Indigenous, Indian, and Aboriginal Law Commons^™

Southern Ute: Trial Court To Supreme Court, Elizabeth A. Mcclanahan, Jill M. Harrison

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Cash Back: A Yellowhead Institute Red Paper, Shiri Pasternak, Naiomi Metallic, Yumi Numata, Anita Sekharan, Jasmyn Galley, Samuel Wong

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Picking up from Land Back, the first Red Paper by Yellowhead about the project of land reclamation, Cash Back looks at how the dispossession of Indigenous lands created a dependency on the state due to the loss of economic livelihood. Cash Back is about restitution from the perspective of stolen wealth.

From Canada’s perspective, the value of Indigenous lands rests on what can be extracted and commodified. The economy has been built on the transformation of Indigenous lands and waterways into corporate profit and national power. In place of their riches in territory, Canada set up for First Nations a …

Who Are The Métis? The Role Of Free, Prior And Informed Consent In Identifying A Métis Rights-Holder, Karen Drake

Articles & Book Chapters

The rise of the duty to consult and accommodate has generated an increase in Indigenous-industry agreements. For proponents tasked with carrying out the procedural aspects of the duty, Indigenous-industry agreements offer relative certainty compared to the ambiguity involved in determining whether the duty has been legally satisfied. For Indigenous peoples, although the drawbacks of Indigenous-industry agreements are well documented, these agreements can potentially instantiate the principle of free, prior and informed consent. Compared to First Nation and Inuit peoples, though, Métis rights-holders are entering into comparatively fewer Indigenous-industry agreements.One cause of this phenomenon is the supposed uncertainty surrounding the question …

Marking The Path Post-Cotton: The Supreme Court Reaffirms Dual Taxation In Montana V. Crow Tribe Of Indians, Heather G. Pennington

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo Tribal Court Handbook (2021), Tribal Law Journal Staff

Tribal Law Journal

This handbook helps take some of the mystery out of practicing in tribal courts. Without the necessary information to learn new rules and protocols many attorneys are understandably reluctant to practice in a new jurisdiction. As a result, tribal courts are underused or misused. This handbook is intended to help attorneys and advocates become more aware of the various individual tribal court systems and to learn their rules and protocol.

Equity Over Equality: Equal Protection And The Indian Child Welfare Act, Lucy Dempsey

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

In 2018, a Texas District Court shocked the nation by declaring the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) unconstitutional pursuant to the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The decision was overturned by the Fifth Circuit but may well be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The ICWA provides a framework for the removal and placement of Indian children into foster and adoptive homes in such a way that attempts to reflect the unique values of Indian culture and supports the autonomy of the tribe. In doing so, the law treats Indian children differently than it would White children. But …

Preview—Yellen V. Confederated Tribes Of The Chehalis Reservation: Whether Alaska Native Corporations Are Eligible For Cares Act Relief Payments, Allison Barnwell

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments in this matter on Monday, April 19, 2021, telephonically, at 10 a.m. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar will likely argue for the United States Department of Treasury. Paul D. Clement will likely appear for the Petitioner Alaska Native Village Corporation Association. Riyaz A. Kanji will likely argue for the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis, and Jeffrey S. Rasmussen will likely appear for the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.

Preview— Montana And Wyoming V. Washington: The Commerce Clause And The Clean Water Act Collide Over Coal Exports, Rachel L. Wagner

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States has not scheduled oral arguments for this matter. In October 2020, the Court asked for the federal government’s views on the case but has not yet decided whether it will exercise its jurisdiction over the challenge.

Civil Procedure Update 2021 (Handout And Slide Deck), Verónica C. Gonzales, Julio C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

This presentation aims to 1) review recent amendments to the state and federal rules of civil procedure; 2) help you understand the impact of recent federal and state published opinions interpreting and applying the rules of civil procedure; and 3) assess your understanding of the updates.

Indigenous Dignity And The Right To Be Forgotten, Trevor Reed

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Treaty Stories: Reclaiming The Unbroken History Of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Sovereignty, Margaret Huettl

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Ojibwe leaders negotiated treaties with the United States amid nineteenth-century encroachments on their territory. These treaties, which were more than tools of dispossession, enfolded and extended aadizookanag (sacred stories) in agreements that embodied Ojibwe relationships with land, language, sacred history, ceremony, and kin. Federal and state policy makers, fueled by the desire for Indian land and resources, attempted to unravel these relationships in the decades that followed. By continuing to live out through labor and stories their relationships with the woods, waters, and manoomin (wild rice) beds of Anishinaabewaki, the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibweg kept their treaties and their sovereignty …

When Imitation Is Not Flattery: Addressing Cultural Exploitation In Guatemala Through A Sui Generis Model, Paul Figueroa

Faculty Scholarship

Indigenous Guatemalan weavers are fighting for intellectual property laws that better protect their designs and other cultural expressions. The exploitation and appropriation by local and international companies has negatively affected the weavers’ livelihoods and resulted in culturally inappropriate uses of spiritual and traditional symbols. Adhering to Western ideals of individual creativity and utility, intellectual property laws in most of the world (including Guatemala) are not suited to protect indigenous creations. To address this legal gap, some countries have adopted sui generis legal regimes that align with communal notions of creation, ownership and stewardship found in indigenous knowledge systems. Based on …

White Tape And Indian Wards: Removing The Federal Bureaucracy To Empower Tribal Economies And Self-Government, Adam Crepelle

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

American Indians have the highest poverty rate in the United States, and dire poverty ensnares many reservations. With no private sector and abysmal infrastructure, reservations are frequently likened to third-world countries. Present-day Indian poverty is a direct consequence of present-day federal Indian law and policy. Two-hundred-year-old laws premised on Indian incompetency remain a part of the U.S. legal system; accordingly, Indian country is bound by heaps of federal regulations that apply nowhere else in the United States. The federal regulatory structure impedes tribal economic development and prevents tribes from controlling their own resources.

This Article asserts the federal regulatory “white …

Beyond The Pandemic: Historical Infrastructure, Funding, And Data Access Challenges In Indian Country, Heather Tanana, Aila Hoss

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted Tribal communities, in part, due to the historical inequities that Tribes have faced for centuries. As sovereign nations, Tribes have the authority to self-govern their people and land. However, the federal government has a special trust responsibility and treaty obligations to Tribes that it often has failed to fulfill. As a result, many Tribal communities live in inferior living conditions as compared to their non-Native counterparts. This Chapter builds on the prior report to explore the historical inequities Tribes experience and how they have been compounded by the pandemic. More specifically, it identifies persistent …

The Factual Basis For Indigenous Land Rights, Kent Mcneil

Articles & Book Chapters

Groundbreaking judgments in Australia and Canada in the 1990s reveal that Indigenous land rights depend on evidence of Indigenous occupation and law when the British Crown asserted sovereignty. Looking back at earlier Indigenous rights decisions, it is apparent that they were not based on facts, but on prejudicial and erroneous assumptions about Indigenous peoples. In St. Catherine’s Milling (1888), Lord Watson said the rights of the Ojibwe Indians were based solely on the goodwill of the Crown, a conclusion that evidently stemmed from the trial judge’s racist assessment of Ojibwe society. In Cooper v Stuart (1889), Lord Watson wrongly described …

The Aboriginal Land And Water Rights Of The Jemez Pueblo, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

Since time immemorial, the indigenous people of what became the Southwest United States have maintained sustainable, vibrant communities in the harshest of environments; one with generally arid climate, inconsistent precipitation, heat, wind, thin soil and erosion. These communities, on the razor’s edge, survived for eons because resilience and community, within and with the land, were at the center of their life, economy and order. Balance was not always perfect, but it was the target. The possibility of economic surplus and growth is perhaps a latent human instinct, but it until the fluorescence of Chaco Canyon in the eleventh century it …

Textualism And The Indian Canons Of Statutory Construction, Alexander Tallchief Skibine

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

When interpreting statutes enacted for the benefit or regulation of Indians or construing treaties signed with Indian Nations, courts are supposed to apply any of five specific canons of construction relating to the field of Indian Affairs. Through an examination of the Supreme Court’s cases involving statutory or treaty interpretation relating to Indian nations since 1987, this Article demonstrates that the Court has generally been faithful in applying canons relating to treaty interpretation or abrogation. The Court has also respected the canon requiring unequivocal expression of congressional intent before finding an abrogation of tribal sovereign immunity. However, there are two …

Protecting The Children Of Indian Country: A Call To Expand Tribal Court Jurisdiction And Devote More Funding To Indian Child Safety, Adam Crepelle

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the legal framework governing Indian country, particularly the Supreme Court's decision in *Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe*, has failed to protect Indian women and children from violence, perpetuating a crisis of sexual assault, child abuse, and murder. It contends that affirming tribal sovereignty and expanding tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians are essential to addressing these issues and ensuring the safety and well-being of Indian children.

What Is Cultural Misappropriation And Why Does It Matter? 03-31-2021, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Amicus Brief Of The National Congress Of American Indians, A Tribal Elder, And Other Federal Indian Law Scholars And Organizations, Michalyn Steele, Stephanie Hall Barclay

Court Briefs

No. 21-15295
Apache Stronghold v. United States of America

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, Honorable Steven P. Logan (2:21-cv-00050-PHX-SPL)

From the Summary of the Argument

Meaningful access to sacred sites is a necessary part of the religious exercise of many Indigenous peoples. But tribes have been repeatedly denied such access by the federal government, and thus repeatedly thwarted in their efforts to engage in these important religious practices. In many instances, that access has been irrevocably denied and those efforts permanently thwarted by the total destruction of Indigenous sacred sites. Indeed, the colonial, …