Indigenous, Indian, and Aboriginal Law Commons^™

Wsáneć Legal Theory And The Fuel Spill At Selektel (Goldstream River), Robert Clifford

All Faculty Publications

SELEK̵TEL̵ (Goldstream River), on Coast Salish territory on Southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, is an important salmon spawning river and fishing location for the WSÁNEĆ (Saanich) people. On April 16, 2011, it was also the site of a diesel and gasoline spill.

In this article, I explore the processes of revitalizing WSÁNEĆ law and how we might think about the revitalization of WSÁNEĆ law in the context of this fuel spill. While I do not present a definitive statement of the application of WSÁNEĆ law, I explore what is needed in order to understand WSÁNEĆ law on its own …

Commentary On The Ongoing Indigenous Political Enterprise: What's Law Got To Do With It?, Monica Hakimi

Other Publications

Professor Hakimi reviews Dalee Sambo Dorough's article, The Ongoing Indigenous Political Enterprise: What's Law Got to Do with It?, highlighting three tensions she defines within the article and the strengths and weaknesses of Dorough's examination of these three tensions.

What Should Tribes Expect From Federal Regulations? The Bureau Of Land Management's Fracking Rule And The Problems With Treating Indian And Federal Lands Identically, Monte Mills

Articles

On March 26, 2015, the Bureau of Land management (BLM) published its Final Rule regarding Hydraulic Fracturing on Federal and Indian Lands (Final Rule). Work on the Rule had begun nearly four and a half years earlier as a way to update the agency’s outdated regulatory scheme to account for new fracking technology and growing public concern over the practice and potential safety concerns related to fracking.

The Final Rule amassed a number of procedural and substantive requirements for fracking operations and proposed to apply these standards uniformly to both public lands and lands held in trust by the Federal …

New Approaches To Energy Development In Indian Country: The Trust Relationship And Tribal Self-Determination At (Yet Another) Crossroads, Monte Mills

Articles

Energy development in Indian country exists at the crossroads of tribal self-determination and the federal government's trust responsibility. This article reviews the foundations of this crossroads, describes recent developments, and analyzes pending proposals that may enhance both tribal sovereignty and energy development in Indian country.

Sovereignty And Subsistence: Native Self-Government And Rights To Hunt, Fish, And Gather After Ansca, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was passed in 1971 to extinguish aboriginal rights of Alaska Natives and provide compensation for those rights extinguished. Instead of vesting assets (land and money) in tribal governments, Congress required the formation of Alaska Native corporations to receive and hold these assets. A major flaw in the settlement was the failure to provide statutory protections for the aboriginal hunting, fishing, and gathering rights extinguished by ANCSA. Moreover, while ANCSA did not directly address Alaska Native tribal status or jurisdiction, the Supreme Court interpreted the Act to terminate the Indian country status of ANCSA …

Federal Treaty And Trust Obligations, And Ocean Acidification, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

Ocean acidification will have profound effects on the entire human population and natural resources that depend in any way upon Earth’s oceans and lakes. In turn, those effects will be even greater, and potentially catastrophic, for indigenous populations who rely on the seas for physical, cultural, and spiritual sustenance. While most research on carbon dioxide absorption from the atmosphere has focused on oceans and the resulting acidification, many believe that acidification levels also will also increase in the Great Lakes. Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes regions share reliance on marine and freshwater resources, and many …

Black Water: The Devastating Effects Of Alcohol On The Core Values Of The A:Shiwi (Zuni), Christy Chapman

Tribal Law Journal

As in many Native American communities, alcohol use and abuse is an all too common problem among the Ashwi, members of Zuni Pueblo. Soon after the arrival of Anglo-American settlers, alcohol was introduced to the Zuni. Seeing its devastating effects, Zuni elders referred to this intoxicating substance as ‘black water.’ Since the introduction of black water, alcohol abuse among the Zuni has resulted in community members committing frequent criminal offenses, numerous health problems, and is the number-one cause of premature death among the Zuni.

Over the last century and a half, the devastating effects of black water have eroded the …

Postcolonial Management Of The Transboundary Guaraní Aquifer System: Indigenous Input As A Guide For Environmental Sustainability, Melissa Leonard

Tribal Law Journal

This article discusses the Guaraní Aquifer System, which is a vast groundwater source that spans across Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. The Guaraní Aquifer System is located beneath the ancestral homelands of the Guaraní indigenous peoples, yet it is exclusively managed by nation states. The Guaraní indigenous peoples have been deprived of their ancestral land and have no say in the utilization or management of the Aquifer. This article discusses social and legal theory relating to water management and governance, as well as Guaraní social organization, belief systems, and customary environmental law in the context of “postcolonial” water management. This …

Federal Restrictions On Tribal Customary Law: The Importance Of Tribal Customary Law In Tribal Courts, Concetta R. Tsosie De Haro, Dine Nation

Tribal Law Journal

This article examines the adverse effects of federal case law and legislation on tribal courts and tribal courts’ ability to incorporate tribal customary law. Tribal customary law is the law given to tribes by holy deities which governs tribal ways of life. It is important to maintain tribal customary law because it strengthens tribal communities’ identities and cultural foundations. While Supreme Court precedent has, at different times, both restricted and promoted tribes’ ability to use tribal customary law to adjudicate the cases of tribal members, federal legislation including the Major Crimes Act, the Indian Civil Rights Act, the Tribal Law …

Holding Canada Accountable: An Evaluation Of Canada's Compliance To The United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Jackson A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Compliance of human rights norms requires the application of pressure from a multitude of directions and levels. It takes individual advocacy, micro-system/organizational/community-level pressure, and macro-level pressure from other nation-states and international organizations and governance bodies. This MA study focuses on the mechanisms employed by the United Nations to monitor the compliance of signatory nation-states to the standards established in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), with particular focus on Canada. A crucial goal of this study is to translate the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNSRRIP), James Anaya’s, findings on the …

Commentary On The Emerging Constitutional Indigenous Peoples Land Rights In Tanzania, Daniel Halberstam

Articles

The pastoralists and hunter-gatherer indigenous peoples in Tanzania continue lobbying their recognition as such and protection of their land rights. This article discusses the extent to which the indigenous peoples are legally recognized and the state of their security of land tenure. With the hindsight of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007 and the 2003 Report of the African Commission Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Population, this article probes the emerging indigenous land rights within the broader understating of the minority rights in the Draft Constitution of Tanzania 2014 as well as the Draft Policy …

The Role Of The State, Multinational Oil Companies, International Law & The International Community: Intersection Of Human Rights & Environmental Degradation Climate Change In The 21st Century Caused By Traditional Extractive Practices, The Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous People And Universal Jurisdiction To Resolve The Accountability Issue, Marcela Cabrera Luna

Master's Theses

Local, national and international conventions that protect indigenous sovereignty and their territories, where many of the resources are extracted from by multinational corporations (MNCs) particularly oil, the number one commodity of the world and cause of climate change, continue to be jeopardized because of the lack of a clear international legal framework that can protect them and potentially hold multinationals accountable for their actions. These practices are causing not only environmental issues to the indigenous and surrounding communities, but climate change is in fact, the real human rights issue of the 21^st century and it affects everyone. By using …

Indigenous Women, Water Justice And Zaagidowin (Love), Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

I would like to open by saying Chi-miigwech (a big thank-you) to those Elders/Grandmothers who have shared their stories and teachings with me over the years. Some have since passed on and I hope that through my words, their love and generosity will continue the process of healing the people and waters upon which they so integrally depend.

The paper which follows contains many references to notions of love, mutual respect, and responsibility towards the natural world, and water in particular. These ideas may seem a little tenuous for a serious paper on a critical environmental justice issue, but concepts …

Endangered Species, Endangered Treaties: Protecting Treaty Rights, Economic Development, And Tribal Consultation Under Secretarial Order 3206, Jeremy Wood

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Binding Guidance Principle: Using The Indian Trust Doctrine To Trump The Apa, John Robinson Jr., J.D.

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Protecting Victims Of Domestic Assault: Upholding The Use Of Uncounseled Tribal Court Domestic Assault Convictions To Establish Federal Habitual Domestic Assault Charges, Joanna Adu

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Tohono O'Odham Nation And The United States-Mexico Border, Peter Heidepriem

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Streamlined Model Of Tribal Appellate Court Rules For Lay Advocates And Pro Se Litigants, Gregory D. Smith J.D.

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Defining The Indian Civil Rights Act's "Sufficiently Trained" Tribal Court Judge, Jill Elizabeth Tompkins

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of The Canadian Human Rights Regime To Provide Remedies For Indigenous Peoples: Enough Time Has Passed, Jeffery Gordon Hewitt

LLM Theses

In 2008, Canada amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to remove s.67, which in essence precluded Indigenous Peoples from bringing complaints as against Canada and Band governments. Since the amendment took effect in 2010, a multi-fold increase has occurred in the number of complaints filed with the Human Rights Commission of Canada from dozens to hundreds. The first such significant complaint to be heard by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal was filed by the First Nation Child and Family Caring Society along with the Assembly of First Nations (the Complaint). The Complaint alleges Canada's funding with respect to First Nation …