Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation asks federal court to resolve jurisdiction dispute with sheriff

Snak Atak opened in March in the former Indian Country Mini Mart on land within Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation reservation. (Cami Koons for Kansas Reflector)

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in a federal lawsuit accuses the Jackson County sheriff of threatening to arrest tribal police over a tax dispute with a gas station on the reservation.

The lawsuit against Sheriff Tim Morse signals an escalation in longstanding tensions over law enforcement jurisdiction on the nation’s land.

Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation chairman, said the sheriff does not collaborate with the nation.

“We have really had a checkered past with Jackson County, specifically the sheriff,” Rupnick said, noting Morse and his wife are former employees of Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

In late May, the lawsuit says, Jackson County sheriff’s officers interfered with tribal police who were trying to serve cease and desist orders at Snak Atak. The nation alleges the gas station failed to charge and report tribe-specific taxes.

Last week, the nation was granted an order of exclusion, allowing tribal police to escort management from the business and to close its doors.

Snak Atak opened in March in the space formerly known as Indian Country Mini Mart. It sits just off northbound U.S. Highway 75, within the bounds of Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation reservation.

Prairie Band Potawatomi Tax Commission officials arrived on site after several months of the business selling “contraband cigarettes” — which means they don’t have the tribal tax sticker — and failing to submit necessary reports, the lawsuit says. The court filing alleges tax commission officials were denied access to investigate the store.

Tax commission officials left to seek a cease and desist order. When they returned to the business on the same day, May 28, with tribal police to serve the order and to chain the doors of the business, Jackson County sheriff’s officers arrived and told tribal officials they could be subject to arrest if they did not leave.

“Our civil regulatory authority is absolute within the boundaries of the reservation,” Rupnick said. “Plus (Snak Atak) agreed to abiding by our laws.”

According to the court filing, Snak Atak applied for, and the tax commission approved, liquor, tobacco, business and motor fuel licenses. The licenses state the applicant “be bound by and comply with all laws of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and do hereby consensually submit to the jurisdiction of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.”

Raja Rain, manager at Snak Atak, said he did not know about the implications of his store with Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and the tribal police until they showed up at the business in May. Rain said, in an interview before the shuttering of his business, he was not part of the permitting and paperwork phase of the business, but has managed the store since it opened.

“We don’t mind paying the taxes, but they need to make it clear: are we paying state or tribal?” Rain said. “They need to figure out to who we need to pay the taxes.”

Rain said he pays taxes to the state and has “everything legal,” since he and the owners are not members of Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

The nation maintains that tribal membership is irrelevant to following its laws if a business is on the reservation.

Rain expressed concerns about maintaining the business if it has to pay additional taxes.

“We came to have a business,” Rain said. “How (are) we going to survive?”

Rupnick said the business, which is registered as Wamego Store LLC, did not appeal the cease and desist order in Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation District Court. Prairie Band Potawatomi Tax Commission officials returned in June on two additional occasions to investigate compliance, according to the order of exclusion.

The order of exclusion, granted by the nation’s district court to the tax commission, restricts the business from operating on the reservation and permits tribal police to escort employees from the reservation and to secure the business.

The tax commission and tribal police enforced the order without interference from sheriff’s officers on Aug. 8, according to a press release from the nation.

“They’ve pretty much made their own bed,” Rupnick said in an Aug. 7 interview with Kansas Reflector. “So I think that it’s time for us to end our relationship with them.”

Snak Atak’s attorney did not return requests for comment.

The lawsuit against Morse points to the jurisdictional disagreement at Snak Atak, but cites several additional instances, some related to parking violations, where Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation argues county law enforcement overstepped its bounds by dealing with civil, rather than criminal, actions.

The complaint says Morse and his office have “repeatedly and intentionally overstepped their lawful authority and interfered with the nation’s authority over activities on its reservation.”

Morse did not respond to requests for comment.

The nation, according to its complaint, seeks a declaration from the sheriff that the department lacked the authority to interfere at Snak Atak and lacks civil jurisdiction within the reservation, as well as a permanent injunction prohibiting sheriff’s officers from interfering in the nation’s civil-regulatory jurisdiction on the reservation.

“You would think that you would want to work together,” Rupnick said. “If you don’t have to dispatch an officer down to the reservation, why not try and work together with that?”

Public Law 280 , established in 1953, gave Kansas civil and criminal jurisdiction on tribal lands, which, according to a University of Nebraska Lincoln publication , led “to virtually continuous disputes” and “jurisdictional uncertainty between tribal, city, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.”

Native advocacy groups have called for the end of the law, claiming it cedes power from the tribal police to the county. Rupnick said the same.

Rupnick said he has tried to develop a memorandum of understanding with the sheriff to establish which entity has jurisdiction where, but he said Morse was unwilling. He said he hopes the lawsuit can help forge a greater understanding and collaboration between the law enforcement agencies.

“We shouldn’t be adversaries,” Rupnick said, “Of course, I don’t want crime, but I also don’t want my sovereignty infringed upon either.”

Correction: The lawsuit accuses the Jackson County sheriff of threatening to arrest tribal police. An earlier version of this story misidentified who was threatened.