Court Opinion

ID: 9847220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:56:04.348553+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:03.767871
License: Public Domain

TUCKETT, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
An affidavit of the superintendent of the Uintah and Ouray Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fort Duchesne, discloses that the place where the accident occurred was located entirely within the exterior boundaries of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. The affidavit further discloses that the Ute Indian Tribe is a federally recognized tribe exercising the powers of government within the boundaries of the reservation. A tribal court has been established by the Ute Indian Tribe which has jurisdiction over all civil cases involving enrolled members of the tribe. The sole question presented on appeal is whether or not the District Court of Uintah County had jurisdiction to entertain and to determine the controversy which arose on the tribal reservation and in which an enrolled Indian of the Ute Tribe was a party defendant.
Under federal statutes “Indian country” is defined as follows:
. the term “Indian country,” as used in this chapter, means (a) all land within the limits of any Indian reservation under the jurisdiction of the United States government, notwithstanding the issuance of any patent, and, including rights-of-way running through the reservation, (b) all dependent Indian communities within the borders of the United States whether within the original or subsequently acquired territory thereof, and whether within or without the limits of a state, and (c) all Indian allotments, the Indian titles to which have not been extinguished, including rights-of-way running through the same.
While 18 U.S.C., Sec. 1151, above quoted on its face only deals with criminal jurisdiction it has been recognized that it generally applies as well to questions of civil jurisdiction.1 Title 25, Sec. 1322, is a grant of power by Congress to the states pertaining to jurisdiction by the states over civil causes in which Indians are parties. That section is in the following language:
The consent of the United States is hereby given to any State not having *937jurisdiction over civil causes of action between Indians or to which Indians are parties which arise in the areas of Indian country situated within such State to assume, with the consent of the tribe occupying the particular Indian country or part thereof which would be affected by such assumption, such measure of jurisdiction over any or all such civil causes of action arising within such Indian country or any part thereof as may be determined by such State to the same extent that such State has jurisdiction over other civil causes of action, and those civil laws of such State that are of general application to private persons or private property shall have the same force and effect within such Indian country or part thereof as they have elsewhere within that State.
Section 1326, Title 25, deals with the process by which the State may acquire jurisdiction. That section is in the following language:
State jurisdiction acquired pursuant to this subchapter with respect to criminal offenses or civil causes of action, or with respect to both, shall be applicable in Indian country only where the enrolled Indians within the affected area of such Indian country accept such jurisdiction by a majority vote of the adult Indians voting at a special election held for that purpose. The Secretary of the Interior shall call such special election under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, when requested to do so by the tribal council or other government body, or by 20 per centum of such enrolled adults.
Pursuant to the acts of Congress above set forth, in 1971 the Utah Legislature adopted two statutes pertaining to the subject. Section 63-36-9, U.C.A.1953, as amended, provides as follows:
The state of Utah hereby obligates and binds itself to assume criminal and civil jurisdiction over Indians and Indian territory, country and lands or any portion thereof within this state in accordance with the consent of the United States given by the act of April 11, 1968

Section 63-36-10, which is also pertinent here, is in the following language:
State jurisdiction acquired or retro-ceded pursuant to this act with respect to criminal offenses or civil causes of action shall be applicable in Indian country only where the enrolled Indians residing within the affected area of such Indian country accept state jurisdiction or request its retrocession by a majority vote of the adult Indians voting at a special election held for that purpose. All special elections shall be called pursuant to federal law.2
The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray reservation have not accepted state jurisdiction by a majority vote of the adult enrolled Indians residing within the reservation. The Indian reservation having been established by Congress, only the Congress could terminate the reservation or change its status.
The definition of “Indian reservation” as defined by Section 63-36-18, U.C.A.1953, as amended, indicates that rights of way running through the reservation are part of the reservation.3
*938I am of the opinion that the district court was without jurisdiction.
MAUGHAN, J., concurs in the views expressed in the dissenting opinion of TUCKETT, J.

. DeCoteau v. District County Court, 420 U.S. 425, 95 S.Ct. 1082, 43 L.Ed.2d 300; McClanahan v. Arizona Tax Com., 411 U.S. 164, 93 S.Ct. 1257, 36 L.Ed. 129; U. S. v. Celestine, 215 U.S. 278, 30 S.Ct. 93, 54 L.Ed. 195.

. Art. Ill, Constitution of Utah provides: “Second: — The people inhabiting this State do affirm and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries hereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes, and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States, and said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United States. ...”

. Gourneau, v. Smith (N.D.) 207 N.W.2d 256; Kennerly v. Dist. Court of Ninth Jud. Dist. of Montana, 400 U.S. 423, 91 S.Ct. 480, 27 L.Ed.2d 507.