Indigenous, Indian, and Aboriginal Law Commons^™

Henry Berry Lowry: Champion Of The Dispossessed, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The nineteenth century stands apart in the minds of indigenous peoples as a period of extreme hardship. Tribes in the first half of this era, were initially victimized by the enactment of devastating "segregation" measures (i.e. the Indian Removal policy and later the Reservation policy). Later in the century, when it was clear that segregation was an insufficient response to intercultural relations, the federal government shifted its powerful attention to a series of overtly ethnocidal "civilization," or better termed, "Americanization" measures. Broadly stated, such measures entailed the cultural assimilation, the spiritual assimilation, and the physical assimilation of indigenous lands and …

Indian Religious Freedom: Recognized/Denied, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Clinton's sacred site executive order applies to all "federal lands" and to all "recognized" Indian tribes. A "sacred site" is defined as "any specific, discrete, narrowly delineated location of Federal land that is identified by an Indian tribe, or Indian individual... as sacred by virtue of its established religious significance to, or ceremonial use by, an Indian religion; provided that the tribe or appropriately authoritative representative of an Indian religion has informed the agency of the existence of such a site."

The issue that seemed most troublesome from William Downes' legal perspective, besides the alleged Establishment clause violation, was that …

Environmental Regulation Of Oil And Gas Development On Tribal Lands: Who Has The Authority?, Richard B. Collins, Tom Shipps, Marla Williams, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Environmental Regulation of Oil and Gas Development on Tribal Lands: Who Has the Authority? (November 1)

14 pages.

Collection of 3 papers presented at the Hot Topics in Natural Resources Law program held on Nov. 1, 1995.

Includes bibliographical references.

Contents:

Environmental regulation of oil and gas development on tribal lands : who has authority? / Richard Collins -- Environmental regulation of energy resource development on Indian reservation land / Tom Shipps -- Colorado Oil and Gas [Conservation] Commission jurisdiction over environmental matters on Indian lands / Marla Williams

Jurisdiction to regulate the environmental impacts of oil and gas development on the reservation has been contested by tribes, the state, private land owners and federal agencies. …

Agriculture’S Cap Experience: Sustainability For Whom?, Paul N. Wilson

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

23 pages.

Contains endnotes and references.

"Constructing" Nation Within States: The Quest For Federal Recognition By The Catawba And Lumbee Tribes, Anne Merline Mcculloch, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Creating and in some cases re-creating viable tribal political communities within the construct of modern nation-state has proven to be a troublesome task for indigenous populations worldwide. The task for indigenous governments in the United States has been further complication by federalism's divisions of power between the states and the national government. Native American tribes often find themselves waging a two-front battle in which they must resist state encroachments over their lands and their inherent government authority; while at the same time they must lobby the federal government for protection of those same lands and powers.

History is replete with …

The "De-Selected" Senate Committee On Indian Affairs And Its Legislative Record, 1977-1992, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This essay has three major sections. In section one, I examine the Congress's constitutional responsibility for administration of the federal government's affairs with tribes. In section two, I describe the history of the various Indian committees from 1820 to 1977. Section three details the legislative record of the Senate Select Committee during its sixteen-year existence (1977-1993) as a "select" entity. Substantive policy content analysis of the committee's legislative activity, which is the next logical step leading to the construction of a theory or theories about congressional committees and their impact on the development of sound federal Indian policy, must await …

Legitimation And Statutory Interpretation: Conquest, Consent, And Community In Federal Indian Law, David C. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Cloaking Of Justice: The Supreme Court's Role In The Application Of Western Law To America's Indigenous Peoples, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The debate over which legal Indigenous Peoples should govern Native American political power and property rights, or even whether they should be protected by law at all, caused conflicts challenging the autonomy of the legal system and led to changes of the original principles of Indian rights. The outcome of that conflict raises two questions of federal Indian law. One is where its principles contributed to the survival of Native Americans in the United States; the other is whether the same legal principles are responsible for the perpetual inferiority of Natives Americans in their own land. More starkly, the question …

Reconsidering The Tribal-State Compact Process, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This essay evaluates the tribal‐state compact process, as one of several alternative, nonadversarial processes, warranting attention. It argues that, because of its binding character and relatively low cost (in contrast to litigation), and because it is based in the idea of tribes and states exhibiting mutual respect, the compact process is an advanced version of negotiation and bargaining that tribes and states should consider where appropriate.

The U.S. Supreme Court's Explication Of "Federal Plenary Power": An Analysis Of Case Law Affecting Tribal Sovereignty, 1886-1914, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The concept of tribal sovereignty frequently conflicts with that of congressional plenary power, depending on the definition and basis of plenary power. Analysis of 107 federal court cases between 1886 and 1914 suggests that when plenary power is seen in terms of preemption and exclusivity, it may help to protect tribal sovereignty from private or state incursions. However, if plenary power is defined as absolute and unlimited, tribal rights are not constitutionally protected against federal actions. Although tribes are properly regarded as extra-constitutional entities, they are often treated as inferior in relation to Congress by the courts.

Intra-Tribal Confrontations: What Is To Be Done?, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Racial, ethnic, and religious wars and conflicts have plagued humanity since the primordial past. But since the thawing of the Cold War, there has literally been an explosion of devastating conflicts that seem far more complex than those which erupted in earlier eras. These are also potentially more threatening to international peace because of their breadth, scope, and probable duration.

These and the multitude of other ethnic, racial, and religious conflicts around the world are far more brutal and ruinous than anything most indigenous people have experienced since the federal government's aberrant and fortunately short-lived policy of Termination and Relocation, …

The Challenge Of Indigenous Self-Determination, Russel Lawrence Barsh

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Earth Summit at Rio was the first global negotiation in which indigenous peoples participated directly. They did so with the aim of advocating land rights and greater self-determination in the fields of natural-resource management and development. They justified these claims by arguing that indigenous peoples are superior stewards of the land and that strengthening indigenous peoples' traditional economies would contribute to solving global ecological and economic problems. This approach succeeded all too well. Jaded diplomats and environmental ministers seized on the hopeful possibility that indigenous economics actually might work better than discredited socialism and overextended capitalism, and they invited …

Guatemalan Political History: National Indian Policy, 1532-1954, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The relationship between the Spanish and later the Guatemalan state with the Mayan Indians over the past four centuries is a fundamental component of Guatemalan political history. Since the beginnings of the nation, when the Mayans were political and military entities of power and independence with whom the Spanish had to come to terms; to the 1944-1954 "Revolutionary Era," when Indian communities were finally conceded limited social, economic, and political rights; and the period from 1979 to 1984 in which the military regimes killed "tens of thousands by some estimates as high as 80,000" Indians; the Indian population has been …

Transformations In Supreme Court Thought: The Irresistible Force (Federal Indian Law & Policy) Meets The Movable Object (American Indian Tribal Status), David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This article is a content analysis examination of 107 federal court cases involving American Indian tribal sovereignty and federal plenary power rendered between 1870 and 1921. Our focus, however, is the U.S. Supreme Court's Indian Law jurisprudence; thus ninety of the cases analyzed were Supreme Court opinions. The cases seemingly entail two separate braces of opinions. One brace included decisions which affirmed tribal sovereignty. The other brace entailed cases which negatively affected tribal sovereignty. These negative decisions generally relied on doctrines such as plenary power, the political question doctrine, or the so- called “guardian-ward” relationship. We argue that the Supreme …

Breaking Into The Intergovernmental Matrix: The Lumbee Tribe's Efforts To Secure Federal Acknowledgment, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This article discusses the concept of political recognition (both federal and state) of Indian tribes; explains the difference between administrative and legislative recognition; examines who is or should be empowered to extend federal recognition, the Congress or the executive branch; discusses the major factors that have compelled the Lumbees to seek federal recognition when they were already acknowledged by the state; and examines the major factors that have precluded them from securing complete federal recognition.

American Indian Influence On The United States Constitution And Its Framers, Robert J. Miller

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Controlling Blue Skies In Indian Country: Who Is The Air Quality Posse--Tribes Or States? The Applicability Of The Clean Air Act In Indian Country And On Oklahoma Tribal Lands, Julie M. Reding

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Native American Inmates And Prison Grooming Regulations: Today's Justified Scalps: Iron Eyes V. Henry, William Norman

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The First Americans And The "Free" Exercise Of Religion, Martin C. Loesch

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Self-Determination For Indigenous Peoples At The Dawn Of The Solar Age, Dean B. Suagee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In addition to challenging readers to help make the principle of self-determination a reality for indigenous peoples, this Article challenges indigenous leaders, especially those in the United States, to help formulate our collective vision of a sustainable future and to provide leadership in making that vision a reality. The United Nations has designated 1993 the International Year for the World's Indigenous Peoples, and this event will provide tribal leaders with opportunities to have their voices heard. Tribal leaders in the United States should take full advantage of these opportunities and step to the forefront of the movement to hasten the …

Repatriation And Cultural Preservation: Potent Objects, Potent Pasts, Peter H. Welsh

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Parts I and II discuss the preservation idea itself and the history of museums' participation in cultural preservation efforts. Parts III and IV then look specifically at the repatriation issue, providing some background on initiatives that have influenced peoples' thoughts and actions. Finally, Part V outlines and discusses some of the issues that have made resolution of the repatriation issue particularly complex.

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

Who's In Charge Of U.S. Indian Policy?: Congress And The Supreme Court At Loggerheads Over American Indian Religious Freedom, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The federal government's three branches—executive, legislative, judicial, and that unwieldy mass known simply as "the bureaucracy" have, during the last half-decade—1987-1991—produced a dizzying crop of laws, policies, proclamations, regulations, and court decisions which have served simultaneously to 1) reaffirm tribal sovereignty; 2) permit and encourage greater state interference within Indian Country; 3) enhance federal legislative authority over tribes; and 4) deny constitutional free-exercise protections both to individual Indians and to tribes.

On the legislative side, Congress has established the experimental Tribal Self-Governance Demonstration Project which is a major step towards restoring the tribal right of self-determination, and is discussing the …

Internal Tribal Fragmentation: An Examination Of A Normative Model Of Democratic Decision-Making, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

A recent commentary by Gerald A. Alfred in the spring 1991 edition of the Northeast Indian Quarterly dealt with a subject matter which is either ignored or radically exaggerated when it is broached in Indian Country: political fragmentation (or segments or cleavages) and ideological conflict within North American Indian tribes and the ramifications of such internal conflict on tribal identity.

This paper, after restating Alfred's major points about Mohawk segmentation at Kahnawake, describes and then analyzes a viable alternative democratic decision-making model which has been specifically designed to address the problems of how not only to restore, but also to …

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.

Sometimes Suspect: A Response To Professor Goldberg-Ambrose, David C. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Borders Of The Equal Protection Clause: Indians As Peoples, David C. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Indian Law And The Miner's Canary: The Signs Of Poison Gas, Rennard Strickland

Cleveland State Law Review

In this fiftieth Cleveland-Marshall lecture I want us to look at some present day examples of Felix Cohen's contention that our treatment of Indians - Indian law itself - acts as a barometer, a miner's canary for society. I want to do this by first looking in detail at the Wisconsin Indian Fishing Rights question and then very briefly at several recent Supreme Court cases in the field of Indian Law particularly the Smith and Duro cases. I believe they do not bode well for any of us. In this brief time I have tried to cover too much but …

Native Americans And The Constitution: The Original Understanding, Mark Savage

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Jurisdiction Over Nonmember Indians: The Legal Void After Duro V. Reina, Douglas B. Cubberley

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.