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Attorney: Don Wharton
Case Update
NARF has been retained by the Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Indian Reservation to analyze the legal implications of the Surplus Land Act of March 3, 1905 for the Shoshone or Wind River Indian Reservation as they may have affected the boundaries of that reservation. The Wyoming Supreme Court recently ruled that the boundaries of the reservation had been diminished when it upheld the conviction of a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe for a crime committed within the City of Riverton, Wyoming. Riverton is within the original boundaries of the reservation as they existed immediately prior to the 1905 Surplus Land Act. Separately, however, the defendant in that case, Mr. Andrew Yellowbear, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for Wyoming seeking a ruling from the federal courts that the boundary has not been diminished and the State therefore lacks jurisdiction. Although the district court initially dismissed the petition, it was appealed and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently remanded the matter to the district court with instructions to reconsider an amended petition. The petition challenges Mr. Yellowbear's incarceration by the State of Wyoming resulting from his conviction in state court on the basis that the state had no jurisdiction over the crime because it took place within the undiminished boundaries of the Wind River Reservation, and was therefore within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government. NARF is working with the Attorney General of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe in this matter before the United States District Court for Wyoming to defend the boundary of the Wind River reservation and the rights of the Tribe. At the same time the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes continue to conduct discussions with the City of Riverton in pursuit of an agreement on the mutual interests of the Tribes and the City.
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