A research project from The National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information of the University 
of Arkansas School of Law • NatAgLaw@uark.edu • (479) 575-7646 • www.NationalAgLawCenter.org 
An Agricultural Law Research Article 
The Enforcement of Money Judgments Across 
Indian Reservation Boundaries: A Primer for 
Lawyers Serving the Agriculture Community 
by 
Robert Laurence 
The National Agricultural Law Center 
University of Arkansas School of Law 
1 University of Arkansas 
Fayetteville, AR 72701 
May 2002 

A National AgLaw Center Research Article 
The Enforcement of Money Judgments Across Indian 
Reservation Boundaries: A Primer for Lawyers Serving 
the Agriculture Community 
Robert Laurence* 
I. Introduction 
Avoiding all allusions to “cowboys and Indians,” it is nevertheless true that in the rural areas of 
the American West many conflicts arise that must be settled in either tribal or state court.1 It is also 
true that, as with judgments everywhere, some are not paid voluntarily and the judgment creditor must 
use coercive enforcement to collect the debt. When the judgment is enforceable against property that 
lies within the jurisdiction that issued the judgment, then that jurisdiction’s body of enforcement law 
must be used. But when enforcement must be sought in another jurisdiction, complicated problems of 
cross-boundary comity and respect arise.2 When one of the jurisdictions is a tribal court and one is a 
state court, the issues become complex and involve an intricate mix of tribal, state and federal law. 
The purpose of this article is to introduce those unfamiliar with the field of American Indian law to this 
mix and to the various and conflicting approaches that courts and commentators have taken to the 
problem, with special attention given to problems that might affect the farming community. 
We may begin, then, with a preliminary matter. In order for any judgment from any court – 
tribal, state, federal or foreign (to be enforceable anywhere) – the court rendering the judgment must 
*. Robert A. Leflar Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Arkansas. 
1. 
It is not literally the case that the problems addressed herein arise only in the states of the
American West; more of the fifty states have federally-recognized Indian Country within their borders than
do not. And, of course, it is always possible that a judgment that arose in tribal court will be presented for
enforcement in a state that is not contiguous with the reservation where the judgment arose. Finally, a
judgment may arise in Indian country and be granted recognition in the surrounding state’s court, which,
given the requirement of full faith and credit between the states, may require other states to recognize what
was originally a tribal court judgment. See Richard E. Ransom, et al., Recognizing and Enforcing State
and Tribal Judgments: A Roundtable Discussion of Law, Policy and Practice, 18 AM. IND. L. REV. 239
(1993). Nevertheless, the problems addressed herein are much more likely to arise within the states of the
Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Federal Circuits than in the others.
2. 
There is no general federal enforcement of judgment law, and judgments obtained in federal court 
are enforced under state law, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 69(a). In this article I will be primarily discussing state and 
tribal courts, although as we shall see, federal law is continually implicated in litigation in those courts. For 
a more thorough discussion of the role of the federal courts, see Robert Laurence, The Role, If Any, for the 
Federal Courts in the Cross-Boundary Enforcement of Federal, State and Tribal Money Judgments, 35 U.TULSA 
L.J.1 (1999).

have proper subject matter jurisdiction to hear the case.3 Thus, when causes of action arise in and 
around Indian country, the first question for both state and tribal courts is whether proper subject 
matter jurisdiction exists. In both cases that question is dominated by federal law. 
The federalization of subject matter jurisdiction in state and tribal courts came about through 
two separate lines of cases. In Williams v. Lee,4 the Supreme Court held that the state courts of 
Arizona were without the power to adjudicate a suit by a non-Indian creditor against an Indian debtor 
over a debt transaction that arose on-reservation.5 The Court established the so-called “infringement 
test,” arguably the most famous Indian-law pronouncement of the Court in the twentieth century: “the 
question has always been whether the state action infringed on the rights of reservation Indians to 
make their own laws and be ruled by them.”6 The extension of the Williams infringement test to 
exercises of state power other than state adjudicatory power is complex and the results somewhat at 
odds with one another, but the core holding of Williams, that state courts are without power to 
adjudicate on-reservation transactions, still holds. 
With respect to tribal court jurisdiction, the key cases are Strate v. A-1 Contractors, Inc.7 and 
8
Nevada v. Hicks. These cases applied the so-called Montana exceptions, from the case of Montana 
v. United States,9 governing tribal regulatory jurisdiction, to tribal adjudicatory jurisdiction. Montana 
stands for the proposition that a tribe may not generally apply its civil power to non-Indians, except that: 
[a] tribe may regulate, through taxation, licensing, or other means, the activities ofnonmembers who enter consensual relationships with the tribe or its members, through 
commercial dealing, contracts, leases, or other arrangements. [Citing cases, including 
Williams v. Lee.] A tribe may also retain inherent power to exercise civil authority over the 
conduct of non-Indians on fee lands within its reservation when that conduct threatens or has 
some direct effect on the political integrity, the economic security, or the health or welfare of 
the tribe.10 
The line drawn by these Montana exceptions as it is most likely to apply to tribes and their 
neighbors is between contracts and torts. Litigation concerning on-reservation contracts would seem 
3. Robert A. Leflar, et al., AMERICAN CONFLICTS LAW (4th ed. 1986) at 236. 
4. 
358 U.S. 217 (1959). 
5. 
Id. at 222. 
6. 
Id. at 220. 
7. 
520 U.S. 438 (1997). 
8. 
533 U.S. 353 (2001). 
9. 
450 U.S. 544 (1981). 
10. 
Id. at 565-66. 

most clearly to fall within the tribe’s adjudicatory jurisdiction under the phrase “commercial dealing.”11 
In the agricultural community, these dealings could include the hiring of farm labor, the sale or leasing 
of farm equipment, the provision of seed, fertilizer or other farm supplies, the leasing of agricultural 
land, the sale or encumbrance of farm products, and the provision of veterinarian services. When 
disputes arise regarding on-reservation transactions such as these, proper subject matter jurisdiction 
may well exist in tribal court under Montana. On the other hand, under Strate, the tribal court may not 
have jurisdiction over tort actions, even where the alleged tort was committed on-reservation.12 Strate 
itself concerned a traffic accident between two non-members on a state highway easement within the 
reservation and is thus potentially limited to that narrow set of circumstances.13 The Ninth Circuit, 
however, extended Strate to a case where the plaintiff was a member, though the accident still 
occurred on a highway easement.14 It is difficult to understand why such a tort does not have, in 
Montana’s words, a “direct effect on . . . the health or welfare of the tribe.” The fact that the Ninth 
Circuit held against tribal court jurisdiction shows how narrowly the second Montana exception is 
being read. 
Lying neatly between the first and second Montana exceptions is a products liability case, for 
example, when a dangerous chemical is sold off-reservation for use on-reservation, the chemical is 
spilled, and several tribal members are seriously injured. Or when a negligently engineered combine is 
sold to a tribal member and it malfunctions, injuring the driver. A law suit pursuing a breach of contract 
theory in scenarios such as these would seem properly brought in tribal court under the first Montana 
exception, but, under Strate and Marchington, subject matter jurisdiction over a tort cause of action 
might not exist unless those two cases are limited to state or federal highway easements. 
Suppose tribal court subject matter jurisdiction exists in cases such as these, and judgment is 
for the plaintiff, but the defendant-seller is judgment-proof on-reservation. Cross-boundary 
enforcement of the tribal court judgment then becomes the next legal issue, and it is this issue that is 
discussed below. 
11. In Nevada v. Hicks, 533 U.S. 353 (2001), the Court intimated that this language was meant to refer 
only to private consensual agreements, not to consensual agreements between a tribe and state government. 
Whatever the implications of Hicks as a whole, see Alex Tallchief Skibine, Making Sense out of Nevada v. 
Hicks: A Reinterpretation, 14 ST. THOMAS L. REV. 347 (2001), for the Supreme Court to use the common law 
to discourage cooperation between the two governments most directly involved in the day-to-day administration 
of judgment on and near Indian reservations was most unwise. It could be said, of course, that it was the tribe 
itself that was discouraging state-tribal cooperation by first agreeing to the issuance of the search warrant, and 
then accepting the validity of litigation in tribal court against those enforcing it. However, this is merely one of 
the on-the-ground dynamics of such cooperation. Should the state feel that its cooperation with the tribe is 
contingent upon its immunity from suit before the tribal courts, it could say that at the time of the initial 
appearance before the tribal court judge. Should the tribal judge think that such a condition to cooperation is 
unacceptable, then he or she could refuse to ratify the issuance of the search warrant, which would then remove 
the applicability of the first Montana exception. In either case, it makes little sense to hold, as did the Court, 
that such government-to-government agreements have no relevance to the question of tribal court jurisdiction. 
12. Strate, 520 U.S. at 459. 
13. See Phillip Allen White, Comment, The Tribal Exhaustion Doctrine: “Just Stay on the Good 
Roads, and You've Got Nothing to Worry About,” 22 AM. IND. L. REV. 65 (1997). The quoted words in the title 
of that Comment are attributed to Justice Scalia as his reaction to the Strate holding, see id. at 65, n.*. 
14. Wilson v. Marchington, 42 F.3d 1178 (9th Cir. 1994). 

When the underlying transactions hypothesized above occur off-reservation, there would be no 
Williams v. Lee impediment to state court jurisdiction. The plaintiff would likely be a tribal member 
who could enforce his or her judgment through the state court process. But suppose the chemical 
was sold on credit off-reservation, and the legal problem was not the dangerousness of the product 
but the failure of the buyer to pay. Or suppose that a crop was grown on-reservation using an 
improperly applied herbicide which was then sold off-reservation, sickening consumers. Under 
Williams v. Lee, there would seem to be no impediment to state court jurisdiction, but the defendant-
debtor might well be judgment-proof off-reservation, and the state court judgment would have to be 
enforced on-reservation, thereby raising the issues discussed below. 
Hence, the preliminary matter when cross-boundary enforcement of judgment is sought is, as 
always, the proper subject matter jurisdiction of the court rendering the judgment. When the boundary 
at issue is a reservation boundary, this question is difficult, the analysis can be convoluted, and the 
answer problematic. Recognizing that these issues are likely to be presented in many cross-
boundary cases, we may now assume them away. Suppose, for the remainder of this article, that 
proper jurisdiction exists in the initial court, be it state or tribal, and that judgment is for the plaintiff, 
who, for our general purposes, will be a tribal member litigating in tribal court or a non-member 
litigating in state court. The difficulties, as we shall see, have just begun. 
II. The Preliminary Matter of the Enforcement of Judgments When Boundaries 
Are Not Crossed. 
A. The Basic Principles of Non-Indian Enforcement of Judgment Law. 
Sometimes when a plaintiff wins a judgment, the defendant does not voluntarily pay, for which 
state law provides a wide variety of remedies to the frustrated plaintiff. The most commonly used of 
these remedies are: (1) execution process, in which a county sheriff or other government official 
coercively seizes the property of the defendant and sells it; (2) garnishment, in which the court 
entertains a new law suit against a third party who owes money to the defendant and who is ordered to 
pay the debt to the plaintiff; (3) wage withholding, a variation of garnishment, in which the same is 
accomplished by statute, without a law suit; (4) fraudulent transfer avoidance, in which the court 
undoes real or fictitious transfers in order to allow the execution process to proceed against property 
held by third parties, and (5) creditor’s bill, or otherwise-named equitable proceedings, in which the 
court of equity takes jurisdiction over the person of the non-paying defendant and all of his, her or its 
property.15 
Still restricting our attention to the general principles of non-Indian law, there are three major 
limitations placed by state and federal law on the use of these remedies by unpaid plaintiffs. First, 
judgments expire and every state has a statute of limitations on the enforcement of judgment, though 
the length of time in these statutes varies. So, too, are there varying tolling situations in the states. 
Some states provide a different, often shorter, period for the enforcement of out-of-state judgments.16 
The enforceability of equitable decrees is similarly limited by the doctrine of laches. 
15. See generally, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, THE LAW OF DEBTORS AND CREDITORS 
(4th ed. 2001) at 45-158. 
16. See Watkins v. Conway, 385 U.S. 188 (1966). 

The second limitation on state enforcement of judgments is federal bankruptcy law. The 
automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. Sec. 362(a) is one of the broadest injunctions known in the law, and, 
among many other things, it temporarily prohibits the enforcement of judgments rendered prior to the 
bankruptcy17 and usually permanently discharges them.18 
Third, in every state, and to a limited extent under federal law as well, certain property is 
exempt from judgment and may not be seized for the benefit of the plaintiff. There is a wide variation in 
the exemption laws of the states; only one state has enacted the Uniform Exemptions Act and, among 
the other states there are examples both of extreme generosity and extreme niggardliness. The 
federal exemptions are very narrow, mostly protecting federal entitlements such as social security,19 
or protecting some small amounts of property from federal tax enforcement.20 Federal law also 
protects wages from garnishment, generally to the extent of 75 percent of take-home pay.21 State 
laws are permitted to be more protective of debtors, and some are.22 Less generous state laws are 
pre-empted by federal law.23 
Off-reservation, state law dominates the enforcement of judgment process, and there is no 
general federal enforcement of judgment law. Judgments rendered by a federal court are enforceable 
under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69(a), which incorporates the substantive law of the state in 
which the court sits. Enforcement will be by federal marshals, but state law will apply.24 
Under accepted principles of off-reservation law, enforcement procedures are creatures of statute, 
and traditionally there are no exemptions at common law.25 
B. On-reservation Enforcement of Tribal Court Judgments under Tribal Law. 
The previous section’s discussion of off-reservation enforcement of judgment serves as a 
counter-point to the law as it exists on the reservation. In the first instance, tribal law will apply, and it 
is important to determine, for any particular tribe, what enforcement procedures it has enacted and 
what property it has made exempt from process. It should be noted, too, that while state statutory and 
constitutional law traditionally govern this area off-reservation, any given tribe might determine to 
address these issues under its common or customary law. There is nothing inherently offensive about 
17. See generally, David G. Epstein, et al., BANKRUPTCY (1993) at 59-170. 
18. See 11 U.S.C.Sec. 727(a) (liquidation); Sec. 1141(d)(1) (corporate reorganization); Sec, 1228(a) 
(farmer reorganization); Sec.1328(a) (consumer reorganization). 
19. 
42 U.S.C. Sec. 407. 
20. 
26 U.S.C. Sec. 6334(a). 
21. 
15 U.S.C. Secs. 1671-77. 
22. 
15 U.S.C. Sec. 1675. 
23. 
Id. See generally, Warren & Westbrook, supra note 15 at 104-26. 
24. 
Fed .R.Civ .P. 69(a). 
25. 
See David G. Epstein, et al., BANKRUPTCY (1993) at 593. 

the notion of common law exemptions; in fact, many of us who practice primarily under state law wish 
the courts would be more aggressive in protecting the property of some debtors.26 
Some tribes, in the interests of uniformity, might adopt as its own, either explicitly or by 
implication, the surrounding state’s enforcement of judgment law, including exemption law. In such an 
instance, off-reservation court constructions of state law would be persuasive authority in tribal court, 
but tribal appellate court constructions of that law would be of greater weight. Because there is no 
federal enforcement of judgment law, a tribe that defers to federal law is, in effect, deferring to state 
law under Rule 69(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Other than such incorporations of 
foreign law, the existence, or not, of certain off-reservation state processes and exemptions should 
have no substantial impact on tribal choices in this area of the law. 
Furthermore, it is to be re-emphasized that off-reservation law contains a variety of 
enforcement of judgment laws, including statutes of limitation and exemptions. Exemption law 
particularly is considered by off-reservation law-makers to be a matter of intimate local concern. Any 
tribal variations from off-reservation practice should be viewed in the context of this remarkable non-
uniformity of state law, and off-reservation courts should be reluctant to second-guess a tribe’s choice 
in these matters. 
Even though there is no general federal enforcement of judgment law, federal law does have 
three principal impacts on tribal enforcement of judgment law. First, federal restraints on alienation 
exist on much on-reservation real property and some on-reservation personal property. Such trust 
property will be exempt as a matter of federal law from any execution process pursuant to a federal, 
state or tribal court judgment.27 
Second, the Indian Civil Rights Act28 will restrict the tribe’s choice of remedies in ways similar 
to ways the U.S. Constitution restricts the states in their choice of remedies. Those constitutional 
restrictions, however, are relatively few, given that the non-paying defendant has presumably already 
had a presumably fair day in court.29 Nevertheless, off-reservation courts have applied the 
Constitution to post-judgment enforcement process under state law in meaningful ways,30 and the 
same should be true of the I.C.R.A. A mere difference between the tribe’s choice regarding 
enforcement process, exemption law or the length of the statute of limitations, on the one hand, and 
26. A student sits this semester in my Debtor-Creditor Relations class in a motorized wheelchair, 
valued, he tells me, at about the price of a nice car. Under the federal bankruptcy statute, such a device would 
be exempt, 11 U.S.C. Sec. 522(d)(9), but under Arkansas state statutory law it would not be. Public policy 
abounds in support of the notion that such a person’s creditors should not be able to take the chair out from 
under him, but traditionally state courts have been reluctant to protect property left unprotected by the 
legislature. In Arkansas we have a state constitutional provision that limits the legislature’s ability to protect 
items such as wheelchairs, see Ark. Const., art. 9, Secs.1 and 2, and In re Holt, 894 F.2d 1005 (8th Cir. 1990), 
but that is a problem, thankfully, of only local concern. 
27. 
See generally, Robert N. Clinton, et al., AMERICAN INDIAN LAW (3d ed. 1991) at 147-52. 
28. 
25 U.S.C. Secs. 1301-03. 
29. 
See Endicott Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285 (1924). 
30. 
See, e.g., Finberg v. Sullivan, 634 F.2d 50 (3d Cir. 1980). 

the choice of the surrounding state on the other, should not rise to the level of an I.C.R.A. violation. 
Any such civil-side I.C.R.A. challenge would, under Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez,31 have to come in 
tribal court.32 
Third, federal bankruptcy law will affect tribal enforcement of judgment law. The petition in 
bankruptcy enjoins “any act to collect, assess, or recover a claim against the debtor that arose before 
the commencement of the case,”33 which would include a tribal court plaintiff’s attempt to enforce a 
tribal court judgment. Section 362(a)(1) enjoins “the commencement or continuation, including the 
issuance or employment of process, of a judicial . . . proceeding against the debtor that was or could 
have been commenced before the commencement of [the bankruptcy] case . . ..”34 This injunction 
surely applies to the individual tribal court plaintiff, but whether it applies to the tribal court itself raises 
sovereign immunity questions that are beyond the scope of this article.35 
III. Cross-Boundary Enforcement Issues. 
A. The Basic Principles of Non-Indian Cross-Boundary Enforcement Law. 
Whenever a judgment of one jurisdiction is presented to another for coercive enforcement, 
important matters of sovereignty, jurisdiction and judicial latitude are brought to the fore. This is true 
whether the judgment is being brought across a state line, a reservation boundary, or an international 
frontier. Again, to serve as a counterpoint to federal Indian law, it is best to begin the discussion with a 
brief review of off-reservation law. 
By constitutional command, the states of the United States give “full faith and credit” to the final 
judgments of their sister states.36 By statute, this command is extended to the courts of “territories 
and possessions.”37 The question of whether tribes are territories or possessions will be discussed 
below. 
31. 
436 U.S. 49 (1978). 
32. 
Id. 
33. 
11 U.S.C. Sec. 362(a)(6). 
34. 
11 U.S.C. Sec. 362(a)(1). 
35. 11 U.S.C. Sec. 106 attempts to abrogate sovereign immunity for all “governmental unit[s],” a term 
defined very broadly by 11 U.S.C. Sec. 101(27). The definition of a “governmental unit” does not specifically 
mention Indian tribes, but includes the phrase “other foreign or domestic government.” See Adams v. Grand 
Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Economic Development Authority (In re Adams), 133 Bankr. 
191 (Bcy. W.D. Mich. 1991) (holding that the court has the power to order removal of a bankruptcy-related 
matter from tribal court to bankruptcy court, but abstaining from doing so.) 
36. 
U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Sec. 1. 
37. 
28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738. 

If full faith and credit is required to be given, the court of the state where enforcement is sought 
has only limited discretion to inspect the judgment or to entertain collateral attacks upon it. After 
assuring itself that the judgment has not been satisfied, nor was it obtained by fraud on the rendering 
court, the state court may only hear collateral attacks based upon the lack of jurisdiction before the 
rendering court.38 Of particular importance, the receiving court may not refuse to enforce the sister-
state judgment merely because it offends local public policy.39 
Furthermore, even a jurisdiction-based collateral attack is available only if jurisdiction was not 
challenged in the court rendering the judgment. Hence this collateral attack is ordinarily available only 
if the judgment whose enforcement is sought was a default judgment. If jurisdictional matters were 
actually contested in the court rendering judgment, then disputes would give rise to appeal, not 
collateral attack.40 
Many states have enacted the 1962 version of the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments 
Act (UEFJA), which allows a foreign-state judgment that is entitled to full faith and credit to merely be 
registered in order to be enforced under the law of the receiving state. Local statutes of limitations and 
exemptions apply to the enforcement process. Alternatively, a judgment plaintiff may forego 
registration under the UEFJA and bring suit on the out-of-state judgment, thereby obtaining a new 
judgment from the receiving state. Technically speaking, under the 1962 version of UEFJA no new 
judgment is ever entered in the receiving state; the statute merely allows the foreign judgment to be 
enforced as if it were a local judgment.41 
Only final judgments are entitled to full faith and credit. Modifiable equitable decrees, most 
notably child support orders, are not enforceable under standard full faith and credit principles; specific 
legislation is required to bind the states to enforce the equitable decrees of sister states.42 
When a state court is asked to enforce a foreign-nation judgment, as opposed to a sister-state 
judgment, then comity, not full faith and credit, is the governing principle. Comity involves a looser and 
more generalized respect by the court receiving the judgment for enforcement toward the court that 
rendered the judgment. For example, a court using the principles of comity may inquire into the 
procedural fairness shown by the rendering court, matters that have to be attacked on appeal, not 
collaterally, under the principles of full faith and credit. So, too, may the receiving court test the 
incoming judgment against strongly held local public policy and refuse to enforce the judgment 
because of substantial and important departures from same. Under both full faith and credit and 
38. 
Leflar, supra note 3, at 221-26. 
39. 
Baker v. General Motors Corp., 522 U.S. 222 (1998). 
40. 
Leflar, supra note 3, at 236. 
41. 
Id. at 235. Compare the 1948 version of the UEFJA, which created a summary procedure for 
obtaining an in-state judgment based on an out-of-state one. 
42. 
Id. at 247. Regarding child support orders, such specialized legislation generally exists, see
28 U.S.C. Sec.1738A. This section reaches orders from states, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and “territor[ies] or possession[s] of the United States,” and hence its
application to orders from Indian tribes is problematic.

comity, lack of jurisdiction in the rendering court and fraud by the plaintiff upon the rendering court are 
defenses to enforcement.43 
There are two forms of comity, retaliatory and non-retaliatory. Under retaliatory comity, in 
addition to the usual considerations of proper jurisdiction, absence of fraud, consistency with local 
public policy, and fair proceedings in the foreign court, there is the additional question of whether the 
rendering jurisdiction enforces the receiving court’s judgments when the roles are reversed. In non-
retaliatory comity, the reciprocal reception given by the rendering court to the receiving court’s 
judgments is irrelevant. 
Commentators tend to prefer the non-retaliatory form of comity. The United States Supreme 
Court has held that the retaliatory form is the law in federal courts,44 but some lower federal courts 
have found ways to limit that case and to avoid its application.45 The Supreme Court’s choice to use 
retaliatory comity in federal courts does not apply to the states, which are free to develop their own 
versions of comity under their common or statutory law. Among state courts, the jurisdictions are split 
between the two forms of comity. The Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act (UFMJRA), 
adopted by about half the states, contains the non-retaliatory form, but a few states have added 
retaliation as a non-uniform variation to the UFM-JRA.46 
B. The Enforcement of Judgments Across Indian Reservation Boundaries. 
As of now, no consistent rule exists among the jurisdictions addressing the question. As will 
be shown below, there is both case law and statutory authority for each of the three rules of 
recognition mentioned above (full faith and credit, retaliatory comity and non-retaliatory comity). 
Furthermore, the scholarly commentary is extensive, contradictory, and inconclusive.47 
The first question is whether the federal full faith and credit statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738, 
applies to tribal courts as the rendering court, the receiving court, both or neither. If Sec. 1738 applies 
to tribal courts in both instances, then they must give full faith and credit to incoming judgments, and 
their judgments must receive it. Otherwise not, except under the specialized statutes that apply full 
faith and credit to narrow subject matter areas, such as support orders and non-divorce-related 
custody decrees. 
Section 1738 does not mention Indian tribes or tribal courts, nor does its legislative history. 
Nevertheless, some courts have held that the section applies to tribal court judgments, usually by 
43. 
Id. at 236-41. 
44. 
Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113 (1895). 
45. 
See, e.g., Direction der Disconto-Gesellschaft v. United States Steel Corp., 300 F. 741 
(S.D.N.Y. 1924), aff’d 267 U.S. 22 (1925). 
46. 
See Leflar, supra note 3 at 252. 
47. 
See Ransom, supra note 1. 

finding tribes to be “territories or possessions” of the United States.48 Supreme Court authority is 
rather abstruse: Section 1738 has been said in dicta to apply to tribal courts,49 and the Court has held 
that a now-repealed, very narrow but somewhat similar statute required that full faith and credit be 
given to a decree of a Cherokee orphans court.50 
If these cases are wrong or distinguishable, then, in the absence of full faith and credit, one of 
the forms of comity discussed above will obtain under federal law, state law, tribal law, or all three. 
The sections that follow review the law from the opposite sides of the state-reservation boundary. 
C. The Enforcement of Tribal Court Judgments in State Court. 
State courts are divided on the question of whether they are bound, under Sec.1738, to give full 
faith and credit to tribal court judgments. For example, the Supreme Courts of New Mexico and Idaho 
have found that that section applies, so they must recognize final judgments of the Navajo and 
Shoshone-Bannock tribal courts, respectively.51 On the other hand, the Supreme Courts of South 
Dakota and the Court of Appeals of Arizona declined to follow the dictates of Sec.1738.52 
The application of such an important doctrine as full faith and credit to Indian tribes should not 
be done in the absence of careful congressional consideration, which is not demonstrated by the 
silence of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738. The dicta of Martinez should not be followed and the holding of 
Mackey should not be extended without specific statutory language applying full faith and credit 
principles across Indian reservation boundaries. Examples can be found of both retaliatory comity and 
non-retaliatory comity applied by state courts toward tribal court judgments.53 
A few states have legislated with respect to the treatment of tribal court judgments in their state 
courts, choosing different forms of comity.54 No federal court case has ever stricken a state 
enforcement statute on supremacy grounds as being inconsistent with some federal rule. The Ninth 
48. 
See, e.g., Halwood v. Cowboy Auto Sales, Inc., 946 P.2d 1088 (N.M. 1997). 
49. 
See Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49, 66-67 n.21 (1978) 
50. United States ex rel. Mackey v. Coxe, 59 U.S. (18 How.) 100 (1885). 
51. Halwood v. Cowboy Auto Sales, Inc., 946 P.2d 1088 (N.M. 1997); Sheppard v. Sheppard, 655
P.2d 895 (Idaho 1982). I have intentionally stated the holdings of these cases narrowly in the text. While
the logic of these opinions would suggest that their holdings are not limited to the specific tribe involved, it
is unclear whether on policy grounds either Supreme Court was willing to require full faith and credit be
given to judgments from all tribal courts nationwide. In particular, it is unclear whether either or both courts
would apply full faith and credit to the judgments of tribal courts from outside their states.
52. Mexican v. Circle Bear, 370 N.W.2d 737 (S.D. 1985); Brown v. Babbitt Ford, Inc., 571 P.2d 
689 (Ariz. App. 1977). See also Begay v. Miller, 222 P.2d 624 (Ariz. 1950)(holding that the Full Faith and
Credit Clause of the Constitution does not apply to the Navajo Tribe).
53. 
See Wilson v. Marchington, 127 F.3d 805 (9th Cir. 1997) and cases cited. 
54. 
See, e.g., S.D. Codified Law Sec. 1-1-25(2)(b) (Michie 1992). 

Circuit has intimated, in fact, that the Supremacy Clause does not require that the state courts 
subordinate themselves to some federal common law rule.55 Several commentators have expressed 
themselves in disagreement with this intimation.56 
D. The Enforcement of State Court Judgments in Tribal Court. 
The discussion of full faith and credit and comity in tribal courts begins with the question of 
whether state enforcement processes extends to Indian country. If state sheriffs may enforce writs of 
execution on-reservation pursuant to off-reservation judgments by seizing property non-exempt under 
state law, then there would be little occasion for the state court plaintiff to use the tribal system to 
enforce a judgment. While there is case law to the contrary,57 the principle that state judgments 
should be enforced via state process off-reservation, but via tribal process on-reservation, is well58
founded on the authority of Williams v. Lee. “The right of the reservation Indians to make their own 
laws and be ruled by them”59 is nowhere stronger than in the right to govern how, in what 
circumstances, and by whom the coercive enforcement of judgments will be done. A state sheriff 
would seem to have no more business executing judgment in Indian country than a tribal police officer 
would have doing the same off-reservation.60 
In Nevada v. Hicks,61 however, the Supreme Court addressed the question of whether a state 
game warden could execute a state search warrant on-reservation. The search warrant had been 
issued with the concurrence of the tribal court,62 which would seem both to be an entirely appropriate 
procedure, and to take care of any question of Williams infringement. Writing in very sweeping terms 
and citing in the main cases from the 19th Century, the Court wrote: “The State’s interest in execution 
of process is considerable . . ..”63 Does this statement mean that a creditor with a state court 
judgment may have the county clerk send the country sheriff out to seize on-reservation property? 
The law is not yet there for three reasons. In the first place, the Court might yet decide that search 
warrants pursuant to criminal prosecution are different from civil writs of execution, which would be a 
sensible distinction. Second, the statement quoted is dicta, for the issue in Hicks was whether the 
tribal court had jurisdiction over the litigation against the state official, not whether state court civil 
process reaches within the reservation. And third, the Court gave little reason for its decision beyond 
55. Wilson v. Marchington, 127 F.3d 805 (9th Cir. 1997). 
56. See Ransom, supra note 1. 
57. 
See, e.g., Little Horn State Bank v. Stops, 555 P.2d 211 (Mont. 1976). 
58. 
358 U.S. 217 (1959) 
59. Id. at 220 
60. Cf. Francisco v. State, 556 P.2d 1 (Ariz. 1976) (holding that a state sheriff has no authority to 
serve process on-reservation). 
61. 533 U.S. 353 (2001). 
62. 
Id. at 356. 
63. 
Id. at 364. 

some out-moded language from old cases, and this: “[E]ven when [state process] relates to Indian-fee 
lands[,] it no more impairs the tribe’s self-government than federal enforcement of federal law impairs 
state government.”64 But, of course, federal enforcement of federal law impairs state government; 
Rule 69 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is written in apparent homage to this fact. If the 
Congress should override all state exemptions, states would feel themselves improperly impaired.65 
Congress may or may not have the power to work such an impairment of state law, but it almost 
certainly has such power with respect to tribal exemption law. But is the Court suggesting that states 
have the power to make such an impairment of tribal law? Surely not; Williams v. Lee is entirely to the 
contrary. 
Until the Court reworks the parameters of cross-boundary enforcement of civil law more 
emphatically than in Nevada v. Hicks, the assumption can be made that state execution process does 
not run on-reservation, and that the proper forum for the on-reservation enforcement of an off-
reservation judgment is in tribal court, and the proper forum for the off-reservation enforcement of an 
on-reservation judgment is in state court. 
The situation is somewhat different in Public Law 280 states, where a cause of action 
governing reservation activity may be litigated and go to judgment in state court. Nevertheless, 
enforcement process and exemption laws are creatures of statute, not cases, and under the holding 
of Bryan v. Itasca County,66 it is the tribe’s statutory law that should apply. Thus, even in Public Law 
280 states, the better rule is that state court judgments should be presented to tribal courts for 
recognition, and not merely executed upon by state officers using state enforcement process on-
reservation.67 
Tribal law, too, is divided on the question of whether full faith and credit or comity should be 
afforded to incoming judgments from state or federal courts. The Court of Appeals of the Cheyenne 
River Sioux Tribe, for instance, found itself bound by the full faith and credit provisions of the Parental 
Kidnaping Prevention Act and, in dicta, by the more general full faith and credit provisions of 28 U.S.C. 
Sec. 1738, although the court found a way to avoid the necessity of enforcing the particular judgment 
presented to it.68 It appears likely, however, that more tribal courts are using comity-like principles, 
retaining for themselves more discretion than full faith and credit would allow. 
Comity as used in state and federal courts derives from the Anglo-American common law, but 
the notion of respect for fellow sovereigns is so basic a proposition that it is likely that some form of it 
exists under the law of most every tribe and nation. Hence, it is not surprising to find that most bodies 
of tribal law and custom contain within them some form of cross-boundary respect that embodies 
comity-like principles. Thus, it should not be necessary that a tribe wishing to adopt a comity regime 
do so by incorporating all the details of off-reservation comity into tribal law. 
64. Id. 
65. See, e.g., Philip Shenon, Home as Shield from Creditors Is under Fire, THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 
4, 2002, at p. B1, col. 4. 
66. 
426 U.S. 373 (1976). 
67. 
See generally, Clinton, supra note 27 at 594-622. 
68. 
Eberhard v. Eberhard, 24 Ind. L. Rep. 6059 (Cheyenne River Sioux 1997). 

The question of when and whether federal law pre-empts a tribe’s local choice to use some 
form of comity rather than full faith and credit to address cross-boundary-enforcement issues again 
raises the question of whether 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738, as written, applies to Indian tribes as the 
jurisdiction receiving a judgment for enforcement. As mentioned above, the better rule is that tribal 
court latitude should not be restricted by an Act of Congress that does not mention Indian tribes and, 
hence, that Sec. 1738 should not apply to tribes. In those instances mentioned below, when 
Congress directly addresses the question of the tribes as receiving jurisdictions, then such legislation 
binds the tribes. 
E. The Role of the Federal Courts in Cross-boundary Enforcement of Judgments. 
Under general principles of off-reservation law, the federal courts play only a very limited role in 
the cross-boundary enforcement of judgments. There is no general federal enforcement of judgment 
law and, under Rule 69(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, state enforcement law applies. 
This Rule applies irrespective of whether the federal case was based on diversity jurisdiction or 
federal-question jurisdiction. 
Furthermore, if a judgment arose in state court between citizens of the same state, it may not 
be enforced via the federal court in a different state; merely because the judgment is worthy of full faith 
and credit does not create federal jurisdiction over the enforcement action.69 Hence, federal Indian law 
aside, the only state court judgments that might be enforced in federal court are those between parties 
of diverse citizenship. Because Rule 69 requires the application of state enforcement law anyway, 
most judgment creditors simply use full faith and credit in state court. 
When the enforcement is across reservation boundaries, the federal courts might be thought 
to play a more active role, given the tradition of federal court involvement in Indian law. This turns out 
not to be the case, as discussed below. 
1. The On-Reservation Enforcement of Federal Court Judgments. 
In Annis v. Dewey County Bank,70 the federal court in South Dakota found that while a state 
court might be constrained by Williams v. Lee from enforcing a judgment on-reservation, the same 
constraints should not apply to a federal court enforcing a federal judgment. Furthermore, the court 
intimated it would not be difficult for many state court judgments to be converted to federal judgments 
for such enforcement.71 Given that there is no federal enforcement of judgment law, but only Rule 69's 
incorporation of state law, Annis is ill-considered. Williams v. Lee shields a tribe from state law, not 
merely from state administration of the law. Where the state and tribe make different choices with 
respect to the exempt status of certain property, it does not serve the purposes of Williams v. Lee 
merely to have the federal marshal, instead of the county sheriff, enforce a state judgment against 
property exempt under tribal law. 
69. 
Minnesota v. Northern Securities Co., 194 U.S. 48 (1904). 
70. 
335 F.Supp. 133 (D.S.D. 1971). 
71. Id. 

Thus, unless and until Congress passes legislation specifically setting forth the processes for 
enforcement of federal judgments on Indian reservations, federal judgments, too, must be presented 
to tribal courts for on-reservation enforcement. 
2. The On-reservation Enforcement of State Court Judgments Through the Federal 
Court System. 
These cases are indistinguishable from the previous category. It is true that when a state court 
judgment is presented to a federal court for enforcement, the federal court must give full faith and 
credit to the state court judgement.72 However, the remainder of the analysis is as given above: 
having recognized the state court judgment, the federal court must, under Rule 69, send the federal 
marshal onto the reservation to apply state enforcement of judgment law, contrary to Williams v. Lee. 
If a federal court is required by Williams v. Lee and Rule 69 to present its own judgments to tribal court 
for enforcement, it must do the same when the original source of the judgment is the state court 
system. 
Annis, itself, involved an especially insidious form of the tactic of using federal courts to 
enforce state court judgments. There, the judgment creditor threatened on-reservation enforcement 
under state law. The judgment debtor, now plaintiff, sought a federal court injunction against state 
process. Now in federal court as defendant, the creditor simply counterclaimed on the judgment. The 
South Dakota federal district court took jurisdiction over the suit, enjoined the direct enforcement under 
state law but granted relief on the counter-claim, sending the federal marshal out to seize the 
defendant’s cattle under state law.73 
This tactic should be unavailing. On-reservation enforcement of both state and federal 
judgments should be made via the tribal court system, just as tribal court judgments should be 
enforced, off-reservation, through the state or federal court systems. 
3. The Off-reservation Enforcement of Tribal Court Judgments Through the Federal 
Court System. 
In Wilson v. Marchington,74 a plaintiff with a judgment from the Blackfeet tribal court presented 
the judgment to the Montana federal district court for off-reservation enforcement, arguing that it was 
entitled to full faith and credit there. The Ninth Circuit held, instead, that the federal rule for use in 
federal courts was one of non-retaliatory comity, not full faith and credit. The court rejected the 
75
application of both Sec. 1738 and Hilton v. Guyot. Contrary to Wilson is In re Larch,76 in which the 
Fourth Circuit held that the Eastern Cherokee Tribe is a “territory” as defined by the Parental Kidnaping 
72. 
Full faith and credit is required between state and federal courts by 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738. 
73. 
335 F.Supp. at 133. 
74. 
127 F.3d 805 (9th Cir. 1997). 
75. 
159 U.S. 113 (1895). In Bird v. Glacier Electric Cooperative, Inc., 255 F.3d 1136 (9th Cir. 2001), 
the Ninth Circuit followed Marchington, and refused to recognize a tribal court judgment rendered following a 
closing argument that the Ninth Circuit thought offensive. 
76. 872 F.2d 66 (4th Cir. 1989). 

Prevention Act.77 As such, the child custody orders of the tribal court were entitled to full faith and 
credit in state court. Wilson would appear to be the better-reasoned case, at least on the full faith and 
credit issue.78 
Some commentators would go farther than Wilson did and argue that the rule of comity laid 
down there is not just for the federal courts within the Ninth Circuit but is also the federal rule binding 
under the Supremacy Clause on the state courts within the Ninth Circuit.79 While it is true that, under 
off-reservation law, comity is generally a principle of state law, in the specific field of America Indian 
law, federal interests and the federal common law so dominate that a federal rule of comity should 
apply in state courts. 
4. Federal Restraints on Improper Enforcement Attempts. 
All three court systems may be implicated in the complex case where a judgment arises in one 
court system, enforcement is sought in a second, and the third is used to enjoin enforcement in the 
second. Typically, it is in federal court that a judgment debtor, now plaintiff, seeks an injunction 
against the enforcement under state or tribal law. The merits of such controversies aside, two federal 
abstention doctrines will usually prevent the federal court from hearing the case. 
80
The first abstention doctrine flows from the non-Indian case of Younger v. Harris. This case 
presents substantial barriers to the federal courts in their attempts to enjoin on-going state court 
process, as cases to which the doctrine applies must be dismissed by the federal court with no 
injunction issuing. While Younger itself involved an attempt to enjoin state criminal process, 
subsequent cases have extended the doctrine to the civil side, and, as a general matter, it is likely that 
federal courts will be required to abstain from any attempt to enjoin state court enforcement of a tribal 
court judgment. An argument has been offered that cases such as these should be allowed as an 
exception to Younger v. Harris abstention, but this argument has not been accepted by the courts.81 
The second abstention doctrine flows from the Indian law case of National Farmers Union Ins. 
82
Co. v. Crow Tribe of Indians. This type of abstention is less strong than Younger abstention, as it 
does not require dismissal, but only postponement of the federal case while tribal process is 
exhausted. Thus, if a creditor with a state court judgment is attempting on-reservation enforcement in 
tribal court, and the state court defendant seeks to enjoin the same in federal court, the federal court 
must abstain, under National Farmers Union, until all challenges to tribal court process are finally 
77. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738A. 
78. 
In addition to the holding on the cross-boundary enforcement of tribal judgments, Wilson v. 
Marchington unwisely expanded the doctrine of Strate v. A-1 Contractors, 520 U.S. 438 (1997), and refused to 
recognize tribal jurisdiction over a tort suit brought by a plaintiff who was a member of the tribe. 
79. See Ransom, supra. note 1. 
80. 401 U.S. 37 (1971). 
81. 
See Robert Laurence, The Enforcement of Judgments across Indian Reservation Boundaries: Full 
Faith and Credit, Comity and the Indian Civil Rights Act, 69 ORE. L. REV. 589, 612-19 (1990). 
82. 471 U.S. 845 (1985). 

disposed of by the tribal court system. Following that final disposition, a federal court might give 
collateral review to the tribal process, but only on the grounds that the tribal court was without 
jurisdiction, under federal law, to enforce the judgment. Such a challenge ought to fail, assuming that 
the defendant’s property lies properly within the tribe’s jurisdiction. Other challenges to the tribal court 
process are Indian Civil Rights Act challenges which, under the doctrine of Santa Clara Pueblo v. 
Martinez, must be brought in tribal, not federal, court. 
The combination of Younger v. Harris, National Farmers Union v. Crow Tribe of Indians, and 
Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez is that in this sensitive area of tribal-state relations where federal 
interests are strong, the federal courts play almost no role at all. The solution to this irony appears to 
lie in congressional legislation, however, and not in court-created exceptions to these three abstention 
doctrines. 
F. Special Statutory Provisions. 
Occasionally, for purposes deemed important to the interests of national uniformity and federal 
Indian policy, Congress enacts a specific full faith and credit provision that explicitly reaches Indian 
tribes. As of the present writing, those statutes are: 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2265 (The Violence against 
Women Act); 25 U.S.C. Sec. 1725(g)(The Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act); 25 U.S.C. 
Sec. 1911(d) (The Indian Child Welfare Act); 25 U.S.C. Sec. 2207 (The Indian Land Consolidation Act); 
28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738B (Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act); 25 U.S.C. Sec. 3106 (The 
National Indian Forest Resources Management Act); 25 U.S.C. Sec. 3713 (American Indian 
Agricultural Resource Management Act). The latter two of these statutes would seem to have 
potential effect on farmers and their lawyers, but they have never been litigated in any meaningful way. 
As mentioned above, given the important state and tribal sovereign interests involved, more 
general federal full faith and credit statutes using terms like “state,” “territory,” or “possession” should 
not apply to tribal courts without referring explicitly to tribal courts.83 The Full Faith and Credit for Child 
Support Orders Act mentioned above uses the term “Indian Country” instead of “Indian Tribe” to 
describe the entity which must give, and is entitled to receive, full faith and credit; an unfortunate 
choice, but one which leaves Congress’s intent clear. 
G. Tribal-State Agreements. 
As many tribes and states recognize, matters dealing with the cross-boundary enforcement of 
judgments are especially susceptible to tribal-state negotiation. Several such negotiations proceed at 
the time of this writing, and tribal-state agreements, often between judicial branches of the two 
governments, are becoming the preferred method of handling these problems. Every known precept 
of federal respect for tribal sovereignty, as well as federalist principles regarding state sovereignty, 
suggest that these negotiations should be fostered by federal action, not hindered by it. There is no 
more discouraging aspect of Nevada v. Hicks84 than its suggestion that tribal-state cooperation is 
irrelevant to, or unnecessary for, the cross-boundary enforcement of judgments.85 
83. 
See, e.g., 28 U.S.C. Sec.1738A. 
84. 
533 U.S. 353 (2001). 
85. See generally P.S. Deloria & Robert Laurence, Negotiating Tribal-State Full Faith and Credit 
Agreements: The Topology of the Negotiation and the Merits of the Question, 28 GA. L. REV. 365 (1994). 

This article was prepared in May 2002. 
This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Agreement No. 59-
8201-9-115. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of 
the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 
NCALRI is a federally funded research institution located at the University of Arkansas School of Law 
• Phone: (479)575-7646 • Email:NatAgLaw@uark.eduWeb site: www.NationalAgLawCenter.org