Court Opinion

ID: 9487955
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:31:14.805286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:35.078573
License: Public Domain

McKAY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I agree with the majority that the determination of one’s status as an Indian is ultimately a question of law subject to de novo review by this court. I must, however, depart from the majority’s resolution of this admittedly close question. I conclude that the alleged victim in this case is an Indian under the rule of United States v. Rogers, 45 U.S. (4 How.) 567, 572-73, 11 L.Ed. 1105 (1846). I would therefore reverse the District Court and order the indictment reinstated.
Under Rogers, federal criminal jurisdiction exists if a victim has some Indian blood and is “recognized” as an Indian by the federal or tribal government. Id. at 572-73. The majority presumes, and I conclude, that this child, who is by ancestry ^ths Oglala Sioux, meets the first prong of the Rogers test. Her status thus turns upon the degree to which she has been recognized as an Indian by tribal or federal government. The child was admittedly not an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux at the time of the alleged crime. Tribal enrollment is not, however, the exclusive method by which a tribe may confer official recognition of an individual’s status. I believe that the actions taken by the Oglala Sioux tribal court on behalf of this child compel the conclusion that she has in fact been “recognized” as an Indian by the tribal government.
Some months prior to the alleged sexual assault, the Oglala Sioux, acting through the tribal court, affirmatively intervened to assume responsibility for the care and protection of this girl. The child had been abandoned in Las Vegas and had subsequently been relegated to a shelter there. Acting at the request of the child’s grandmother, who was unable to act herself on behalf of the child, the tribe asserted its right of intervention under 25 U.S.C. § 1911 and acquired jurisdiction over the custody proceedings. The Oglala Sioux tribal court exercised its authority to make the girl a ward of the court and she was moved from Nevada to the *155Oglala Sioux reservation. The tribal court then placed her in the care of her grandmother.
The majority, although attributing some importance to the actions of the tribal court, minimizes their significance by relegating its consideration of those actions to the third (and third least important) prong of the framework suggested in St. Cloud v. United States, 702 F.Supp. 1456 (D.S.D.1988). While I accept the St. Cloud factors as a nonexhaustive enumeration of relevant considerations, I believe that the majority missteps in characterizing the tribal court’s role in this girl’s life as “enjoyment of the benefits of tribal affiliation.”1 I readily acknowledge that the intervention of the tribal court markedly enhanced this child’s life by rescuing her from a state foster facility in Nevada. Beneficence notwithstanding, however, the symbolic implications of intervention and, more particularly, of wardship loom much greater than any gain received.
I therefore cannot help but conclude that the assumption and exercise by the tribal court of custodial and protective jurisdiction over this girl necessarily stands as official recognition by that court of her status vis-a-vis the Oglala Sioux.2 Rogers requires no more. Comity suggests, and arguably compels, that we accord this action substantial deference. Compare National Farmers Union Ins. Cos. v. Crow Tribe, 471 U.S. 845, 105 S.Ct. 2447, 85 L.Ed.2d 818 (1985) (comity compels federal courts to allow tribal court to make initial determination of its own jurisdiction); Roman-Nose v. New Mexico Dep’t of Human Servs., 967 F.2d 435, 437 (10th Cir. 1992) (state courts to give full faith and credit to tribal court custody determinations). I therefore respectfully dissent.

. The District Court, in weighing the significance of the tribal court's actions, speculated as to the motivations and intentions attending those actions: "[The authority of the tribal court was] used under the circumstances to ‘rescue’ the children from a bad situation because of the grandmother’s status as a participating tribal member. There is no indication that ... the tribe took the alleged victim ‘under its wing’....” I am at a loss to understand the relevance to this inquiry of the District Court's speculations. Why the tribal court acted is of no importance given that it did in fact act; likewise, the intended implication of that action is of no consequence if the action itself constitutes official tribal recognition. The tribal court called upon its ancient and august prerogative to cloak this girl in the security of a wardship. It is not for this court or for the District Court to trivialize the responsibilities thereby assumed. We are no more free to lend significance to hypothetical assessments of the tribal court’s mental processes than we are to attribute legal meaning to a psychological analysis of a Supreme Court opinion.