Indigenous, Indian, and Aboriginal Law Commons^™

How Alaska Native Corporations Can Better Support Alaska Native Villages, E. Barrett Ristroph Esq.

American Indian Law Journal

Since their formation in 1971 through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) have operated largely under a mission to build economic revenue for distribution to their shareholders, who are generally Alaska Native tribal members. While larger ANCs have formed foundations that provide scholarships to shareholders, ANCs generally do not have missions or entities associated with developing community infrastructure or promoting social programs in Alaska Native Villages, which are the communities of federally recognized Alaskan tribes. Until recently, the infrastructural and institutional needs of Alaska Native Villages have largely been met through State of Alaska funding, with …

Healthcare Self-Governance, Danika Watson

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

This Land Is Not Our Land, This Land Is Their Land: Returning National Park Lands To Their Rightful Protectors, Sierra Kennedy

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Proposed Allocation Of Funding From The American Rescue Plan Act, Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act, And Build Back Better Act, Anne Castle, Heather Tanana, Jaime Garcia, Matthew Mckinney, Chelsea Colwyn, Ana Olaya, Daryl Vigil, Garrit Vogesser

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The initiative on Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribal Communities strongly supports IHS’s efforts to provide clean water access and sanitation services to Tribal communities and applauds the new funding available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We appreciate the thoughtful approach that IHS is taking to the allocation of this funding. We want to emphasize the need to deploy this unprecedented capital infusion in a manner tailored to the specific needs of individual Tribes, in consultation with them, and in a manner that sets both the Tribes and the projects up for long term success.

Colonial Fault Lines: First Nations Autonomy And Indigenous Lands In The Time Of Covid-19, Alexandra Flynn, Signa Daum Shanks

All Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the political and economic fault lines in the exercise of power across multiple jurisdictions. This article focuses on the power of First Nations to make enforceable decisions in respect to reserve lands, specifically the powers First Nations have to enforce public health restrictions during the pandemic. We argue that Canadian law both enables First Nations to assert decisionmaking in respect to their lands, and undermines Indigenous authority in relation to enforcement and intergovernmental status. This paper is part of the SPE Theme on the Political Economy of COVID-19.

Muskrat Textualism, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Northwestern University Law Review

The Supreme Court decision McGirt v. Oklahoma, confirming the boundaries of the Creek Reservation in Oklahoma, was a truly rare case in which the Court turned back arguments by federal and state governments in favor of American Indian and tribal interests. For more than a century, Oklahomans had assumed that the reservation had been terminated and acted accordingly. But only Congress can terminate an Indian reservation, and it simply had never done so in the case of the Creek Reservation. Both the majority and dissenting opinions attempted to claim the mantle of textualism, but their respective analyses led to …

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …

American Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Organization Of American States. General Assembly.

AALL Legal Website of the Month

The American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the Organization of American States (OAS) General Secretariat held on June 15, 2016. The indigenous peoples of the Americas are culturally distinct groups who maintain an ancestral bond to the lands where they live or wish to live. Also, the Indigenous peoples of the Americans have the right to live in harmony with nature and to a healthy, safe, and sustainable environment, essential conditions for the full enjoyment of the right to life, to their spirituality, world view and to collective well-being.

Indigenous Legal Orders In Canada - A Literature Review (Updated To August 2022), Michael Coyle

Law Publications

This is a literature review of publications concerning Indigenous legal orders in Canada, funded by a SSHRC knowledge synthesis grant. This is an update to my 2017 report of the same name.

The suppression of Indigenous legal orders was an integral part of the colonial project to assimilate Indigenous peoples, a project exemplified by Canada’s now notorious experiment with Indian Residential Schools. Long marginalized by the Canadian state, the importance of Aboriginal peoples’ own legal systems has recently been recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada, by academics (including prominent Indigenous scholars) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, who all …

To Trust Or Not To Trust: Native American Healthcare Improvement In The Supreme Court’S Hands, Katherine Graham

Georgia Law Review

The United States federal government’s relationship with Native American tribes has long been tenuous. Despite years of unjust and inhumane treatment of Native Americans by the government, Congress has attempted to rectify or limit the government’s harm to Native American people but has fallen short of upholding all agreements intended to improve United States-tribal relations. In particular, the government has not always followed treaties between the government and tribes, and the United States Supreme Court has failed to protect Native American rights in many cases. Central to this issue is the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, in which the United …

Brazil’S Violence Against Indigenous Peoples, Andre Taylor

Human Rights Brief

Centuries of violence and displacement define the relationship between indigenous peoples and the successive governments of Brazil. As Brazil embarks on a massive expansion of its agribusiness and mining operations, the systemic denial of land rights and illegal economic activity on protected lands has threatened traditional ways of life practiced by indigenous peoples. The most aggressive policy taken by the Brazilian government has involved legitimizing land claims on unregistered ancestral indigenous lands for development, putting 37,800 square miles of territory at risk for exploitation by loggers, ranchers, and farmers.

Rennard Strickland: Legal Historian And Leader, Charles Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Comments Submitted In Response To Request For Information To Inform Interagency Working Group On Mining Regulations, Laws, And Permitting, Robert B. Keiter, Jamie Pleune, Heather Tanana, Brigham Daniels, Tim Duane, Elisabeth Parker

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

On March 31, 2022, the Department of Interior announced the formation of an interagency working group to develop recommendations for improving Federal hardrock mining regulations, laws, and permitting processes, and invited public comment to help inform the efforts of the working group. The Request for Information sought, among other things, recommendations on “opportunities to reduce time, cost, and risk of permitting without compromising strong environmental and consultation benchmarks.” Members of the Wallace Stegner Center of Land Resources and the Environment, at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah submitted comments based on their shared expertise in mining law, …

Constitutional Issues In Family Law: An Annotated Bibliography (Part 1 Of 2), Allen K. Rostron

Faculty Works

This bibliography covers some of the significant constitutional issues arising in the realm of family law today, as well as other legal and policy issues spinning off of the constitutional controversies. It focuses on issues discussed in the articles in this issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Tribal Land, Tribal Territory, Katherine Florey

Georgia Law Review

In the summer of 2020, two significant events brought into focus the relationship between Indigenous nations in the United States and the land they govern. First, in a controversy that made national headlines, several tribes in South Dakota clashed with Gov. Kristi Noem about their power to impose Covid-19-related checkpoints on state highways passing through Indian country. Borders have potent symbolism; by detaining drivers even briefly at theirs, the South Dakota tribes made plain that travelers were entering a separate jurisdiction in which different rules and policies applied. At the same time the checkpoint controversy was brewing, the Supreme Court …

Mohegan Women, The Mohegan Church, And The Lasting Of The Mohegan Nation, Bethany Berger, Chloe Scherpa

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Reclamation: Managing Water In The West; An Overview Of The Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program, United States Bureau Of Reclamation, Roger S. Otstot

US Government Documents Related to Indigenous Nations

This undated summary released by the Bureau of Reclamation offers a concise overview of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin flood control plan which was enacted when Congressed passed the Flood Control Act of 1944. This plan led to the construction of several dams in the Missouri River basin, including the Garrison Dam. The completion of the Garrison Dam displaced the majority of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara people living on the Fort Berthold Reservation. This document contains tables, graphs, maps, and a photograph.

Uncomfortable Truths About Sovereignty And Wealth, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trailblazing And Living A Purposeful Life In The Law: A Dakota Woman's Reflections As A Law Professor, Angelique Eaglewoman

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay is a reflection from my perspective as a Dakota woman law professor on my fifth law school faculty. In the illuminating work of Meera Deo, light is shone on the experience of women of color legal academics. Unequal Profession: Race and Gender in Legal Academia is a book that should be required reading at every law school. As women of color are faculty members in every law school in the United States, the research, analysis, and recommendations tailored to the experience of women of color law faculty should be a priority topic in those same law schools. As …

Six Examples Applying The Meta-Principle Linguistic Method: Lessons For Indigenous Law Implementation, Naiomi Metallic

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Building on "Five Linguistic Methods for Revitalizing Indigenous Laws," this article explains and analyses six examples of implementation of the 'meta-principle' or 'word-bundle' linguistic method for Indigenous law revitalization. The method refers to using a word in an Indigenous language that conveys an overarching, normative principle of the Indigenous group, and is the most utilized form of the five linguistic methods to date. The examples span its use by judges, public governments as well as Indigenous governments, and these actors employ different methods for identifying and interpreting the meta-principles. The variations between them reveal four categories of approaches to identifying, …