Indigenous, Indian, and Aboriginal Law Commons^™

When Words Flow Like Water: How The Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline Environmental Impact Statement Failed To Prevent Hydrogeologic Harm In Minnesota, Carly Gutzmann

Journal of Earth and Life Science

For the aquifers of Minnesota, the environmental impact statement (EIS) was a promise of protection that never left the page. An environmental impact statement is meant to be an aid in the decision making process in order to ensure that projects consider potential environmental harms that may occur. However, they are often used instead as another regulatory box to check, rather than as active considerations when planning. As such, a project plan can be flawed from the start—if project developers only consider environmental impacts after they have already put considerable time, effort, and funding into their project as-is, they may …

Bibliography On Indigenous Rights In Canada, 1995-2025, Leslie Haddock, Kent Mcneil

All Papers

No abstract provided.

Applying The Indian Commerce Clause To Indian Commerce, Adam Crepelle

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Indian country commerce generates tens of billions of dollars annually and is a constant source of litigation. These disputes typically revolve around jurisdictional conflicts: whether states, tribes, or both possess regulatory authority over the business operating in Indian country, particularly those involving non-Indians. Despite numerous court cases, no clear legal framework has emerged, creating pervasive uncertainty regarding fundamental issues, such as state taxation of tribal transactions and the proper forum for resolving Indian country contract disputes. Interestingly, these commercial cases overlook the Indian Commerce Clause—the constitutional provision designed to address such matters.

This Article argues the Indian Commerce Clause prohibits …

Philosophically Aligned, Operationally Fractured: Duty-Of-Care In Nagpra Practice, Meghan Ensign

All Master's Theses

This research aims to explore the implementation of the Duty of Care [43 CFR Part 10.1(d)] within the 2024 revision of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) rules and regulations. While NAGPRA was designed to facilitate repatriation, ambiguities and institutional resistance have hindered compliance, necessitating regulatory updates. The 2024 revision added duty-of-care language intended to improve repatriation outcomes and reinforce Tribal sovereignty. Duty of care requires institutions to consult and collaborate with Tribes on curation policies and practices, and to obtain informed consent before allowing research on, exhibiting, or providing access to cultural items or human remains. …

Indigenous Land Seizure & Environmental Injustice: Impacts Of Settler Colonialism, Lydia Moorman

Journal of Earth and Life Science

The fields of conservation and environmentalism prioritize ecosystem health, yet both emerged from western frameworks that displaced and criminalized Indigenous land stewardship. The idealization of “pristine wilderness” narratives served to justify the removal of Indigenous peoples from their homelands and erased millennia of sustainable land stewardship that had maintained ecological balance long before western conservation existed. These narratives not only misrepresented Indigenous relationship with land but also constructed a false dichotomy between humans and nature that positioned Indigenous presence as a threat rather than a source of ecological knowledge. Simultaneously, anthropogenic expansion; such as pipelines, mining, railroads, and other extractive …

Titletown Madness: Title Insurance Through The Lens Of Tribal Jurisdiction And The Lasting Legacy Of Allotment, Nicholas Stamates

Marquette Law Review

American Property Law and Federal Indian Law have a conjoined history going back to Johnson v. MʻIntosh, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543 (1823), where the Supreme Court ruled that private citizens could not purchase aboriginal title from Indians. Decades later, the Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 resulted in non-Indian fee simple landowners purchasing what the Federal Government deemed “surplus” federal land in the un-allotted former Indian land, which is still part of the Reservation’s legal jurisdiction. An unintended consequence of this process, which resulted in a checkerboard pattern of land title in Indian Reservations across the country, has recently …

The Intertemporal Law Doctrine’S Application To The Acquisition Of Colonies In The Americas, Kent Mcneil

All Papers

The intertemporal doctrine provides that international disputes have to be resolved in accordance with the international law that existed at the time the events giving rise to the dispute took place, not at the time the matter is adjudicated.1 It is thought to be impermissible to apply current standards to events that occurred in the past when different legal principles and rules were the norm. This doctrine applies as much to acquisition of colonies as to other international issues.2 So in order to determine whether a European nation acquired sovereignty over an overseas territory, it is necessary to determine and …

Front Pages

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cutting The Gordian Knot Of Civil Liability: Cross-Deputization Agreements As A Remedy To Jurisdiction And Liability Concerns For Indian Country In Oklahoma, K. Mekko Factor

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Historical Review Of Congressional Plenary Power And Tribal Treaties And The Implications Following Herrera, Skye Hosch Taylor

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unethical Business Practices Plague Native American Cultures And Economies – Solutions To The Ineffectiveness Of The Indian Arts And Crafts Act, Benjamin Amoroso Sinder

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Survivor's Tale: How The Northern And Eastern Districts Of Oklahoma Survived The Tidal Wave Collision Of Mcgirt V. Oklahoma, Darbi E. Robertson

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Winner, Best Appellate Brief In The 2024 Native American Law Student Association Moot Court Competition, Molly Gunther, Kevin Burdet

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Pages

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Bad Man’S Hourglass: Extending The Clock On Justice, Liv G. Cummins

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

With Religious Freedom Came Religious Authority: Apache Stronghold V. United States And The Exclusion Of Native American Religion Within The Legal Understanding Of Religious Freedom, Cassidy Beck

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Discovered!”: Plaintiff’S Brief To The United States Supreme Court In Johnson & Graham’S Lessee V. M‘Intosh (1823), Mark Savage

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abrogation Without Mention: A Note On Lac Du Flambeau Band Of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians V. Coughlin, Taya Maxson

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tulsa V. O’Brien: A City Adds To The Battle Over Jurisdiction In Indian Country, Fatima D. Jaime

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ward, Trust, Or Sovereign: The Impact Of Metaphor In Supreme Court Indian Law Jurisprudence, Sadie Pate

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Winner, Best Appellate Brief In The 2025 Native American Law Student Association Moot Court Competition, Baylee Ogle, Madison Bailey

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Advocacy Matters, Richard B. Collins

Publications

The Supreme Court’s 2022 Castro-Huerta decision was wrong on the points it discussed. It was doubly wrong for a reason it ignored. But the latter error was shared because all briefs and the dissenting opinion ignored it as well. The question presented was whether a nineteenth-century federal Indian country statute provided for exclusive federal jurisdiction over interracial crimes, or for concurrent authority with states. The Court held that the statute allowed concurrent jurisdiction. But it ignored the fact that Congress and the Court, until fairly recently, avoided concurrent federal-state jurisdiction over crimes. Had the self-styled originalist Justices taken their theory …

Democratizing Restitution: Trust As An Equitable Approach To Competing Claims On Cultural Heritage Objects, Britta Redwood

Articles

As formerly colonized states began to win their independence in the mid-twentieth century, a growing chorus of voices called on museums in London, Paris, Berlin, and other European cities to return objects taken during the colonial period. Having largely ignored these requests until recently, museums throughout Europe and the United States have begun negotiating returns of these objects to their rightful owners. There is a growing recognition among Western cultural institutions that continuing to hold cultural heritage objects taken under conditions of coercion or violence is morally untenable. More recently, some scholars have argued for a human rights approach to …

Rivers Of Sovereignty: The Epa’S New Water Quality Standards Rule As A Potential Channel For Revitalizing Tribal Reserved Water Rights, Mostyn Josty

Cardozo Law Review

This Note explores the federal government’s evolving approach to its obligation to protect tribal reserved water rights through a case study of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2024 Water Quality Standards Regulatory Revisions to Protect Tribal Reserved Rights rule (the “WQS Rule”). It argues that while the WQS Rule represents a step forward in safeguarding tribal water rights, the legal challenge it faces underscores broader issues of federalism, administrative authority, and the country’s fluctuating commitment to tribal sovereignty. The Note examines the WQS Rule’s legal foundation, its potential challenges, and the implications for tribal self-determination, emphasizing the need for a …

Seven County Infrastructure Coalition V. Eagle County, Craig A. Rigdon

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 is a landmark in United States environmental law. For more than half a century, under its authority, all federal agencies contemplating proposed actions that pose significant environmental impacts have incorporated an analysis of those impacts into their decisions. These analyses provided an avenue for opponents to challenge an agency’s final decision in federal court. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court issued a “course correction” to rein in the disparate approaches that the lower courts had applied to cases challenging federal agency decisions on NEPA grounds. The unambiguous guidance the Court lays out for …

Indigenous Law Is Real Law: Ending Erasure Through Legal Reform And Recognition, Callie Mobley

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tangible Recommendations To Execute California Assembly Bill 3099: A Proactive Approach To Combatting The Missing And Murdered Indigenous People Crisis, Hannah Marquis

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

Indigenous people across the United States experience disproportionately high rates of violence and relatedly high rates of murders and disappearances. This phenomenon has been coined the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Crisis (MMIP), and as a state with one of the largest Indigenous populations, California also has one of the largest MMIP caseloads. While California has recently taken action towards combatting the MMIP crisis, these have been largely “reactive” steps aimed at bolstering law enforcement responses to already occurring MMIP cases. As it stands, there is a gap in solutions that have a “proactive” focus aimed at lessening the risk …

From Winans To Wallahee: Treaties, The Washington State Supreme Court, And The Pursuit Of A More Just Rule Of Law, Monte Mills

Washington Law Review

The relationship between the United States federal government, the states, and Native Nations has long been at the core of federal Indian law. From the earliest decades of its jurisprudence, for example, the United States Supreme Court struggled in its efforts to analyze and define the rights, authorities, and interactions of Native Nations within and in relation to the evolving structure of constitutional federalism. Treaties between the United States and Native Nations were central to those decisions and provided a necessary, constitutional check against state interests intent on eliminating sovereign Native Nations. Those constitutional and structural implications thus go well …

Frameworks For Repatriation: Moving Beyond Nagpra, Ashley Joplin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Museums and similar federally funded educational institutions have been collecting human remains since the Enlightenment era in the 1800s. Since then, these institutions have developed various collections practices that have encouraged the collection of human remains. Often unethical in nature, these collections have harmed historically marginalized communities, such as Indigenous and African American communities. While the ethics of collecting have been under scrutiny for decades, it was not until 1990 under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) that mainstream attention was drawn to the ethics of collections practices.

This thesis explores these collections practices and the repatriation …

Between Utterance And Action: The Shaping Of Social Accountability In India’S Coastal Commons, Nayana Udayashankar, Aarthi Sridhar

Journal of Law and Public Policy

Judicial orders, management plans, and zonation maps prepared in relation to environmental laws encode the jurisprudence on accountability. Laws such as India’s Coastal Regulation Zone Notification (CRZ Notification) 2019 serve as sources of discourse on use and access rights. Such laws are crucial in shaping developmental decisions and democratic practice along the coast. As an environmental law that contains detailed articulation on judicially mandated planning, mapping, and public access to regulatory information, the CRZ Notification 2019 offers a good case to understand the relation between legal discourse and citizens’ agency. Citizens of the state of Tamil Nadu representing its small-scale …