Federal Indian Law

Tribal Sovereignty

Baldwin, Crocker & Rudd, P.C., is committed to assisting Tribes in their efforts to exercise sovereignty and self-determination. Recent legal developments have created new challenges in reaching these objectives, requiring inventive approaches to contract negotiations, tribal regulation, and tribal services. We represent tribal members, organizations, and governments in a variety of matters. For example, the firm has successfully concluded civil rights lawsuits for illegal State search warrants in Indian country, drafted innovative tribal codes and intergovernmental agreements, and increased funding for tribal housing and other programs.

Community health and development, traditional values, and economic opportunities are all critical aspects of tribal sovereignty. The firm successfully concluded suits for denial of medical coverage by Indian Health Services and a class action suit for denying medical cost coverage to indigent reservation residents. We also negotiated comprehensive intergovernmental agreements which fully fund tribal social services and TANF agencies.

We successfully represented the Medicine Wheel Coalition to protect traditional Native practices at the Medicine Wheel site (Wyoming Sawmills v. U.S. and Medicine Wheel Coalition) and represented the Northern Arapaho Tribe to protect traditional practices at Devil’s Tower National Monument (Bear Lodge Multiple Use Ass’n v. Babbitt) and for preservation of the Valley of the Chiefs in Montana.

One partner received the Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year Award from the SBA for extraordinary efforts on behalf of small business owners in Indian country.

The firm is active in fee-to-trust transactions and the protection of tribal lands and natural resources from trespass or other improper uses.

Baldwin, Crocker & Rudd, P.C., also represents the Northern Arapaho Tribe regarding environmental protection and certain water rights issues (In Re: The General Adjudication of All Rights to Use Water in the Big Horn River System).

The firm represents the Arapaho Ranch in transactions related to its organic beef program.