Tribal Governance

Our attorneys are experienced in drafting, reviewing, and revising all types of tribal governing documents, including Constitutions and Bylaws. We have:

• Assisted tribes in negotiating and administering self-determination contracts, establishing real estate mortgage codes, developing civil and criminal codes, juvenile codes, probate codes, and judicial codes, and creating trust and other benefit programs for tribal minors and adults;
• Developed tribal employment policies and procedures, business licensing ordinances, natural resource regulations, ordinances governing tribal business enterprise development, and tribal membership;
• Drafted comprehensive tribal business codes to govern commercial activity on reservations, including the sale of goods, leasing, business licenses and permits, and taxation;
• Drafted law enforcement agreements between tribes and local law enforcement authorities to empower tribal police to provide services throughout the reservation;
• Defended an economic development corporation jointly owned by nineteen tribes from an attack by a neighborhood association regarding the inapplicability of the City of Albuquerque’s land use regulations; and
• Secured the first federal deputation of tribal law-enforcement officers in a Public Law 280 state.