Tribal Government

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians on Friday became the latest California tribe to open its own tribal court, designed to hear civil cases and give members a chance to mediate disputes within their own culture. "This is a historic day for the tribe as we constitute the first formal court system on the reservation," tribal chairman James Ramos told more than 100 guests who came to the Highland reservation to watch the swearing-in of Chief Judge Joanne Willis Newton, three appellate judges and a judge pro tem. Each judge stood in black robes before Ramos and repeated an oath to apply "the San Manuel judicial code fairly and equally to all persons who will come before this court."

A Montana man has been acquitted of assault charges by a federal appeals court because he doesn't meet the definition of an Indian, never having joined the Blackfeet tribe from which his mother descended or accepted federal benefits to which Native Americans are entitled. Tuesday's ruling by the 9th U.S.