Santa Rosa Band of Indians v. Kings County

This ease presents important questions regarding the extent of the civil jurisdiction over Indian reservation trust lands conferred upon state and local governments by P.L. 280, 28 U.S.C. § 1360 . Specifically, the suit is a controversy between the Santa Rosa Band of Indians together with two individual members and Kings County, California, over the applicability of the County’s Zoning Ordinance and Building Code on the Santa Rosa Ranchería, the Band’s reservation. The Santa Rosa Band is an Indian Tribe, organized under § 476 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, 25 U.S.C. §§ 461-478 (1970); legal title to the Ranchería lands is held in trust by the United States for the use and benefit of the Band. See 25 U.S.C. § 465 .

The background of the dispute is this:

Plaintiffs Barrios and Baga are members of the Santa Rosa Band. They are both poor. Each has been living with his family on an assignment (a plot of the trust land) within the Ranchería, but in totally inadequate housing. To remedy his family’s housing problems, each applied in early 1973 to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (B.I.A.) for assistance in procuring mobile homes under the Bureau’s Housing Improvement…