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Religion Law Commons

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Indigenous, Indian, and Aboriginal Law

Series

Articles 1 - 22 of 22

Full-Text Articles in Religion Law

Living The Sacred: Indigenous Peoples And Religious Freedom, Kristen A. Carpenter Jan 2021

Living The Sacred: Indigenous Peoples And Religious Freedom, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

No abstract provided.


Rethinking Protections For Indigenous Sacred Sites, Stephanie H. Barclay, Michalyn Steele Jan 2021

Rethinking Protections For Indigenous Sacred Sites, Stephanie H. Barclay, Michalyn Steele

Journal Articles

Meaningful access to sacred sites is among the most important principles to the religious exercise of Indigenous peoples, yet tribes have been repeatedly thwarted by the federal government in their efforts to vindicate this practice of their religion. The colonial, state, and federal governments of this Nation have been desecrating and destroying Native American sacred sites since before the Republic was formed. Unfortunately, the callous destruction of Indigenous sacred sites is not just a troubling relic of the past. Rather, the threat to sacred sites and cultural resources continues today in the form of spoliation from development, as well as …


Too Strict?, Richard B. Collins Jan 2014

Too Strict?, Richard B. Collins

Publications

Should the strict scrutiny standard govern judicial review of claims that government has burdened religious freedom? American law’s patchwork of rules applies that demanding standard to some claims but denies any meaningful review to others. A major difficulty is that most claims alleging denial of religious freedom depend on beliefs that cannot be reviewed by secular courts. Claims based on allegations alone shift the burden to the defending government. Strict scrutiny purports to make justification very difficult; governments are supposed to lose most cases. A second defect of the test in religious freedom cases is its failure to consider harm …


Limiting Principles And Empowering Practices In American Indian Religious Freedoms, Kristen A. Carpenter Jan 2012

Limiting Principles And Empowering Practices In American Indian Religious Freedoms, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

Employment Division v. Smith was a watershed moment in First Amendment law, with the Supreme Court holding that neutral statutes of general applicability could not burden the free exercise of religion. Congress's subsequent attempts, including the passage of Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, to revive legal protections for religious practice through the legislative and administrative process have received tremendous attention from legal scholars. Lost in this conversation, however, have been the American Indians at the center of the Smith case. Indeed, for them, the decision criminalizing the possession of their peyote sacrament was …


Preservation Ethics In The Case Of Nebraska’S Nationally Registered Historic Properties, Darren Michael Adams Jul 2010

Preservation Ethics In The Case Of Nebraska’S Nationally Registered Historic Properties, Darren Michael Adams

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation focuses on the National Register of Historic Places and considers the geographical implications of valuing particular historic sites over others. Certain historical sites will either gain or lose desirability from one era to the next, this dissertation identifies and explains three unique preservation ethical eras, and it maps the sites which were selected during those eras. These eras are the Settlement Era (1966 – 1975), the Commercial Architecture Era (1976 – 1991), and the Progressive Planning Era (1992 – 2010). The findings show that transformations in the program included an early phase when state authorities listed historical resources …


Real Property And Peoplehood, Kristen A. Carpenter Jan 2008

Real Property And Peoplehood, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

This Article proposes a theory of real property and peoplehood in which lands essential to the identity and survival of collective groups are entitled to heightened legal protection. Although many Americans are sympathetic to American Indian tribes and their quest for cultural survival, we remain unable to confront the uncomfortable truth that the very thing Indian peoples need is their land, the same land that the U.S. took from them. This is especially the case with regard to the sacred sites of Indian peoples, whose religions and cultures are inextricably linked to those sites. Federal law permits the United States …


Witchcraft And Statecraft: Liberal Democracy In Africa, Nelson Tebbe Nov 2007

Witchcraft And Statecraft: Liberal Democracy In Africa, Nelson Tebbe

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article addresses the prospects of liberal democracy in non-Western societies. It focuses on South Africa, one of the newest and most admired liberal democracies, and in particular on its efforts to recognize indigenous African traditions surrounding witchcraft and related occult practices. In 2004, Parliament passed a law that purports to regulate certain occult practitioners called traditional healers. Today, lawmakers are under pressure to go further and criminalize the practice of witchcraft itself. This Article presses two arguments. First, it contends that the 2004 statute is compatible with liberal principles of equal citizenship and the rule of law. Second, it …


The Interests Of "Peoples" In The Cooperative Management Of Sacred Sites, Kristen A. Carpenter Jan 2006

The Interests Of "Peoples" In The Cooperative Management Of Sacred Sites, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

This essay contends that there is a structural element of federal law and policy that sets up legal battles over American Indian sacred sites. The Supreme Court has held that whatever rights groups may have at sacred sites, the federal government's rights as owner and sovereign of the public lands ultimately prevails. Federal agencies can, if they choose, accommodate various interests on the public lands, but such decisions are left to fluctuating executive policy and the discretion of land managers. This approach reflects well-established doctrine in public lands law, but leaves various citizens and groups clamoring for the federal government …


Old Ground And New Directions At Sacred Sites On The Western Landscape, Kristen A. Carpenter Jan 2006

Old Ground And New Directions At Sacred Sites On The Western Landscape, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

The federal public lands contain places with both religious and secular value for American people. American Indians, in particular, hold certain natural features to be sacred, and visit them for ceremonies and worship. Simultaneously, non-Indians use the same places for economic, recreation, and many other purposes - and conflicts arise between these groups. In the past twenty years, a body of constitutional jurisprudence has developed to address questions of religious freedoms and public access rights on these lands that are owned and managed by the federal government. This article outlines the relevant First Amendment framework as well as recent statutes …


Listening To All The Voices, Old And New: The Evolution Of Land Ownership In The Modern West, Charles Wilkinson Jan 2006

Listening To All The Voices, Old And New: The Evolution Of Land Ownership In The Modern West, Charles Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.


Kennewick Man And The Meaning Of Life, Steven Goldberg Jan 2006

Kennewick Man And The Meaning Of Life, Steven Goldberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

When Native Americans and scientists clashed over ownership of the ancient remains of Kennewick Man it was, in part, a dispute between the needs of the traditional culture and those of the modern research establishment. But more was at stake. The Native Americans wanted to rebury the remains because their emotional relationship with Kennewick Man is tied to their view of their origins. But the scientists also had an emotional attachment to the scientific position. The question of who were the First Americans satisfies a yearning for scientific origin stories. The dispute here parallels the controversy over evolution. Creationists care …


Eagle Feathers And Equality: Lessons On Religious Exceptions From The Native American Experience, Kevin J. Worthen Jan 2005

Eagle Feathers And Equality: Lessons On Religious Exceptions From The Native American Experience, Kevin J. Worthen

Faculty Scholarship

The legality and propriety of exempting religiously motivated conduct from otherwise applicable legal norms is the subject of ongoing scholarly, judicial, and legislative debate. The issue is particularly thorny when it arises in a legal system deeply committed to the concept of equality. The Eagle Protection Act, which exempts Native Americans religious practitioners who are members of federally recognized tribes from its general prohibition on the taking and use of bald and golden eagle feathers, provides an interesting context in which to examine that debate. Not only does the Act exempt religiously motivated conduct from the otherwise applicable norms, it …


A Property Rights Approach To Sacred Sites Cases: Asserting A Place For Indians As Nonowners, Kristen A. Carpenter Jan 2005

A Property Rights Approach To Sacred Sites Cases: Asserting A Place For Indians As Nonowners, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

Although the Free Exercise Clause prohibits governmental interference with religion, American Indians have been unsuccessful in challenging government actions that harm tribal sacred sites located on federal public lands. The First Amendment dimensions of these cases have been well studied by scholars, but this Article contends that it is also important to analyze them through a property law lens. Indeed, the Supreme Court has treated the federal government's ownership of public lands as a basis for denying Indian religious freedoms claims. This Article contends that such holdings rely on an "ownership model" of property law wherein the rights of the …


Considering Individual Religious Freedoms Under Tribal Constitutional Law, Kristen A. Carpenter Jan 2005

Considering Individual Religious Freedoms Under Tribal Constitutional Law, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

As American Indian nations revitalize their legal systems, there is renewed interest in "tribal law," that is, the law of each of the Indian nations. Today, there is a particular focus on the subject of "individual rights" under tribal law. In tribal contexts, people are highly interested in the legal institutions and rules that govern their lives, especially as many tribal communities are experiencing a period of great political, social, and economic change. At the national level, the Supreme Court repeatedly expresses concern about whether individuals, especially non-Indians, will be treated fairly in tribal court. For scholars, individual rights under …


Sacred Sites And Religious Freedom On Government Land, Richard B. Collins Jan 2003

Sacred Sites And Religious Freedom On Government Land, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.


In The Absence Of Title: Responding To Federal Ownership In Sacred Sites Cases, Kristen A. Carpenter Jan 2003

In The Absence Of Title: Responding To Federal Ownership In Sacred Sites Cases, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

This paper examines the challenge of protecting American Indian sacred sites located on federal public lands. Many have addressed this issue in the religious freedoms context, but I believe the problem is just as much about property law. The Supreme Court's decision in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, for example, would appear to suggest that federal ownership of certain sacred sites trumps tribal free exercise clause claims regarding those sites. This holding corresponds with a classic model in which "[p]roperty is about rights over things and the people who have those rights are called owners." However, a …


Sustaining Geographies Of Hope: Cultural Resources On Public Lands, Sandra B. Zellmer Jan 2002

Sustaining Geographies Of Hope: Cultural Resources On Public Lands, Sandra B. Zellmer

Faculty Law Review Articles

No abstract provided.


The Idea Of Sovereignty: Native Peoples, Their Lands, And Their Dreams, Charles F. Wilkinson Jan 1988

The Idea Of Sovereignty: Native Peoples, Their Lands, And Their Dreams, Charles F. Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.


The Institutions, Laws And Values Of The Hopi Indians: A Stable State Society, John W. Ragsdale Jr Jan 1987

The Institutions, Laws And Values Of The Hopi Indians: A Stable State Society, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

The Hopi Indians of northeastern Arizona have existed as a stable or steady state society for a thousand years or more, and, even though they have felt the impact of white growth society in this century, they have maintained a greater cultural integrity than any other native people in the United States. This Article examines traditional Hopi values and institutions, especially their law. Hopi thinking and social organization were shaped by a profound reverence for their environment and an equally profound awareness of the constraints it imposed. With its growing sense of a need for balance with the environment, modern …


Law And Environment In Modern America And Among The Hopi Indians: Comparison Of Values, John W. Ragsdale Jr Jan 1986

Law And Environment In Modern America And Among The Hopi Indians: Comparison Of Values, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.


The Uses Of Myth: A Response To Professor Bassett, Susan H. Williams Jan 1986

The Uses Of Myth: A Response To Professor Bassett, Susan H. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.


Indian Religious Freedom And Governmental Development Of Public Lands, Sarah Barringer Gordon Jan 1985

Indian Religious Freedom And Governmental Development Of Public Lands, Sarah Barringer Gordon

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.