Indian Legal Affairs is a law firm focused on solving problems of business and communities dealing with sovereign Indian tribes.

Indian Legal Affairs will help protect you while doing business with sovereign Indian tribes. Indian Legal Affairs will make sure your contracts with Indian tribes are enforceable. Indian Legal Affairs will help protect you in case one of your workers is injured while in Indian country.

Background: Indian Sovereignty

A federally recognized Indian tribe has certain "sovereign" rights, which make it immune from the application of many state and local laws and regulations. Also an acknowledged tribe has the right to government-to-government dealings with local county and state entities which give it many advantages over an ordinary citizen. In place of familiar state and local law, tribal law is applied and is often interpreted by a tribal council.

Indian Legal Affairs believes that whatever rights and immunities a person or people have, the world of the 21st century requires all people to function cooperatively with each other for the state's economy, the environment and the common welfare. Where such cooperation is not forthcoming, there may be rightful resort to legal and political recourse and remedies. Indian Legal Affairs will vigorously pursue and defend the rights and remedies of communities and individuals where these have been jeopardized.

• Indian Legal Affairs will represent communities in federal acknowledgment proceedings.

  Under federal law a recognized Indian tribe can conduct casino style gambling in California under compacts with the state. There are our 108 federally recognized tribes in California. There are 67 more Indian groups seeking recognition, several of these are in urban areas. Indian Legal Affairs will assist communities in asserting their preferences or opposition in acknowledgment proceedings.

• Indian Legal Affairs will forcefully present local concerns during state-tribe compact negotiations.

  Federal law requires state - tribe compacts before a tribe may conduct casino style gambling on its land. Indian Legal Affairs will fight for local concerns in compact negotiations. The tribe is a sovereign and cannot be taxed to provide services it may consume. Therefore local concerns at such as traffic, noise, water supplies, sewers, schools and environmental degradation must be addressed during the compact negotiation phase.

Background: Indian Casinos in California

California has the second-largest casino industry in the country. In large part this $7 billion per year industry is run by American Indians who 20 years ago lived on the socio-economic margins. The turnabout was the United States Supreme Court decision involving the Cabazon Indians determining that neither the state nor county could regulate the card and bingo games that took place on their land. Realizing the dramatic public policy implications of that decision, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in order to provide some order to this nascent industry.

It comes as a surprise to many that familiar laws do not necessarily apply on "sovereign" Indian lands. But as a sovereign, an acknowledged Indian tribe has its own laws, procedures and may have its own courts. The roots of this situation are deeper than our nation is old. The United States Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, between states and with the Indian tribes. The linkage of these three classes in the same sentence cannot be overlooked. Early 19th-century Supreme Court decisions recognized "original natural rights" predating colonial times. One aspect of sovereignty as determined by US courts is immunity from lawsuits. As a result of these decisions a state's ability to regulate casinos is limited to what is authorized under federal law and agreements between a tribe and a state.

In the Cabazon decision the United States Supreme Court relied heavily on the principles of sovereignty in rejecting the state's attempt to regulate gambling. The court said such regulation could take place only with congressional authorization. That authorization came with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in 1988.

The IGRA generally prohibited casino style gambling from lands acquired by an Indian tribe after October 17, 1988, unless the land meets certain exceptions. Among the exceptions are:

1. The land was within or contiguous to the boundaries of the reservation as of October 17, 1988.

2. The Indian tribe had no reservation on October 17, 1988 and the lands it is seeking to be bought in trust as a reservation are within the Indian tribes last recognized reservation within the state.

3. The Secretary of the Interior may, after consultation with the Indian tribe, state and local officials and other Indian tribes determine that a gaming establishment on a newly acquired lands would be in the best interest of the tribe and its members, and would not be detrimental to the surrounding community. This exception requires the concurrence of the governor of the state.

4. The prohibition against gambling will not apply to lands that are taken into trust as part of a settlement of a land claim.

5. The initial reservation of an Indian tribe acknowledged by the Secretary under a federal acknowledgment process or

6. The restoration of land for an Indian tribe that is restored to federal recognition.