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FEBRUARY 16, 2001

Hoping to prove parts of the Nez Perce Reservation are no longer considered Indian Country and therefore under state control, the Attorney General of Idaho is supporting the appeal of a tribal member who admitted to inappropriate sexual contact of minors.

In a friend of the court brief filed with the Supreme Court last week, Alan Lance wants the nation's highest court to resolve what he calls a legal uncertainty. But the tribe, already embroiled in a bitter legal and political dispute with a number of local governments, says Lance's move will only make matters worse.

"The state's attempt to directly attack the existence of the Nez Perce Reservation will only make it more difficult for us to work together on issues of common concern," said tribal chairman Samuel Penney.

Lance is defending his involvement and says its an issue of state sovereignty. And should the Supreme Court accept the case and rule that Idaho has jurisdiction over the reservation, he says he will make sure the state takes action against Christopher Lee Webb, the tribal member at the center of the debate.

"It is unfortunate that the state must participate in this case, but there is no dispute that prosecution of the defendant is necessary and the jurisdictional issue must be resolved to ensure that justice is served," said Lance.

By Lance's own admission, Webb's case is unsettling. After returning home intoxicated from a night of drinking, Webb admitted to federal prosecutors that he inappropriately touched two young girls -- friends of his daughter -- while they slept.

Webb eventually plead guilty to two counts of abusive sexual contact of minors and was sentenced in federal court to 18 months in prison. He challenged the conviction, however, on the grounds that the Nez Perce Reservation was diminished, or reduced, by a series of federal actions in the late 1800s.

Once encompassing over 13 million acres, the reservation was whittled down to a mere 750,000 acres by an 1863 treaty. Congress subsequently ratified an 1894 agreement in which the tribe was paid $1.6 million for lands the federal government opened up to non-Indian settlement. At the same time, tribal members were allotted individual plots of land under the Dawes Act of 1887.

As is common throughout the West, the two policies turned the reservation into a a "checkerboard" in which the state has the power to prosecute crimes on lands owned by non-Indians while the federal government has authority over parcels owned by tribes or by Indians. But since Webb's alleged crimes occurred on land allotted to a tribal member, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in July 2000 upheld prosecution by federal authorities.

Webb had also tried to persuade the court to follow the line of reasoning the Supreme Court made in 1998 when it reduced the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. The appeals justices didn't accept this argument nor did they agree to rehear the case so Webb asked the Supreme Court in January to consider overturning the decision.

Whatever the outcome, the case probably won't resolve the tribe's long-standing dispute with a coalition of 23 local governments known as the North Central Idaho Jurisdictional Alliance (NCIJA). They disagree with the tribe on a number of issues, including taxation and water, hunting, and fishing rights.

Like the state, the group says they don't want to see Webb go unpunished should the state end up with jurisdiction over him. They weren't allowed to file any briefs in Webb's defense in lower courts but they support his appeal nonetheless.

"We're not trying to set Webb free," said Johnson. "We didn't have the choice of the facts that came along. We have to be involved."

The state of Idaho is also fighting a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision which upheld the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's ownership of the southern third of Lake Coeur d'Alene. The Supreme Court accepted Idaho's appeal in December 2000.

Get the Decision:
USA v. Webb (9th Circuit. No. 9930155. 7/00)

Relevant Links:
The Nez Perce Tribe - www.nezperce.org
Nez Perce Treaties Site - members.stratos.net/cpetras/index.htm
Attorney General, Idaho - www2.state.id.us/ag
North Central Idaho Jurisdictional Alliance www.ncija.cjb.net
Indian Country Jurisdiction - 9-1-1magazine.com/magazine/1997/0997/
features/mentzer.html

Related Stories:
Supreme Court to rule on lake ownership (Tribal Law 12/13)
Court upholds Nez Perce treaty (Tribal Law 07/31)
Group counters charges of racism (The Talking Circle 7/31)