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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Indian Child Welfare Act In The Multiverse, M. Alexander Pearl Jan 2023

The Indian Child Welfare Act In The Multiverse, M. Alexander Pearl

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl By Matthew L.M. Fletcher and Kathryn E. Fort, in Critical Race Judgments: Rewritten U.S. Court Opinions on Race and the Law 452, 471. Edited by Bennett Capers, Devon W. Carbado, R.A. Lenhardt and Angela Onwuachi-Willig.


The Ascension Of Indigenous Cultural Property Law, Angela R. Riley Oct 2022

The Ascension Of Indigenous Cultural Property Law, Angela R. Riley

Michigan Law Review

Indigenous Peoples across the world are calling on nation-states to “decolonize” laws, structures, and institutions that negatively impact them. Though the claims are broad based, there is a growing global emphasis on issues pertaining to Indigenous Peoples’ cultural property and the harms of cultural appropriation, with calls for redress increasingly framed in the language of human rights. Over the last decade, Native people have actively fought to defend their cultural property. The Navajo Nation sued Urban Outfitters to stop the sale of “Navajo panties,” the Quileute Tribe sought to enjoin Nordstrom’s marketing of “Quileute Chokers,” and the descendants of Tasunke …


Lawyering The Indian Child Welfare Act, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Wenona T. Singel Jun 2022

Lawyering The Indian Child Welfare Act, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Wenona T. Singel

Michigan Law Review

This Article describes how the statutory structure of child welfare laws enables lawyers and courts to exploit deep-seated stereotypes about American Indian people rooted in systemic racism to undermine the enforcement of the rights of Indian families and tribes. Even when Indian custodians and tribes are able to protect their rights in court, their adversaries use those same advantages on appeal to attack the constitutional validity of the law. The primary goal of this Article is to help expose those structural issues and the ethically troublesome practices of adoption attorneys as the most important Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) case …


The Truth About Property, Jessica A. Shoemaker Apr 2022

The Truth About Property, Jessica A. Shoemaker

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Federal Ground: Governing Property and Violence in the First U.S. Territories. By Gregory Ablavsky.


Failed Protectors: The Indian Trust And Killers Of The Flower Moon, Matthew L.M. Fletcher Jan 2019

Failed Protectors: The Indian Trust And Killers Of The Flower Moon, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Michigan Law Review

Review of David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.


Complexity's Shadow: American Indian Property, Sovereignty, And The Future, Jessica A. Shoemaker Feb 2017

Complexity's Shadow: American Indian Property, Sovereignty, And The Future, Jessica A. Shoemaker

Michigan Law Review

This Article offers a new perspective on the challenges of the modern American Indian land tenure system. While some property theorists have renewed focus on isolated aspects of Indian land tenure, including the historic inequities of colonial takings of Indian lands, this Article argues that the complexity of today’s federally imposed reservation property system does much of the same colonizing work that historic Indian land policies—from allotment to removal to termination—did overtly. But now, these inequities are largely overshadowed by the daunting complexity of the whole land tenure structure. This Article introduces a new taxonomy of complexity in American Indian …


A Native Vision Of Justice, Carole Goldberg Apr 2013

A Native Vision Of Justice, Carole Goldberg

Michigan Law Review

Although largely unheralded in its time, D'Arcy McNickle's The Surrounded has become a classic of Native American literature. When the University of New Mexico Press reissued the book in 1978, a year after McNickle's death, the director of Chicago's Newberry Library, Lawrence W. Towner, predicted (correctly) that it would "reach a far wider audience." Within The Surrounded are early stirrings of a literary movement that took flight several decades after the novel's first publication in the writings of N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, James Welch, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Gerald Vizenor, among others. All of these Native American authors share …


Uncounseled Tribal Court Guilty Pleas In State And Federal Courts: Individual Rights Versus Tribal Self-Governance, Christiana M. Martenson Feb 2013

Uncounseled Tribal Court Guilty Pleas In State And Federal Courts: Individual Rights Versus Tribal Self-Governance, Christiana M. Martenson

Michigan Law Review

Indian tribes in the United States are separate sovereigns with inherent self-governing authority. As a result, the Bill of Rights does not directly bind the tribes, and criminal defendants in tribal courts do not enjoy the protection of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. In United States v. Ant, a defendant - without the legal assistance that a state or federal court would have provided - pled guilty to criminal charges in tribal court. Subsequently, the defendant faced federal charges arising out of the same events that led to the tribal prosecution. The Ninth Circuit in Ant barred the federal …


Williams V. Lee And The Debate Over Indian Equality, Bethany R. Berger Jun 2011

Williams V. Lee And The Debate Over Indian Equality, Bethany R. Berger

Michigan Law Review

Williams v. Lee (1959) created a bridge between century-old affirmations of the immunity of Indian territories from state jurisdiction and the tribal self-determination policy of the twentieth century. It has been called the first case in the modern era of federal Indian law. Although no one has written a history of the case, it is generally assumed to be the product of a timeless and unquestioning struggle of Indian peoples for sovereignty. This Article, based on interviews with the still-living participants in the case and on examination of the congressional records, Navajo council minutes, and Supreme Court transcripts, records, and …


American Indians, Crime, And The Law, Kevin K. Washburn Feb 2006

American Indians, Crime, And The Law, Kevin K. Washburn

Michigan Law Review

This Article evaluates the federal Indian country criminal justice regime, not against norms of Indian law and policy, but against those of criminal law and policy. Specifically, this Article evaluates the federal constitutional norms that lie at the heart of American criminal justice and that are designed to ensure the legitimacy of federal criminal trials. Toward that end, Part I presents a critical description of key facets of the federal Indian country criminal justice system. Part II begins the critical evaluation by evaluating a key institutional player in the federal system, the federal prosecutor. It highlights the handicaps faced by …


The Impossibility Of Citizenship, Peter J. Spiro May 2003

The Impossibility Of Citizenship, Peter J. Spiro

Michigan Law Review

These are interesting times at the constitutional margins. Questions about where the Constitution takes up and leaves off are more frequently in play; one can no longer so readily assume the Constitution to supply an authoritative metric as we confront prominent cases of nonapplication. At the same time, the increasing robustness of international norms has prompted a vigorous reconsideration of their relationship to domestic ones. Where the twentieth century was marked by deep segmentation among national legal regimes, with minimal transboundary interpenetration, recent years have seen the advent of complex, overlapping regimes: subnational, national, regional, and global, public, and private. …


Towards Tribal Sovereignty And Judicial Efficiency: Ordering The Defenses Of Tribal Sovereign Immunity And Exhaustion Of Tribal Remedies, Kirsten Matoy Carlson Nov 2002

Towards Tribal Sovereignty And Judicial Efficiency: Ordering The Defenses Of Tribal Sovereign Immunity And Exhaustion Of Tribal Remedies, Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Michigan Law Review

In 1985, the Narragansett Indian Tribe ("Tribe") created the Narragansett Indian Wetuornuck Housing Authority ("Authority"). The Authority, which acts on the Tribe's behalf in its housing development and operations, entered into a contract with the Ninigret Development Corporation for the construction of a low-income housing development. After construction began, disputes developed over how to proceed with the construction. When conciliation efforts failed, the Authority cancelled the contract. The Narragansett Tribal Council, the governing body of the Tribe, followed the forum selection clause in the contract and notified the disputants that it would hold a hearing to resolve the dispute. Ninigret …


Premature Predictions Of Multiculturalism?, Kirsten Matoy Carlson May 2002

Premature Predictions Of Multiculturalism?, Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Michigan Law Review

The late twentieth century ushered in a renewed interest in constitutional democracy as Latin American states revised earlier constitutions and post-Communist countries in Eastern Europe wrote new constitutions to reflect their democratic aspirations. Processes of constitution-making continued throughout the 1990s with new constitutions emerging in states throughout Africa, Latin America, and Europe. The rejuvenation of constitution-making also renewed scholarly interest in comparative constitutionalism. Scholars investigating constitution-making processes in Eastern Europe and Africa soon developed theories on how these processes and the contents of national constitutions changed in the late twentieth century. Donna Lee Van Cott contributes to the new literature …


Budding Translation, Milner S. Ball May 2001

Budding Translation, Milner S. Ball

Michigan Law Review

Among the American classics in my library, Black Elk Speaks is one of the least willing to rest closed on the shelf. It is the story of a vision, the duty that accompanies the vision, and the life of those whom the vision would animate. It can be justly read as tragedy, indictment, and struggle with the past. But it can also be read as affirmation and as invocation of hope for the future, possibilities that present themselves on this revisit. There are risks in making Black Elk Speaks the subject of a Classics Revisited, more risks than in Kenji …


The Unsettling Of The West: How Indians Got The Best Water Rights, David H. Getches May 2001

The Unsettling Of The West: How Indians Got The Best Water Rights, David H. Getches

Michigan Law Review

A single, century-old court decision affects the water rights of nearly everyone in the West. The Supreme Court's two-page opinion in Winters v. United States sent out shock waves that reverberate today. By formulating the doctrine of reserved water rights, the Court put Indian tribes first in line for water in an arid region. Priority is everything where water law typically dictates that the senior water rights holder is satisfied first, even if it means taking all the water and leaving none for anyone else. In the West, water rights belong to "prior appropriators." The earliest users of water secure …


Vampires Anonymous And Critical Race Practice, Robert A. Williams Jr. Feb 1997

Vampires Anonymous And Critical Race Practice, Robert A. Williams Jr.

Michigan Law Review

I can only explain what Vampires Anonymous has done for me by telling my story. I know, stories, particularly autobiographical stories, are currently being dissed by some law professors. Raised in an overly obsessive, objectively neutralized cultural style, they are plain and simple Storyhaters. Their middle to upper class parents had money, a home in the burbs, and nice kids who were going to go on from their fancy grade schools and college preparatory gigs to Harvard/Stanford/Yale - all those types of pricey places where law professors usually come from. These kids were raised to be objective, neutral, neutered, fair, …


Context And Legitimacy In Federal Indian Law, Philip P. Frickey May 1996

Context And Legitimacy In Federal Indian Law, Philip P. Frickey

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Frank Pommersheim, Braid of Feathers: American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life


A Tale Of Two Rivers, Carol M. Rose May 1993

A Tale Of Two Rivers, Carol M. Rose

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Green Cathedral: Sustainable Development of Amazonia by Juan de Onis and Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England by Theodore Steinberg


Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus The United States, Martin J. Lalonde May 1992

Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus The United States, Martin J. Lalonde

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus the United States by Edward Lazarus


The American Indian In Western Legal Thought: The Discourses Of Conquest, Melissa L. Koehn May 1991

The American Indian In Western Legal Thought: The Discourses Of Conquest, Melissa L. Koehn

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The American Indian in Western Legal Thought: The Discourses of Conquest by Robert A. Williams, Jr.


Scholarship, Pedagogy, And Federal Indian Law, Philip P. Frickey May 1989

Scholarship, Pedagogy, And Federal Indian Law, Philip P. Frickey

Michigan Law Review

A Review of American Indian Law in a Nutshell Second Edition by William C. Canby, Jr.


The Hermeneutics Of Indian Law, Robert A. Williams Jr. May 1987

The Hermeneutics Of Indian Law, Robert A. Williams Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of American Indians, Time, and the Law: Native Societies in a Modern Constitutional Democracy by Charles F. Wilkinson


American Indian Sacred Religious Sites And Government Development: A Conventional Analysis In An Unconventional Setting, Mark S. Cohen Feb 1987

American Indian Sacred Religious Sites And Government Development: A Conventional Analysis In An Unconventional Setting, Mark S. Cohen

Michigan Law Review

For centuries, American Indians have regarded specific lands as essential to their livelihood, government, culture, and religion. Congress and the courts have at times recognized the important relationship between tribes and their lands. Recognition has not always coincided with protection; during the nineteenth century and part of the twentieth century a series of governmental actions resulted in the tribes surrendering title and possession to many of their ancestral lands. Recently, however, American Indians have become increasingly active litigants in a variety of contexts. In one set of cases, Indians challenged government development projects on public lands, contending that because the …


Implication Of Civil Remedies Under The Indian Civil Rights Act, Michigan Law Review Nov 1976

Implication Of Civil Remedies Under The Indian Civil Rights Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note will discuss neither -the wisdom of the express provisions of ICRA nor the desirability of express creation by Congress of a federal civil remedy. The purpose of this Note is, instead, to analyze the bases upon which remedies have been implied by federal courts and to question whether implication is consistent with standards of statutory interpretation appropriate for Indian law. It is contended that the implication of federal civil remedies against Indian governments is improper and that if such remedies are to be created, precedent and policy mandate that they be the product of Congress. The Note will …


Tribal Self-Government And The Indian Reorganization Act Of 1934, Michigan Law Review Apr 1972

Tribal Self-Government And The Indian Reorganization Act Of 1934, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Indian Reorganization (Wheeler-Howard) Act of 1934 (IRA) was, by all accounts, one of the most significant single pieces of legislation directly affecting Indians ever enacted by the Congress of the United States. It has been "equalled in scope and significance only by the legislation of June 30, 1834, and the General Allotment Act of February 8, 1887." A major reversal of governmental policy and approach toward Indian affairs was effectuated by the IRA. This Comment will be concerned with the IRA as it affected the concept of tribal self-government, and primarily with those sections providing for adoption of tribal …


Criminal Procedure On The American Frontier: A Study Of The Statutes And Court Records Of Michigan Territory 1805-1825, William Wirt Blume Dec 1958

Criminal Procedure On The American Frontier: A Study Of The Statutes And Court Records Of Michigan Territory 1805-1825, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

The area north and east of Lake Michigan, organized in 1805 as Michigan Territory, was first organized in 1796 as Wayne County of the Northwest Territory. In 1800 the western half of the county, and in 1803 the eastern half, became parts of Indiana Territory, and so remained until July 1805. In 1818 Michigan Territory was expanded westward so as to include all of the area north of Illinois to the Mississippi River.