Law and Race Commons^™

United States V. Osage Wind, Llc, Summer Carmack

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Osage Nation, as owner of the beneficial interest in its mineral estate, issues federally-approved leases to persons and entities who wish to conduct mineral development on its lands. After an energy-development company, Osage Wind, leased privately-owned surface lands within Tribal reservation boundaries and began to excavate minerals for purposes of constructing a wind farm, the United States brought suit on the Tribe’s behalf. In the ensuing litigation, the Osage Nation insisted that Osage Wind should have obtained a mineral lease from the Tribe before beginning its work. In its decision, the Tenth Circuit applied one of the Indian law …

Lewis V. Clarke, Summer L. Carmack

Public Land & Resources Law Review

One manner in which Indian tribes exercise their inherent sovereignty is by asserting sovereign immunity. In Lewis v. Clarke, the Court decided that the sovereign immunity extended to instrumentalities of tribes did not further extend to tribal employees acting within the scope of their employment. The Court acknowledged the concerns of the lower court, namely, the possibility of setting a precedent allowing future plaintiffs to sidestep a tribe’s sovereign immunity by suing a tribal employee in his individual capacity. However, the Supreme Court ultimately felt that the immunity of tribal employees should not exceed the immunity extended to state …

Legacy In Paradise: Analyzing The Obama Administration’S Efforts Of Reconciliation With Native Hawaiians, Troy J.H. Andrade

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article analyzes President Barack Obama’s legacy for an indigenous people—nearly 125 years in the making—and how that legacy is now in considerable jeopardy with the election of Donald J. Trump. This Article is the first to specifically critique the hallmark of Obama’s reconciliatory legacy for Native Hawaiians: an administrative rule that establishes a process in which the United States would reestablish a government-to-government relationship with Native Hawaiians, the only indigenous people in America without a path toward federal recognition. In the Article, Obama’s rule—an attempt to provide Native Hawaiians with recognition and greater control over their own affairs to …

The Choctaw Nation Of Oklahoma: History, Influences, And Contemporary Setting Of The Choctaw Legal Structure, Austin C. Megli

Tribal Law Journal

The goal of this tribal profile is to provide an overview of the internal laws of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; to give a detailed emphasis on the tribe’s historic use of customary law, governance structures, enacted law, case law; and to examine how their internal law changed throughout history. By helping the reader become familiar with the history of Choctaw customary law and the contemporary structure of the Choctaw government, this profile will assist practitioners and academics in understanding the Choctaw Nation. Part I of this paper will describe the customary laws of the Choctaw Nation. Part II of …

If Trees Could Lobby They Would Be People Too: The Environmental And Cultural Benefits Of Granting Legal Personality To Nature, M. Alexis Volner

Tribal Law Journal

In the Western culture today, the environment is perceived as a source for goods and resources. However, this perspective has resulted in serious environmental degradation and a real threat to our species’ survival. To combat these problems there must be a radical shift in the Western culture’s conception of nature.

The first step in this shift is to recognize the environment as a legal person. The United States should grant legal personality to all publicly owned lands containing sites held sacred by Indigenous peoples and establish a collaborative board to manage the sites to recognize Indigenous cultural rights and encourage …