The non-Indian developer of the Grand Canyon Skywalk must exhaust his tribal remedies before going to federal court, Judge David Campbell ruled on Monday.

David Jin entered into a relationship with the Hualapai Tribe of Arizona to build and operate the Grand Canyon tourist attraction. The tribe seized the business after claiming Jin failed to live up to his end of the deal.

Jin sued the tribe in federal court but the tribe believes the dispute should be resolved in its court. Campbell agreed and saw no need to take control of the dispute amid Jin's claims that the tribe has engaged in "bad faith."

"If the bad faith exception were to be expanded beyond the tribal court to include the bad faith of litigants appearing before the tribal court, exhaustion would be excused every time a party before a tribal court acts in bad faith," Campbell wrote in a 15-page decision. "Such a reading of the exception would entirely disregard the judicial abilities of tribal courts and would assume they are incapable of recognizing and rectifying the bad faith of litigants before them.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Grand Canyon Skywalk Development v. 'SA' Nyu Wa.

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Judge rules against Grand Canyon Skywalk developer (AP 3/20)