McDonald

This case arises from an accident on Route 5, a Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”) road within the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Big Horn County, Montana. On the evening of May 2, 1998, Kale Means, a member of the Cheyenne Tribe and a minor, was seriously injured when his car struck a horse that had wandered onto Route 5. The horse belonged to Arthur L. McDonald, who operated a quarter horse ranching operation on land he owns in fee within the exterior boundaries of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Mr. McDonald is an enrolled member of the Ogalala Sioux Tribe, but he *1040 is not a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.

On March 4, 1999, Patti Means, guardian for Kale Means, brought a civil action against Arthur McDonald and his family in the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court, alleging McDonald was negligent in allowing his horse to trespass onto Route 5. The McDonalds filed suit in the United States district court for the district of Montana, challenging the tribal court’s jurisdiction over the dispute. The district court rejected the Tribe’s motion to intervene and held that the tribal court lacked jurisdiction, granting summary judgment for the McDonalds and enjoining…

dissenting:

The majority concludes that a tribal court has the inherent authority to exercise civil jurisdiction over tribal nonmembers acting on tribal land within reservation boundaries. I dissent because I believe the majority’s decision is inconsistent with over two decades of Supreme Court precedent on the subject of tribal inherent authority. The Court long ago cast aside the notion that a tribe has the inherent authority to exercise jurisdiction over anyone within reservation boundaries. Montana v. United States, 450 U.S. 544, 565 , 101 S.Ct. 1245 , 67 L.Ed.2d 493 (1981). Indeed, tribal inherent authority has consistently been confined to those circumstances in which a particular jurisdictional exercise is necessary to protect the tribe’s ability to govern itself. Strate v. A-1 Contractors, 520 U.S. 438, 459 , 117 S.Ct. 1404 , 137 L.Ed.2d 661 (1997).

As the Supreme Court has stated, a tribe has the inherent authority “to punish tribal offenders, ... to determine tribal membership, to regulate domestic relations among members, and to prescribe rules of inheritance for members.” Montana, 540 U.S. at 564, 101 S.Ct. 1245 (citation omitted). However, a tribe does not have the…