A non-Indian energy company says it will continue to dispute the jurisdiction of the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court in Wyoming.

Encana Oil and Gas Inc. was sued in tribal court over the death of Jeremy Jorgenson, a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. Jorgenson was 20 when he died after drinking at a drilling site on New Year's Day in 2009.

Encana filed a lawsuit in federal court against the tribal court judge who was handling Jorgenson's wrongful death case. The company raised a number of challenges, including whether the drilling site and the highway where Jorgenson died are Indian Country and whether a "consensual relationship" existed with the tribe.

Judge Alan B. Johnson did not rule on the merits of those issues. Instead, he said Encana failed to exhaust its tribal court remedies and hasn't shown why the company should be granted an exception so early in the litigation.

"With this array of complex considerations in mind, this court is convinced that the issue of tribal jurisdiction is anything but clear in this matter, for nearly every contributing factor, factual and legal, is hotly and thoughtfully contested between the parties," Johnson wrote in his April 27 decision. "Accordingly, examination of whether the tribal court has the power to exercise civil subject matter jurisdiction, even as here, over a non-Indian, must occur in the first instance, from start to finish, in the tribal court, to which we now defer."

The company plans to take the case to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, an attorney for Encana said.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Encana Oil & Gas v. St. Clair.

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Judge rules Encana must face suit in tribal court (AP 4/24)