from what i read it only applies to criminal cases involving members of those tribes or for crimes that happened in those tribal areas. 

The landlord isn't responsible for the actions of a criminal.

.*[   ] Information received in a criminal record.[   ] Information received in a civil record.[   ] Information received from references.[   ] Information received from previous rental history or housing reference.[   ] Information received from employment verification or income verification.[   ] Inaccurate, false, or misleading statements or missing critical information on application.

Credit score, evictions, criminal offenses, multiple of rent.

You can build a list of common rejection reasons, cut/paste the one(s) that apply, and send it off.Dear Applicant(s):We regret to inform you that we are unable to rent to you at this time for the following reason(s):___ Another applicant was already approved___ Too many negatives on your credit report (see attached Adverse Action Letter)___ Criminal history___ Bad/Missing Landlord reference___ Income failed to meet requirements___ Other: _______________________________________________________________________________Save this as a canned response and send it for every denial. 90% of them will accept it and move on.

I obviously do criminal law, and must do a bit of employment and contract law to advise the other elected officials. 

Before even meeting a tenant, I let them know that we will do these things, and let them know our requirements: 3x rent in net income to be verified before lease signing, no criminal history or evictions, no bankruptcies and good landlord references. 

He also willingly left them in your possession which would make for a civil case not criminal.  

But make sure you do all the credit, criminal, eviction checks you can.

Maybe go after them for criminal fraud, maybe tell you it's civil, maybe tell you to make better business decisions.