In the Supreme Court of the United States, October term, 1975: no. 75-5366 : Alva Fisher, petitioner, v. State of Montana, ex rel, in the matter of the adoption of Ivan Firecrow, a minor by Leroy Runsabove and Josephine Runsabove, respondents: on petition

1975

Litigation

Byron S. Adams Printing

Washington, D.C.

Case summary: The Montana Supreme Court held that the state court has jurisdiction over an adoption proceeding that arose on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation and in which all parties are members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and residents of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. On appeal, the United States Supreme Court reversed that ruling and held that the Tribal Court of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe has exclusive jurisdiction over the adoption proceeding. Montana state-court jurisdiction over such a proceeding would interfere with the powers of self-government conferred upon the Tribe by federal law and exercised through the Tribal Court.

http://hdl.handle.net/10974/210