The Hoopa Valley Tribe of northern California drafted a management plan that protects one of its most important sacred sites.

The Integrated Resource Management Plan created a buffer zone around an area where the sacred White Deerskin Dance takes place. The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the plan.

A non-Indian women subsequently challenged the plan, saying the tribe had no jurisdiction to keep her from logging on land she owns on the reservation. But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, by an 8-3 decision, ruled that the tribe's authority over non-Indians was recognized in a specific act of Congress.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho is now drafting its own plan but is running into similar objections from non-Indians, who have repeatedly objected to the tribe's authority.

Get the Story:
Land plan prompts lawsuit (The St. Marie's Gazette Record 11/10)

Get the Case:
BUGENIG v. HOOPA VALLEY TRIBE, No 99-15654 (September 11, 2001)

Relevant Links:
Hoopa Valley Tribe - http://www.hoopa-nsn.gov
Coeur D�Alene Tribe - http://www.cdatribe-nsn.gov

Hoopa Valley Stories:
Supreme Court declines tribal challenge (3/19)
Court upholds sacred site protection (9/12)
Tribe loses case involving sacred site (10/5)

Coeur d'Alene Stories:
Idaho tribe wins treatment as state for water programs (08/09)
Coeur d'Alene Tribe wants to know impact of dam (10/01)
Non-Indians oppose Idaho tribe's jurisdiction (03/23)
Coeur d'Alene Tribe wins lake ownership case (6/19)
Supreme Court to rule on lake ownership (12/13)
State wants Coeur d'Alene Lake (7/27)