## Facts

- The Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, through its industrial development commission, agreed to purchase stock from Manufacturing Technologies, Inc.
- The Tribe’s business committee chairman signed a promissory note for \$285,000 plus interest in the Tribe’s name.
- The note recited it was signed at Carnegie, Oklahoma, where the Tribe had facilities on trust land, but the seller asserted it was executed and deliverable in Oklahoma City and required payments there.
- The note stated that nothing in it “subjects or limits the sovereign rights of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma.”
- After the Tribe defaulted, Manufacturing Technologies sued in Oklahoma state court to collect on the note.
- The Tribe moved to dismiss, asserting tribal sovereign immunity; the trial court denied the motion and entered judgment for Manufacturing Technologies.
- The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals affirmed on the theory that tribes may be sued in state court for off-reservation commercial contract breaches; the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied review.

## Issues

1. Whether an Indian tribe has sovereign immunity from a state-court contract suit arising from alleged off-reservation, commercial activity.
2. Whether states may limit tribal sovereign immunity for off-reservation commercial transactions absent congressional authorization or tribal waiver.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed.
- The Court held that tribal sovereign immunity bars contract suits against a tribe unless Congress authorizes the suit or the tribe waives immunity.
- The immunity applies to both governmental and commercial activities and to contracts made or performed both on and off the reservation.
- The Court rejected the state court’s attempt to narrow immunity based on the off-reservation, commercial character of the transaction.
- The Court found no congressional abrogation and no tribal waiver; the note’s language was inconsistent with waiver.

## Legal Principles

- Tribal sovereign immunity is a rule of federal law and cannot be reduced by state law or state-court policy judgments.
- A tribe may be sued only if (a) Congress clearly authorizes the suit or (b) the tribe clearly waives immunity.
- The scope of tribal immunity extends to ordinary commercial contracts and is not limited to on-reservation or governmental conduct.
- Any change to the breadth of tribal sovereign immunity is for Congress, not the courts.

## Conclusion

The Court held that the Kiowa Tribe was immune from a state-court suit to enforce a promissory note, even if the transaction was commercial and occurred off reservation, because neither Congress nor the Tribe consented to suit.


Kiowa Tribe of Okla. v. Mfg. Techs., Inc., 523 U.S. 751 (1998)