Strate v. A-1 Contractors

What happened

Two vehicles collided on a 6.59-mile stretch of North Dakota state highway that runs through the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The stretch is open to the public, affords access to a federal water resource project, and is maintained by North Dakota under a federally granted right-of-way. The right-of-way lies on land held by the United States in trust for the Three Affiliated Tribes and their members.

Neither driver was a tribal member or an Indian. But Fredericks, one driver, was the widow of a deceased tribal member and had five adult children who were also members. The other driver, Stockert, worked for A-1 Contractors, a non-Indian-owned business that was under a subcontract with a corporation wholly owned by the Tribes to do landscaping on the reservation.

Fredericks sued in tribal court. The tribal court ruled it had jurisdiction, and the tribal appeals court affirmed. A federal district court agreed, but the Eighth Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed.

On April 28, 1997, Justice Ginsburg wrote for a unanimous Supreme Court affirming that result. When an accident happens on a public highway maintained by the State under a federal right-of-way over reservation land, the Court held, a civil action against allegedly negligent nonmembers falls within state or federal governance, and tribal courts may not exercise jurisdiction "absent a statute or treaty authorizing the tribe to govern the conduct of nonmembers driving on the State's highway." The Court said it expressed no view on the law or forum when an accident occurs on a tribal road within a reservation.

Good to know. The holding is limited to a state-maintained highway right-of-way.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error