Doe v. Shoshone-Bannock Tribes

John and Jane Doe (plaintiffs) filed a petition to adopt a child. The court was notified that the child might be an Indian child; if so, the child would be entitled to the protections of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (the tribes) (defendants) were given notice of the proceedings and intervened. During the discovery stage of litigation, the Does’ requests for production asked the tribes to produce the child’s biological father’s application for enrollment in the tribes. The tribes refused to disclose the application but produced documentation evidencing that the father was an enrolled member. The Does filed a motion to compel production of the application because the Does intended to prove that the father was not eligible for membership in the tribes. The tribes sought a protective order, arguing that the tribes’ sovereign privacy act prevented disclosure of the application, and that the application was irrelevant because the tribes had provided conclusive evidence that the child was eligible for membership. The trial court held that the application was relevant to the issue of whether the child was the biological child of a member of the tribes, denied the protective order, and granted the Does’ motion to compel. The tribes refused to produce the application, and the court imposed sanctions. Nevertheless, the court held that the tribes had exclusive authority to determine their membership. The court found that there were insufficient facts to establish that the child was an Indian child and placed the child with the Does. The tribes appealed on many issues, one of which was the trial court’s grant of the Does’ motion to compel and the order imposing sanctions on the tribes for their refusal to produce the application.