Law Commons^™

Beyond A Zero-Sum Federal Trust Responsibility: Lessons From Federal Indian Energy Policy, Monte Mills

American Indian Law Journal

The federal government’s trust relationship with federally- recognized Indian tribes is a product of the last two centuries of Federal Indian Law and federal-tribal relations. For approximately the last 50 years, the federal government has sought to promote tribal self-determination as a means to carry out its trust responsibilities to Indian tribes; but the shadows of prior federal policies, based largely on notions of tribal incompetence and federal paternalism, remain. Perhaps no other policy arena better demonstrates the history, evolution, and promise for reform of the federal trust relationship than Federal Indian energy policy, or the range of federal statutes …

A Hell Of A Complex: The Miscarriages Of The Federal Hydropower Licensing Regime, Derek Red Arrow Frank

American Indian Law Journal

What you are about to read is an illustration of systemic racism. Systemic racism is the current effects of statutes and policies developed through a singular and racially-charged narrative. The current hydropower relicensing regime fails to acknowledge the overarching Treaty-reserved rights of American Indian tribes while statutorily granting state and federal authorities the power to prescribe mandatory conditions on hydropower projects. This fact remains constant whether the hydropower project is within or outside a tribe’s reservation or aboriginal territory. Specifically, the Hells Canyon Complex, which rests along the Snake River, has had and continues to have enormous impacts on fisheries …

Indian Sovereignty, General Federal Laws, And The Canons Of Construction: An Overview And Update, Bryan H. Wildenthal

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Solution Before Pollution: Mining And International Transboundary Rivers In Southeast Alaska, Britany Kee’ Ya Aa. Lindley

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

By Any Means: How One Federal Agency Is Turning Tribal Sovereignty On Its Head, Clifton Cottrell

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Conservation Easements: A Flexible New Tool For Washington Tribes, A Case Study Of The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, David P. Papiez

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Sioux's Suits: Global Law And The Dakota Access Pipeline, Stephen Young

American Indian Law Journal

The Sioux Tribe’s lawsuits and protests against the Dakota Access Pipelines (DAPL) received an incredible amount of international attention in ways that many Indigenous peoples’ protests have not. This article argues that attention exists because the Sioux Tribe has been at the epicenter of the Indigenous peoples’ rights movement in international law. Accordingly, they have invoked or claimed international human rights—particularly free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)— to complicate, and perhaps destabilize, the DAPL’s development. However, the importance of their activism is not merely in claiming human rights.

Based upon a global map of law that involves multiple and overlapping …

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 …

Constitutional Conflict And The Development Of Canadian Aboriginal Law, Guy Charlton, Xiang Gao

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

This paper argues that aboriginal rights in Canada have been greatly affected by 19 th century governmental and social conflicts within the Canadian colonial state. These conflicts, largely over the ownership of land and regulatory authority between the federal government and the provinces necessarily impacted the First Nations on the ground while affecting how their legal claims were recognized and implemented. In particular they impacted the legal efficacy of treaty rights, the scope of rights recognised by the courts and an expansive legally protected notion of indigenous sovereignty. As a result, the rights now protected under sec. 25 and 35 …

An Avoidable Conundrum: How American Indian Legislation Unnecessarily Forces Tribal Governments To Choose Between Cultural Preservation And Women's Vindication, Catherine M. Redlingshafer

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note makes two arguments concerning the state of American Indian legislation, and then proposes an alternative. First, this Note argues that the recently enacted legislation regarding criminal justice in American Indian societies will work to encourage cultural assimilation and result in the loss of tribal traditions and autonomy. In effect, the legislation is putting tribes in an impossible position: it is unfairly coercing them to choose between (1) the preservation of their own culture and customs, and (2) the ability to prosecute those victimizing their members. Second, this Note argues that even if a tribe decides to risk its …

Taxation And Doing Business In Indian Country, Erik M. Jensen

Maine Law Review

Economic development on the lands of the American Indian nations has been spotty at best. Almost everyone knows the great success stories with Indian gaming, which has been furthered by federal legislation, but those economic benefits have not been felt uniformly. Some tribes have prospered because of this peculiarly favored form of enterprise; others have not and, in many cases, probably cannot. Substantial economic development in Indian country will not occur without significant infusions of outside capital, but investment by non-Indian and nongovernmental sources is risky, or is perceived to be so, which leads to the same practical result. This …

The Wastelander Life: Living Before And After The Release Of Daniels V Canada, Signa A. Daum Shanks

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The difficulties of entering the Canadian legal system for Indigenous peoples often includes the challenge of using the tools that have a history of harming those same peoples in the first place. Such a reality means the pursuit of recognition in Canadian law will not always be a positive experience—even when a decision supposedly represents a ‘win.’ Here, the author considers some of the effects that have developed from the release of Daniels v Canada. As with other Supreme Court of Canada releases, it inspires observations about colonialism, the modern plight of Indigenous peoples, and the rule of law.

United States V. Gila Valley Irrigation District, Ryan L. Hickey

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Attempts to alter water use agreements, especially those spanning back decades or even centuries, elicit intense scrutiny from water rights holders. In United States v. Gila Valley Irrigation Dist., the Ninth Circuit upheld application of a 1935 Decree apportioning water among various regional entities, including two Indian tribes, to bar a mineral company from transferring water rights between properties within the Gila River drainage.

Agua Caliente Band Of Cahuilla Indians V. Coachella Valley Water Dist., Rebecca Newsom

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians v. Coachella Valley Water Dist., the Ninth Circuit upheld the Tribe’s federal reserved right to the groundwater underlying its reservation. This decision enforces that the courts will not defer to state water law when there is an established federal reserved water right. Further, the Ninth Circuit expressly extended this right to groundwater.

The Body Subject To The Laws: Louise Erdrich’S Metaphorical Incarnation Of Federal Indian Law In "The Round House", Laurel Jimenez

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

Author Louise Erdrich, a member of the Chippewa tribe in North Dakota, is renowned for addressing historical and current social justice issues facing Native Americans in many of her critically acclaimed novels. The Round House is no exception. Erdrich begins her novel by describing a violent attack against the young protagonist's mother; an attack that is only made possible by the systemic racism and lack of tribal sovereignty that underpins Federal Indian Law and policy. Erdrich transmutes the evil couched within those laws into one deplorable incident. The unfolding affects from that incident expose how-- not only historically, but even …

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 …

Parchment As Power: The Effects Of Pre-Revolutionary Treaties On Native Americans From The Colonial Period To Present, Katie Wilkinson

The Purdue Historian

In colonial America, there was one resource that settlers were thirsty for and only Native Americans could provide: land. Europeans were interested in gaining possession of Native land via whatever methods would place the fertile soil into their greedy palms the fastest. As a result, they turned to a familiar practice to establish ownership – the written word, more specifically treaties. Unfortunately, the Europeans had fundamentally different thoughts concerning land than the Natives and it resulted in great forfeitures for tribes. While Native Americans were often tricked into land cessions, this was not always the case. Some of the reasons …

Bystander No More? Improving The Federal Response To Sexual Violence In Indian Country, Sarah Deer

Utah Law Review

For better or worse, the federal government has taken responsibility for providing for the protection of Native people. So long as the federal government refuses to allow tribes to govern themselves completely and independently, it is imperative that the federal government enact policies empowering Native survivors of sexual assault. The federal government must do more to protect tribal members from sexual predators, to safeguard reservations not only from career criminals but also to ensure that federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Services do not hire men with a history of violence against women or …

Swinomish Indian Tribal Community V. Bnsf Railway Co. And Its Effect On Litigation Challenging Bia’S New Rights-Of-Way Regulations, Kaelen Brodie

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Imaginary Lines, Real Consequences: The Effect Of The Militarization Of The United States-Mexico Border On Indigenous Peoples, Joseph Kowalski

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Justice Scalia And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven, Ray Martin

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Tribal Sovereignty And Tobacco Control In State-Tribe Cigarette Compacts, Arielle Sloan

BYU Law Review

Compacts are powerful legal tools that states and tribes can use to negotiate agreements. One of the most interesting examples of state-tribe compacts is the cigarette compact, which is useful in combating the illicit cigarette trade. This Note argues that tribal leaders and states can more effectively reach this goal by (1) recognizing tribal sovereignty in and (2) keeping tobacco control at the heart of compact discussions.

Case Law On American Indians: August 2015—August 2016, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Icra Habeas Corpus Relief: A New Habeas Jurisprudence For The Post-Oliphant World?, Hunter Cox

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Master's Tools: Tribal Sovereignty And Tribal Self-Governance Contracting/Compacting, Danielle Delaney

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

No Connection: The Issue Of Internet On The Reservation, Emily S. Donnellan

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Improving Native American Tribes’ Voice In International Climate Change Negotiations, Jin Hyung Lee

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Tribal Jurisdiction—A Historical Bargain, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Leah Jurss

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Untangling The Court’S Sovereignty Doctrine To Allow For Greater Respect Of Tribal Authority In Addressing Domestic Violence, Lauren Oppenheimer

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making It Work: Tribal Innovation, State Reaction, And The Future Of Tribes As Regulatory Laboratories, Katherine Florey

Washington Law Review

This Article examines a growing phenomenon: even as the Supreme Court has steadily contracted the scope of tribes’ regulatory authority, many tribes have in recent years passed innovative laws and ordinances, often extending well beyond any comparable initiatives at the state or local level. Recently, for example, the Navajo Nation passed a comprehensive taxation scheme designed to discourage the consumption of unhealthy food items and to subsidize the purchase of healthy ones—a scheme far more ambitious than the soda tax efforts that have stalled in many cities and states. Likewise, amid national controversy over marijuana legalization, the Flandreau Santee Sioux …