed in Swimmer, the interest in preserving the inherent right of self-government in Indian tribes is equally strong when suit is brought against individual officers of the tribal organization as when brought against the tribe itself. 835 F.2d at 262. Such considerations of tribal sovereignty, and the Supreme Court's emphasis in Santa Clara Pueblo on the availability of tribal forums to vindicate rights created by the ICRA, persuaded us that the ICRA does not provide an independent basis for suit under sections 1985(3) and 1986.  '[W]hen a tribal forum is available ... the aggrieved party must seek relief in that forum.'  Id. at 262 (citation omitted). 8 Plaintiffs have thus failed to state a claim under sections 1985(3) and 1986. 16 The analysis in Swimmer is inapplicable to plaintiffs' claims under sections 1981 9 and 2000d 10 , because those sections do create independent substantive rights. We must therefore determine whether these statutes apply to the tribal officials under the circumstances in the present case. 17 The Supreme Court has stated in dictum that a general statute in terms applying to all persons includes Indians and their property interests. Federal Power Comm'n v. Tuscarora Indian Nation, 362 U.S. 99, 116, 80 S.Ct. 543, 553, 4 L.Ed.2d 584 (1960); but see EEOC v. Cherokee Nation, 871 F.2d 937, 938 n. 3 (10th Cir.1989) (noting question as to continuing vitality of the Tuscarora dictum in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, 455 U.S. 130, 102 S.Ct. 894, 71 L.Ed.2d 21 (1982)). Lower courts have recognized three exceptions to the Tuscarora rule. 18 A federal statute of general applicability that is silent on the issue of applicability to Indian tribes will not apply to them if: (1) the law touches 'exclusive rights of self-governance in purely intramural-matters'; (2) the application of the law to the tribe would 'abrogate rights guaranteed by Indian treaties'; or (3) there is proof 'by legislative history or some other means that Congress intended [the law] not to apply to Indians on their reservations....' In any of these three situations, Congress must expressly apply a statute to Indians before we will hold that it reaches them. 19 Donovan v. Coeur d'Alene Tribal Farm, 751 F.2d 1113, 1116 (9th Cir.1985) (quoting U.S. v. Farris, 624 F.2d 890, 893-94 (9th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1111, 101 S.Ct. 920, 66 L.Ed.2d 839 (1981)); see also Smart v. State Farm Ins. Co., 868 F.2d 929, 932 (7th Cir.1989). Neither section 1981 nor section 2000d is expressly applicable to Indian tribes. Accordingly, these statutes may not be invoked against the tribal officials here if the facts of this case fall within one of the above exceptions. 20 We conclude that allowing plaintiffs to assert claims under sections 1981 and 2000d would affect the Tribe's right to self-governance in a purely internal matter. Under the first exception set forth above, therefore, the statutes do not apply. Plaintiffs in essence assert that defendants have discriminated on the basis of race by refusing to accord them tribal membership and its privileges and benefits. Plaintiffs argue that they state a claim for relief under both section 1981 and section 2000d because these provisions prohibit race discrimination. However, no right is more integral to a tribe's self-goverance than its ability to establish its membership. A tribe's right to define its own membership for tribal purposes has long been recognized as central to its existence as an independent political community. Santa Clara Pueblo, 436 U.S. at 72 n. 32, 98 S.Ct. at 1684 n. 32; see also Montana v. United States, 450 U.S. 544, 564, 101 S.Ct. 1245, 1257, 67 L.Ed.2d 493 (1981); United States v. Wheeler, 435 U.S. 313, 322 n. 18, 98 S.Ct. 1079, 1085 n. 18, 55 L.Ed.2d 303 (1978). Applying the statutory prohibitions against race discrimination to a tribe's designation of tribal members would in effect eviscerate the tribe's sovereign power to define itself, and thus would constitute an unacceptable interference with a tribe's ability to maintain itself as a culturally and politically distinct entity. Santa Clara Pueblo, 436 U.S. at 72, 98 S.Ct. at 1684. We thus hold that plaintiffs have failed to state a claim under sections 1981 and 2000d.