CHEYENNE - A federal magistrate has denied a request from a tribal member serving time on a murder conviction to intervene in the Northern Arapaho Tribe's federal lawsuit against the state of Wyoming and Fremont County over a long-standing boundary dispute.

Federal Magistrate William C. Beaman last week denied a request from Andrew John Yellowbear Jr. to intervene in the tribe's lawsuit. The tribe sued the state and county in September, arguing that they had been improperly taxing tribal members living in Riverton and other areas nearby.

Yellowbear was convicted of murder in state court 2006 in the death of his infant daughter, 22-month-old Marcela Hope Yellowbear. She died at a hospital in 2004 after suffering a skull fracture, broken arm, burns to her fingers and other injuries.

Yellowbear has maintained that the state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him. He claims that Riverton, where the girl suffered her injuries, lies in "Indian Country."

The Wyoming Supreme Court upheld Yellowbear's conviction in January. The court ruled Riverton is no longer "Indian Country" for legal purposes.

However, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver this spring ruled that Yellowbear was entitled to make an argument before U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer of Cheyenne that the state shouldn't have prosecuted him. Brimmer held a hearing on the case last week but has not yet entered a decision.

Tim Kingston, a Cheyenne lawyer representing Yellowbear, said in October that his client wanted to get involved in the tribe's boundary lawsuit to make sure his legal interests are protected.

"The purpose of Mr. Yellowbear moving to intervene in the tribe's case is that the legal issue is essentially the same: whether the particular property that the tribe's case has to deal with, or Mr. Yellowbear has to deal with, is on tribal land, or 'Indian Country,"' Kingston said.

Yellowbear has argued that the federal court system could better protect him from bias and make sure that he received a fair trial.

Kingston declined to comment Wednesday on Beaman's order denying Yellowbear's attempt to enter the tribe's boundary case. Both Kingston and Massachusetts lawyer Barry Bachrach filed papers with Brimmer last week seeking permission to stop representing Yellowbear in the criminal case, stating that irreconcilable conflicts had developed between them and their client.

The state and Fremont County as well as the Northern Arapaho Tribe had opposed Yellowbear's attempts to enter into the boundary lawsuit.

The tribe's lawsuit focuses on a 1905 act of Congress that opened up reservation land around Riverton to settlement by non-tribal members. While the state contends that the act removed the land's legal status as part of the Wind River Indian Reservation, the tribe holds that it did not.

Mark Howell, spokesman for the Northern Arapaho Tribe, said Wednesday that the Northern Arapaho Tribe is pleased with Beaman's order.

Howell said the tribe had been concerned that the different legal standards that apply to civil and criminal cases threatened to slow down resolution of the tribe's claims if Yellowbear were allowed to enter the tribe's case. But he said that wasn't the tribe's only reason for opposing Yellowbear's request.

"The tribe was very uncomfortable in being connected in any way to Mr. Yellowbear's criminal case," Howell said. "In this case, both the perpetrator as well as the victim were both tribal members. The real concern was not with Mr. Yellowbear, but with the young child victim. And they certainly did not and do not want to be associated with Mr. Yellowbear."

Beaman granted a request from the city of Riverton to intervene in the case. Howell said the tribe has no objection to the city getting involved in the case. He said the tribe and the city are working to negotiate some intergovernmental issues regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit.