After receiving a demand letter from Liberty Counsel, the Northern Arapaho Business Council (NABC) has abated trying to assert jurisdiction and force a Christian church to leave its own property on the Wind River Indian Reservation. 

Amid controversy over a July 5 sermon at Foundations For Nations Church near Riverton, Wyoming that hailed the power of Christian faith over tribal rituals, the NABC sought to take action to remove the church from the reservation. The church stood firm to stay on its privately-owned property within the reservation to continue serving the people on the reservation. In an August 31 resolution, the NABC denied the church any expansion activities onto tribal land, even though the church never requested to do that, and noted that the NABC does not regulate or assert tribal authority over the church’s conduct on private land. The resolution is an indirect admission the NABC has no jurisdiction to make the church leave. 

Foundations For Nations Church, and its Pastors Jason and Sarah Lucas, began facing local controversy, protests, and death threats for a sermon contrasting Christian and Native American religious beliefs. The church is a multi-racial and ethnic church which includes members from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes. Pastor Sarah Lucas and other Native members of the church discussed the commonly held Christian doctrine that salvation and freedom from sin only come through Jesus Christ rather than Native American rituals, such as the Northern Arapaho Tribe’s Sun Dance ritual. The remarks, which indicated the ritual as a form of “idol worship,” offended local tribe members who felt the Christian message disrespected their beliefs.

In a July 10 Facebook post, NABC Chairman Keenan Groesbeck stated the church has “got to go.” In a CNN interview on July 25, Groesbeck asserted that “we let them operate” on the reservation and was under the impression that the NABC even had the authority to review and approve sermons.

On July 15, Groesbeck signed a letter to the church declaring it “a threat to the Northern Arapaho people,” and signed a July 15 NABC resolution asserting it “may regulate non-member conduct” on private land within the reservation. The letter and resolution even invoked the “bad men” provision from the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed by many Plains Indian nations and the U.S government, which obligated the U.S. to punish those who committed wrongdoing against tribal members.

However, in the July 27 demand letter, Liberty Counsel stated that the NABC lacks lawful authority to regulate, suppress, or expel the church from its private property or punish people for participating in its ministry. Under the 1981 decision in Montana v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court held that Indian tribes do not have inherent civil regulatory authority over non-Indians on non-Indian-owned private land within a reservation. In an exception to the ruling, a tribe may regulate conduct on private land when that conduct threatens the tribe’s political integrity, economic security, or health and welfare. 

“The NABC is wholly without authority to declare ‘the Foundations for Nations Church a threat to the Northern Arapaho people,’” wrote Liberty Counsel. “Matters of religious opinion or discussion do not [threaten political integrity, economic security, or health and welfare], thus making the church’s religious beliefs communicated from its property wholly outside the purview of the NABC.”

Liberty Counsel noted that even if the NABC had more authority, it must yield to the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise protections, as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Indian Civil Rights Act, all of which prohibit discrimination against the church based on its religious beliefs.

Regarding the “bad men” provision, “under no circumstance can a statement of religious belief” made during a Christian worship service or Sun Dance ritual alike be “prosecutable as criminal wrongdoing,” wrote Liberty Counsel.

In the August 31 resolution, the NABC softened its stance stating that it “does not designate [Foundations For Nations Church] or any person as ‘bad men,’” nor is prohibiting the church from lawful activity on its own property.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Liberty Counsel welcomes this outcome and appreciates the recognition that the Northern Arapaho Business Council cannot drive a church from its own private property because of a disagreement between religious beliefs. Religious protections codified in the Constitution, federal law, and U.S. Supreme Court precedent protect speech and religious exercise. Foundations For Nations Church remains driven to proclaiming biblical truth and serving the people of Wind River Indian Reservation.”