Opinion ID: 1186922
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Dual Jurisdiction

Text: Furthermore, at the time the Manby case was transferred into the state court system in 1912, the state courts under state law had jurisdiction over Indian lands of the Pueblo. United States v. Joseph, 94 U.S. 614, 24 L.Ed. 295 (1876) had settled the issue that the Taos Pueblo was not an Indian tribe and that therefore the federal government was not authorized under the federal law to exercise control over its lands. Although this aspect of the holding was later reversed by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Sandoval, 231 U.S. 28, 34 S.Ct. 1, 58 L.Ed. 107 (1913), it is not subject to dispute that, at the time our state court assumed jurisdiction over the Manby case, the only courts available to settle controversies between the Pueblo Indians and others with regard to Indian lands were the state courts. Martinez v. Martinez, 49 N.M. 83, 157 P.2d 484 (1945). In Martinez, this Court considered the jurisdictional implications of the United States' decisions and decided expressly that those federal cases did not hold that the state court's decrees respecting Indian lands were void, but only void as to the United States. Martinez, at 91, 157 P.2d 484, 489. As we said in Martinez: [N]otwithstanding the decree is void as to the United States, it does not follow that it is void as to the appellee Pueblo de Taos... . We are of the opinion that so far as those decisions concern Pueblo Indian lands and other lands owned in fee simple by Indians under guardianship of the United States, that in the absence of congressional legislation conferring exclusive jurisdiction of such controversies on Federal courts, that Indians and Pueblos are bound by the decisions of a state court; or are so bound if such courts are open to them as litigants and they invoke its jurisdiction. This view is supported by United States v. Candelaria, supra, [271 U.S. 432, 46 S.Ct. 561, 70 L.Ed. 1023 (1936)] and other cases. Accord, Fulsom v. Quaker Oil & Gas Co., 35 F.2d 84 (8th Cir.1929) cert. denied, 276 U.S. 636, 48 S.Ct. 421, 72 L.Ed. 744 (1927).