First Turtle Talk Poll: What Federal Indian Law Doctrine Is Most Frustrating to Tribal Government Officials

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

I had the great honor of participating in Profs. Frickey, Berkey, and Williams’ Advanced Indian Law seminar at UC-Berkeley Law School yesterday and we discussed, among other things, which doctrine in federal Indian law is most frustrating to elected tribal officials. So that sounds like a good question to ask for Turtle Talk’s first poll:

What federal Indian law doctrine frustrates tribal government officials the most?

We stopped counting Monday, March 9 (here). You can still vote if you want, but we’re probably not going to come back to this. 🙂

7 thoughts on “First Turtle Talk Poll: What Federal Indian Law Doctrine Is Most Frustrating to Tribal Government Officials”

  1. Philip Frickey March 5, 2009 / 6:48 pm

    Matthew, the honor was all ours. I look forward to seeing the poll results.
    Phil

  2. Erica Brown March 8, 2009 / 9:20 pm

    I believe the federal Indian law doctrine that frustrates tribal government officials the most is not being able to sue the federal government for trust violations. Most tribal injustices fall under this umbrella of trust relationship and treaty obligation. The option (law or doctrine) that I think should have been included in the poll was sovereign rights. The mere ideology that the federal government even has power over Native Americans when they are suppose to be sovereign nations is hypocritical. Sovereignty is a word not a reality.

  3. Erica Brown March 8, 2009 / 9:25 pm

    The federal Indian law doctrine that frustrates tribal government officials the most would be the inablitity to sue the federal government for trust violations. I believe that the option (law or doctrine) of sovereign rights be included in the poll. The mere ideology that the federal government has power over Native Americans when they are “supposedly” sovereign nations is hypocritcal. Sovereignty is a word not a reality.

  4. Pingback: First Turtle Talk Poll Results — Oliphant Biggest Frustration « Turtle Talk
  5. Bear Kochamp March 9, 2009 / 2:40 pm

    I concur with Erica. In order to exercise sovereignty, it is absolutely imperative for Tribes/Nations to have a government to government relationship with the Federal Government. If the Federal Government fails in it’s Trust Responsibility it should be accountable for their actions, as well as it’s inactions.

  6. Celesta Limberhand March 9, 2009 / 4:23 pm

    Our Tribes inability to sue the United States for trust violations is the most frustrating federal Indian law doctrine that we as Indigenous people have to deal with today. It is almost as if the United States seems to think that they have been bestowed some god-given right to do whatever they want with the land that they, the federal government allocated to our people hundreds of year ago. We are deemed sovereign nations for a reason. We should not have our land that we should be controlling being taken from us by a nation that we are supposed to be having nation-to-nation relations with.

  7. Carrah shawnee March 9, 2009 / 5:42 pm

    Following our class discussion criminal restrictions over non Indians is a big issue. It is important to know the tribal people have their safety.

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