James R. Smith v. Salish Kootenai College Court of Appeals of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation

GOULD, Circuit Judge:

We consider an issue of increasing importance to the federal courts and to non-tribal members who live or work in or around Native American reservations: When does an Indian tribe’s civil jurisdiction extend to non-tribal members? We must decide whether the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation had the adjudicative authority to exercise civil subject-matter jurisdiction over a non-tribal member in a tort dispute that arose from a traffic accident on a public highway on the reservation.

I

This case arises from a tragic one-vehicle rollover.…