INDIAN LAW

       Native Americans comprise approximately six per cent of Montana's population. They are members of seven federally recognized tribes: Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Chippewa Cree, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Assiniboine and Sioux, and the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine. Additionally, the Little Shell Band, composed of Chippewa and Cree Indians, is in the process of seeking federal recognition from the United States Department of Interior.

     There are also seven reservations within the borders of the State of Montana, in all occupying over eight million acres of land. The Native American is therefore a prominent force in Montana in all areas, including economic, political, and social aspects. Although the United States Constitution vests the federal government with exclusive authority over relations with Indian tribes, the various tribes have varying degrees of authority to enforce their own substantive law in internal matters on their own reservations. Thus, Indian law may present very unique questions involving conflicts among federal, state, and tribal law.

        Members of Moulton Bellingham have regularly been involved with many significant questions involving Indian law, and several lawyers in the firm are members of the bar of this area's tribal courts. An excellent discussion of Indian Law, tribal sovereignty, and Montana's Indian tribes in general has been published on the web by the Montana Legislative Council. It is entitled, "The Tribal Nations of Montana, a Handbook for Legislators," and can be viewed by clicking its title.