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Find Tribal Courts and Court Opinions

Read about tribal court opinion research in Researching American Indian Tribal Law (from the National Indian Law Library).

Find available information for each tribe's court at the NILL Tribal Law Gateway.

Research selected tribal court opinions 2016 - present at the NILL Tribal Courts Bulletin.

This video from Gallagher Law Library at the University of Washington School of Law demonstates how to search tribal court opinions in various databases. See also: Tribal Court Decisions Research Guide

National Directory of Tribal Justice Systems - National American Indian Court Judges Association - National directory includes contact information for tribal justice systems. May be searched and sorted by Tribe, NAICJA Region, BIA Region or State. See also inter-tribal courts: Northwest Intertribal Court System (NWICS opinion database), Intertribal Court of Southern California, Northern California Tribal Court System, and Southwest Intertribal Court of Appeals (SWITCA Reporter).

Tribal Law and Policy Institute, provides access to tribal court opinions via links to the tribal court's content.

Versuslaw.com, a fee-based service. Offers content similar to the Tribal Law and Policy Institute (about 22 tribes) with a more powerful search engine and sophisticated display format. Law school students can get a free password.

Lexis, a fee-based service. Offers tribal court decisions from 32+ tribes.

Westlaw, a fee-based service. Offers tribal court decisions from 21+ tribes individually or collectively via West's American Tribal Law Reporter as well as opinions from Oklahoma tribes via the OKTRIB-CS database.

Harvard Law School's Case Law Access Project includes full-text of West's American Tribal Law Reporter (1997-2017).

Casemaker, a fee-based service. Offers tribal court decisions from 62+ tribes.

Selected print sources:

West's Tribal Law Reporter, This print publication (also on Westlaw) includes a compilation of selected tribal court appellate opinions from late 1990s - present.

The library subscribes to the Indian Law Reporter (ILR) -- Features selected tribal court cases (1981 - 2013). The National Indian Law Library has developed a cumulative subject index for all tribal court opinions in the ILR.

United States Tribal Courts Directory, by April Schwartz and Mary Jo B. Hunter. NILL Catalog record. Provides information on access to court opinions.

American Indian Tribal Law / Matthew Fletcher (2011). NILL Catalog record.