Bugenig

This case presents questions of Indian law regarding the scope of tribal jurisdiction over the activities of nonmembers: specifically, to what extent can the tribe regulate land use of fee-patented private property within a reservation boundary?

I

In 1864, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs set aside the Hoopa Valley and its adjacent mountains, located in northwestern California, as the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. The boundaries of the original reservation, defined by statute in 1876, were subsequently extended by executive order in 1891. The expanded reservation was occupied jointly by the Hoopa Indians and a group of non-Hoopa Indians. This arrangement led to numerous disputes, and a great deal. of litigation, over the proper allocation of political authority and reservation income (primarily from the sale of timber) between the two groups. See Short v. United States, 228 Ct.Cl. 535, 661 F.2d 150, 151-53 (1981) (describing the history of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation and the disputes between the Hoopa and non-Hoopa Indians); Puzz v. United States, No. C80-2908-THE, 1988 WL 188462 , at *1-2 (N.D.Cal. April 8, 1988) (same).

Congress attempted to resolve these…