[5] In November 1990, on a strip of state highway passing through the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, a gravel truck, owned by A-1 Contractors and driven by their employee Lyle Stockert allegedly struck Gisela Frederick's car.

[6] In May 1991, Fredericks filed a personal injury lawsuit in the Tribal Court for the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation.

[6] The Court held that the Montana Rule, which governs whether Tribes have civil jurisdiction over nonmembers on fee-simple land, also applied to the state-maintained public highway because the terms of the federal right of way grants the State control over traffic.

[12] Second, although the Court recognized that "driv[ing] carelessly on a public highway running through a reservation endanger[s] all in the vicinity, and surely jeopardize[s] the safety of tribal members", this concern is not enough of a threat to the welfare of the Tribe to qualify as an exception under Montana.

[11] Instead, the Court quotes narrowing language from Montana, asserting that "a tribe's inherent power does not reach beyond what is necessary to protect tribal self-government or to control internal relations.