POCATELLO — Jurisdictional issues within the boundaries of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation were discussed during a recent workshop held by a non-profit group, Justice for Idaho Citizens.    

    The mission of Justice for Idaho Citizens is to inform and support non-tribal land owners of their Constitutional rights in Indian Country, said board member Paul Yochum. The Jurisdiction,” a continuing legal education seminar at the Red Lion Inn last Wednesday.

    Formed in August of 2012, the group advises and supports landowners who have been asked to comply with environmental and residential regulations now being imposed by the Shoshone Bannock Tribes, Yochum said.

    Non-Indian owners of fee land on the Fort Hall reservation are being asked to obtain tribal permits for construction and septic systems as well as permits already required by county and state agencies. This led to arguments over jurisdiction by non-tribal landowners.  

    “They only have to comply with county and state regulations,” Yochum said about non-Indians who own deeded ground within reservation boundaries. Tribal officials disagree and non-Indian landowners who failed to comply were summoned to Tribal Court where Yochum said due process is non-existent.

    Due process, is the legal requirement that the state must respect all of the rights that are  guaranteed a person. The legal standard serves to balance the power of the law and protect individual rights, according to Yochum.

    But in December, Federal Court Judge Lynn Winmill ruled in favor of the Tribes in a lawsuit filed against the Shoshone Bannock Tribes by Power County resident David Evans and the contractors who built his home on the reservation.

    Winmill dismissed the case and said that Evans and his contractors must exhaust all tribal court avenues before filing in federal court. The decision supported the Tribes’ assertion that tribal remedies must be exhausted before the federal court can consider jurisdictional questions concerning non-Indian landowners on the reservation.

    Justice for Idaho Citizens served to advise and fund Evans’ ongoing case. Yochum said two other cases are being reviewed by the JIC as well.

    Last week’s seminar focused on basic tribal jurisdiction, state and county authority on reservations, the Fort Bridger Treaty and amendments, fee land and non-Indian owner issues and Shoshone Bannock regulations and initiatives.

    “Part of the JIC’s mission is to provide education,” Yochum said. “The group sponsors periodic round tables and all four counties have newly elected prosecutors — the seminar was meant to be informative.”

    Randy’L Teton, spokeswoman for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, said tribal officials were not invited to take part in the seminar.

    Yochum said the JIC was comprised of land fee owners and represented Bannock, Power, Bingham and Caribou counties, the four counties bordering the Fort Hall reservation, as well as the cities of Pocatello, Blackfoot, American Falls and Chubbuck.

    From a law enforcement perspective, the issue of jurisdiction is equally complicated.

    Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen, who serves on the National Indian Affairs Committee for the National Sheriffs Association, said that tribal courts were not set up for non-Indian criminal cases.

    The current policy between local law enforcement and the Shoshone Bannock Tribes is to notify agencies in the event of pursuits or investigations that lead on to the reservation.

    “We notify Fort Hall and they notify us,” Nielsen said.

    Tribal law enforcement authorities have no jurisdiction over non-Indians and currently major crimes that occur on the reservation are investigated by the FBI or federal marshals.

    “The problem is that some tribes feel they have authority and try to exercise that through other loopholes like civil action,” Nielsen said.

    However, Nielsen said, the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 allows federally certified tribal officers to act as federal authorities and cite non-Indians in federal courts.

    Teton declined to comment regarding the number of federally certified officers on the Fort Hall Police force.

    Power County Sheriff Jim Jeffries said his office maintains a good working relationship with the Fort Hall Police.

    “If a tribal member is involved, we detain them until Fort Hall can get there and they do the same if a non-tribal member is involved on the reservation,” Jeffries said.

   Ken Estep, a former Power County Commissioner and a JIC board member, said JIC proposed its agenda and speaker biographies for the seminar and submitted them to the Idaho Bar Association in December. The group was approved for 3.0 credit hours for last week’s program.

    Speakers at the event were attorneys Maureen Mitchell, Doug Balfour and Dean Tramner.