Kevin Howlett v. The Salish and Kootenal Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Montana

This appeal involves two plaintiffs, Kevin Howlett and Bernard Clairmont, members of the Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Montana [herein Tribes] who contend that the refusal of the Tribes to declare them eligible candidates for tribal council membership deprived them of their right to travel and their right to run for office in violation of Section 1302(8) of the Indian Civil Rights Act ( 25 U.S.C. § 1302 (8) (1968)). Plaintiffs’ ineligibility was based upon their failure to satisfy the residency requirements for candidates seeking office under the Tribes’ Constitution. Howlett and Clairmont ask this Court to grant them the following relief: (1) that the tribal election held December 15, 1973, for council membership be declared invalid, (2) that the Court order and direct the Tribal Council to conduct a special election according to guidelines established by the Court permitting plaintiffs to be candidates in that election, (3) that the Court declare invalid as violative of the Constitutional rights of Indians Article III, Sections 6 and 7 of the Constitution of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and (4) that the plaintiffs be awarded…