Zoning

Over the past decade, American Indian tribes' have assumed increasing responsibility for the management of land and water resources on their reservations. 2 The body of statutory law enacted by tribal governments, traditionally confined to the regulation of internal relations among tribal members, 3 has expanded to reflect environmental concerns.Several Indian tribes have adopted zoning laws in order to regulate land use and control development in their communities. 4 That some land within reservation boundaries is owned by whites has led to problems in the enforcement of such legislation and, in some cases, to litigation.White landowners contesting tribal regulatory authority in federal court have not met with success of late.In three cases decided in the Ninth and Tenth circuits in 1982, tribal zoning codes have been held applicable to land within reservation boundaries owned in fee simple by non-Indians. 5These decisions rest upon * Third-place Winner, 1983 Indian Law Writing Competition.1. Discussion in this note is confined to Indian tribes in the lower forty-eight states.2

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