Stanley Johnson v. The Lower Elwha Tribal Community of the Lower Elwha Indian Reservation, Washington

This is an appeal from an order of the District Court for the Western District of Washington granting defendant-ap-pellee’s motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The court concluded that “the matters alleged in the complaint relate to a strictly intra-tribal matter.”

The appellant, Stanley Johnson, is an enrolled member of the Lower Elwha Tribal Community, an Indian tribe organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, 25 U.S.C. § 476 , (Wheeler-Howard Act) and located on land purchased by the United States in 1936 and 1937. This land was proclaimed to be the Lower Elwha Reservation in 1968.

25 U.S.C. § 465 provides that:

A constitution and by-laws were adopted by the Lower Elwha tribe on April 6, 1968, and were approved by the Secretary of the Interior on April 29, 1968. Under article I of their constitution the territory of the tribe includes all lands within the boundaries of the reservation purchased under the authority of the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934, 25 U.S.C. § 476 . Under article III of that constitution, the Lower Elwha Tribal Community Council was designated as the governing body of the tribe, and under article IV the Council was…