Indigenous, Indian, and Aboriginal Law Commons^™

Law Library Blog (March 2021): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Calf Boss Ribs V. Blackfeet Tribal Court, 20-Ap-03 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Feb. 16, 2021), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Court Decisions

In the Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals, the Court dismissed a motion for reconsideration of a lower court decision when new evidence was discovered by the appellant. The Court noted that the evidence must be presented to the lower court. The Appellate Court of the Blackfeet Nation will not overturn the Tribal Court’s judgement based upon factual findings unless a review of the entire record shows that such judgement was not supported by substantial evidence. Motion for reconsideration is dismissed. The case was remanded to the lower court for a new hearing and the Court advised the lower court to …

The Wall That Trumps Environmental Law: A Review Of The Environmental And Legal Implications Of The U.S.-Mexico Border Wall, Olivia Merritt

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Cle Working Paper No.1/2021--Grassroots And Litigation-Based Approaches To Advancing Indigenous Rights: Lessons From Extractive Industry Resistance In Mesoamerica, Justin Wiebe

Centre for Law and the Environment

Indigenous peoples are frequently recognized as excellent stewards of their traditional territories. These territories, which often exhibit extraordinary levels of biodiversity, face disproportionate and growing threats from extractive industry. In opposing these threats, Indigenous peoples increasingly rely on internationally-defined Indigenous rights, including those set out in UNDRIP and ILO Convention 169. It is uncertain, however, how these rights are most effectively advanced. In this paper, I tease out strategies — both grassroots-based and litigation-based — that show promise in this regard. Drawing on Waorani resistance to an oil auction in Ecuador and Indigenous resistance to a large-scale mining project in …

Indigenizing Grand Canyon, Jason Anthony Robison

Utah Law Review

The magical place commonly called the “Grand Canyon” is Native space. Eleven tribes hold traditional connections to the canyon according to the National Park Service. This Article is about relationships between these tribes and the agency—past, present, and future. Grand Canyon National Park’s 2019 centennial afforded a valuable opportunity to reflect on these relationships and to envision what they might become. A reconception of the relationships has begun in recent decades that evidences a shift across the National Park System as a whole. This reconception should continue. Drawing on the tribal vision for Bears Ears National Monument, this Article advocates …

Living In Two Worlds, Elizabeth Kronk Warner

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Anti-racism calls us to work toward ending racial hatred, bias, systemic racism, and the oppression of marginalized groups. For many of us working in higher education leadership, this means that we are actively creating space for marginalized voices both in classrooms and through research. But who should be included is not always a question with a clear answer. Additionally, because of the complexity of identity, not all members of a marginalized community may express themselves in a monothetic way. This essay examines such a group possessing a complex identity – Indigenous people, from my personal lived experience. The essay explores …

Predicting Supreme Court Behavior In Indian Law Cases, Grant Christensen

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This piece builds upon Matthew Fletcher’s call for additional empirical work in Indian law by creating a new dataset of Indian law opinions. The piece takes every Indian law case decided by the Supreme Court from the beginning of the Warren Court until the end of the 2019-2020 term. The scholarship first produces an Indian law scorecard that measures how often each Justice voted for the “pro- Indian” outcome. It then compares those results to the Justice’s political ideology to suggest that while there is a general trend that a more “liberal” Justice is more likely to favor the pro-Indian …

A Familiar Crossroads: Mcgirt V. Oklahoma And The Future Of The Federal Indian Law Canon, Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely

Articles

Federal Indian law forms part of the bedrock of American jurisprudence. Indeed, critical parts of the pre-civil war constitutional canon were defined in Federal Indian law cases that simultaneously provided legal justification for American westward expansion onto unceded Indian lands. As a result, Federal Indian law makes up an inextricable part of American rule of law. Despite its importance, Federal Indian law follows a long and circuitous road that requires "wander[ing] the maze of Indian statutes and case law tracing back [over] 100 years." That road has long oscillated between two poles, with the Supreme Court sometimes applying foundation principles …

Righting The Wrongs Of Native American Removal And Advocating For Tribal Recognition: A Binding Promise, The Trail Of Tears, And The Philosophy Of Restorative Justice, 54 Uic L. Rev. 933 (2021), Maria Conversa

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fraud Law And Misinfodemics, Wes Henricksen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Unbecoming Adversaries: Natural Resource Federalism In Wyoming, Tara Kathleen Righetti, Robert B. Keiter, Jason Robison, Temple Stoellinger, Sam Kalen

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Wyoming’s unique cultural and physical landscape fostered dynamic federalism relationships that have oscillated between adversarial and cooperative. Too often, though, the State and its federal and tribal counterparts have found themselves in the role of unbecoming adversaries. As current and former natural resources faculty members at the University of Wyoming (UW) College of Law, we are privileged to offer a retrospective on this subject upon the law school’s centennial. In 2021, the State is facing new and daunting challenges that are straining its core industries and budget, including economic changes associated with the COVID-19 global pandemic and rapidly transforming energy …

Water Is Life: Law, Systemic Racism, And Water Security In Indian Country, Heather Tanana, Julie Combs, Aila Hoss

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The 21st Century has been marked by significant advancements in technology, from travel to Mars and self-driving cars to smartphones and bitcoin. And yet, at the same time, hundreds of thousands of Native Americans live without access to safe, clean and reliable drinking water. By some estimates, 48% of households on Indian reservations do not have clean water or adequate sanitation. This lack of access has been highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic, but it is not a new issue. Native American communities have long suffered inequities stemming from colonization and perpetrated by federal policy. While the pandemic has devastated many …

R V Sparrow, Kent Mcneil

Articles & Book Chapters

On appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada.

In 1984, Ronald Sparrow was charged under the federal Fisheries Act with fishing in the Fraser River in British Columbia with a drift net longer than permitted by the Musqueam First Nation’s food fishing licence. He admitted to fishing with such a net, but raised s 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, as a defence. As a member of the Musqueam Nation, he claimed that he has an Aboriginal right, protected by that subsection, to fish for food, and that the restriction on net length interferes with this right and is …

The Execution Of Lezmond Mitchell: An Analysis Of Federal Indian Law, Criminal Jurisdiction, And The Death Penalty As Applied To Native Americans, Mary Margaret L. Kirchner

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Capital punishment is controversial in American society. It is the junction where moral standards and punishment for the most severe crimes crash together head on. As society has evolved, so have the expectations, requirements, and norms for capital punishment. In the history of the United States, capital punishment, commonly referred to as the death penalty, has been plagued with continuous inequalities. Based on the evolving standards of decency that shift as society matures, certain practices affiliated with the death penalty have now been invalidated as cruel and unusual. One of the most concerning flaws surrounding the death penalty is its …

The Resilience Of Métis Title: Rejecting Assumptions Of Extinguishment, Adam Gaudry, Karen Drake

Articles & Book Chapters

For many years, the Crown disputed Métis title claims by contending that any previously existing Métis rights, including title, had been extinguished.We argue, however, that this is not the case in at least some areas of the Métis homeland.In this chapter, we review the three means by which Aboriginal rights can be extinguished in Canadian law: by surrender, by legislation prior to 17 April 1982, and by constitutional amendment.This chapter builds on our previous work,in which we argue that historical Métis land use patterns can satisfy the test for Aboriginal title. The relevant case law here is Tsilhqot'in Nation v …

Trust Betrayed: The Reluctance To Recognize Judicially Enforceable Trust Obligations Under The Indian Health Care Improvement Act (Ihcia), Lauren E. Schneider

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The federal trust doctrine developed out of the legal relationship between European sovereigns--and later, the United States government--and American Indian tribes. By signing treaties with Indian tribes, the settler governments entered into an ongoing relationship with sovereign tribal governments. The United States government has a duty to fulfill the promises inherent in these treaties, including the provision of such services as health care to Indian tribes. The trust doctrine embodies these obligations. When Congress legislates with respect to American Indians and Indian tribes for the provision of services, such as the Indian Health Care Improvement Act of 1976 (IHCIA), …

Nature's Rights, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Do forests and rivers possess standing to sue? Do mountain ranges have substantive rights? A recent issue of The Judges’ Journal, a preeminent publication for American judges, alerts the bench, bar, and policymakers to the rapidly emerging “rights of nature,” predicting that state and federal courts will increasingly see claims asserting such rights. Within the United States, Tribal law has begun to legally recognize the rights of rivers, mountains, and other natural features. Several municipalities across the United States have also acted to recognize the rights of nature. United States courts have not yet addressed the issue, though in 2017, …

Icwa’S Irony, Marcia A. Yablon-Zug

Faculty Publications

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is a federal statute that protects Indian children by keeping them connected to their families and culture. The Act’s provisions include support for family reunification, kinship care preferences, cultural competency considerations and community involvement. These provisions parallel national child welfare policies. Nevertheless, the Act is relentlessly attacked as a law that singles out Indian children for unique and harmful treatment. This is untrue but, ironically, it will be if challenges to the ICWA are successful. To prevent this from occurring, the defense of the Act needs to change. For too long, this defense has …

Incorporation By Any Other Name? Comparing Congress' Federalization Of Tribal Court Criminal Procedure With The Supreme Court's Regulation Of State Courts, Jordan Gross

Faculty Law Review Articles

This Article examines the different experience of states and tribes with uniform national standards of criminal procedure imposed by the federal government. Part I describes the federal government’s displacement of indigenous justice in service of colonialist political goals, a policy that has contributed to the public safety crisis in Indian country today. Part II explains the constitutional criminal procedure jurisprudence the Court developed for states on which Congress has modeled ICRA’s criminal procedure provisions. In TLOA and VAWA 2013, Congress recognized that restoring tribal autonomy over wrongdoing in Indian country must be part of the federal policy response to the …

Jurisprudence And Recommendations For Tribal Court Authority Due To Imposition Of U.S. Limitations, Angelique Eaglewoman

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.