Month: April 2010

Michigan Indian Legal Services Job Posting

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Michigan Indian Legal Services

814 S. Garfield Avenue Suite A, Traverse City, MI 49686-2401, Phone: 231-947-0122, Facsimile: 231-947-3956

Michigan Indian Legal Services (MILS), a statewide provider of free legal services to low income Indians and Indian tribes, seeks a staff attorney. MILS represents Indian individuals, families, tribes and organizations in cases involving federal Indian law, tribal court representation and related matters.

MILS seeks an attorney with above average academic achievement, excellent oral and written communication skills and a commitment to providing high quality legal services for Indian people. The successful candidate must be licensed to practice law in the State of Michigan, be willing and able to travel, capable of assuming responsibility over a sophisticated caseload and have experience in the practice of Indian law and working in or with native or tribal communities. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.

MILS is an equal opportunity employer.

Send resume, writing sample and cover letter to:

James A. Keedy

Executive Director

814 S. Garfield Ave., Suite A

Traverse City, MI 49686

Nominee to Federal Circuit (Ed DuMont) Has Significant Indian Law Experience

Matthew L.M. Fletcher4 Comments

Ed DuMont‘s nomination to the Federal Circuit (more news articles from How Appealing) is very interesting, given that as former attorney for the Office of the Solicitor General, he argued two Indian law cases (one opposed and one in favor, winning both). The two cases are Kiowa Tribe (1998, as amicus favoring the tribe) and Chickasaw Nation (2001).

Mr. DuMont also worked on the following cases: MichGO v. Kempthorne (D.C. Cir. 2008, on behalf of the Gun Lake Band); San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino (D.C. Cir. 2007, on the NCAI amicus brief); and City of Roseville v. Norton (D.C. Cir. 2003, on behalf of the United Auburn Band).

This might actually be good news for Indian Country. As always, hard to predict, but the more the judges know, the better.

United States Cert Opposition Brief in Sharp Petition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Other briefs and lower court materials are here.

Here is the government’s opposition: US Cert Opp

NNNABA Letter to Obama re: American Indian Supreme Court Nominee

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here: NNABA Letter to Obama Re Native on SCt April 2010

FBA Letter Supporting Tribal Law and Order Act

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here: FBA letter-H.R. 1924

Two New Books by John Borrows from University of Toronto Press

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

John’s work is very thought-provoking, especially for American Indian law scholars and practitioners seeking to discover and perhaps utilize Indian common law, customs and traditions.

1. Canada’s Indigenous Constitution

Canada’s Indigenous Constitution reflects on the nature and sources of law in Canada, beginning with the conviction that the Canadian legal system has helped to engender the high level of wealth and security enjoyed by people across the country. However, longstanding disputes about the origins, legitimacy, and applicability of certain aspects of the legal system have led John Borrows to argue that Canada’s constitution is incomplete without a broader acceptance of Indigenous legal traditions.

With characteristic richness and eloquence, John Borrows explores legal traditions, the role of governments and courts, and the prospect of a multi-juridical legal culture, all with a view to understanding and improving legal processes in Canada. He discusses the place of individuals, families, and communities in recovering and extending the role of Indigenous law within both Indigenous communities and Canadian society more broadly.

This is a major work by one of Canada’s leading legal scholars, and an essential companion to Drawing Out Law: A Spirit’s Guide.

2. Drawing Out Law: A Spirits’ Guide

The Anishinabek Nation’s legal traditions are deeply embedded in many aspects of customary life. In Drawing Out Law, John Borrows (Kegedonce) skillfully juxtaposes Canadian legal policy and practice with the more broadly defined Anishinabek perception of law as it applies to community life, nature, and individuals.

This innovative work combines fictional and non-fictional elements in a series of connected short stories that symbolize different ways of Anishinabek engagement with the world. Drawing on oral traditions, pictographic scrolls, dreams, common law case analysis, and philosophical reflection, Borrows’ narrative explores issues of pressing importance to the future of indigenous law and offers readers new ways to think about the direction of Canadian law.

Shedding light on Canadian law and policy as they relate to Indigenous peoples,Drawing Out Law illustrates past and present moral agency of Indigenous peoples and their approaches to the law and calls for the renewal of ancient Ojibway teaching in contemporary circumstances.

This is a major work by one of Canada’s leading legal scholars, and an essential companion to Canada’s Indigenous Constitution.

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Supreme Court Nominee Shortlist Part 2 — Gov. Jennifer Granholm & Harold Koh

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

This edition of our review of the Supreme Court nominee shortlist is short (because I’m on my way to a faculty meeting) — and is just two persons, neither of whom is a sitting judge making the objective judgment that much harder. Part I is here.

4. Gov. Jennifer Granholm

We got excited about her a year ago when some excitable people in Lansing heard she was going to D.C. for a high-level, public appearance with President Obama (turned out to be something else related to the auto industry).

Gov. Granholm has been the governor of the State of Michigan for nearly two full terms.

She has signed the following agreements with Michigan tribes:

And issued an executive directive on inter-governmental relations with Indian tribes in 2004.

Her administration has negotiated and signed several Class III gaming compacts (LTBB, Gun Lake, and LRB, to name a few), as well as a few off-reservation gaming agreements couched as land claims settlements (BMIC and Sault Tribe).

In short, a long record with dealing in Indian affairs in Michigan. Some say she’s only interested in tribes as a cash cow. Some say she’s outstanding. Some say both (like me).

5. Harold Honju Koh, Legal Advisor to the Secretary of State

As far as I can tell, he has no Indian law experience at all, save one case — a NAFTA arbitration involving a claim by Six Nations Grand River Enterprises, a Indian-owned enterprise located in Ontario that does business importing smokes into Indian Country. Koh gave the opening argument in the arbitration. His comments are not yet public, though will be eventually. But the gist is that the Obama Administration is committed to tribal sovereignty, except in regards to the exercise of tribal sovereignty to sell tobacco (something observers of the PACT Act already knew).

More to come.

“Rebooting Indian Law in the Supreme Court” Paper Available

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

You can read my paper, “Rebooting Indian Law in the Supreme Court,” on SSRN here.

The paper is an edited version of the 2010 Dillon Lecture delivered at the University of South Dakota School of Law on February 18, 2010, and will be published in the South Dakota Law Review.

Here is the abstract:

This talk, delivered as the 2010 Dillon Lecture at the University of South Dakota School of Law, argues Indian nations and advocates – and the federal judiciary – view Indian law through a reactionary lens, deciding major issues as the cases arise. There are a few mini-movements, long-term strategies on a particular issue, such as the Cobell litigation, the fishing rights cases of the 1960s and 1970s, and perhaps a few others. But even those series of cases could hardly be called a strategic “movement.” As a result of a lack of a viable long-term strategy, I posit that tribal interests are and will continue to be punching bags in Supreme Court litigation.

I offer suggestions on how to reboot federal Indian law in the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court. I will discuss cases or lines of cases that demonstrate how Indian nations can persevere in the Supreme Court, and suggest potential long-term strategies for tribal interests to pursue.

Comments welcome, as this is still a draft.

Interview with Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The Iowa law school journal, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, interviewed Richard and Jean — and the interview is published here.

Here is a provocative comment:

Jean and I have written about the difficulties of “crossover” writing, in the pages of American Indian Law Review. We think it is a mistake for a minority scholar to write too much of his or her work with a white audience in mind. If you do, you end up pulling your punches and choosing words and topics that will resonate with your audience. Even the very vocabulary in which you write–terms like “villager,” “folk medicine,” “undocumented alien,” “tribe,” “hut,” and “merit”–carry meanings that render your people one-down. Sometimes it feels better to write in your native language or vernacular and for an audience consisting of people like you.

Gaming Finances Mismanagement Investigation at LTBB

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the Petoskey News-Review via Pechanga:

The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians’ Gaming Board of Directors is under investigation by tribal police for alleged financial mismanagement.

In the April 2010 issue of “Odawa Trails,” the tribe’s monthly newsletter, tribal chairman Ken Harrington informs tribal citizens that, as a result of a recent ethics complaint filed by a tribal citizen, who was not named, the gaming board of directors is currently under investigation.

Harrington’s letter states: “Tribal police investigated, a warrant was issued and the tribal police acted on the warrant and seized the (gaming board’s) phones and computers.”

Harrington also reported in this letter, that after recently issuing an executive order to have the gaming board’s finances moved to the tribal government building, financial issues were discovered.

“It became apparent the (gaming board’s) budget was $20,000 over and overpayment of stipends became evident.”

Matthew Lesky, tribal prosecutor, confirmed to the New-Review Monday, during a phone interview, that the gaming board, in fact, is under investigation by tribal police for what he described as “financial management” issues.

As of press time today, Tuesday, no charges had yet been filed against the gaming board of directors in tribal court.

According to confidential tribal documents recently provided to the News-Review, it is alleged that on Jan. 25, the three remaining members of the gaming board of directors — Carol McFall, chairperson; Judith Pierzynowski, vice chairperson; and Sheran Patton, treasurer/secretary — acted outside its authority by terminating Denise White, director of human resources for the tribe, and approving a $53,000 severance check to her the following day (Jan. 26), which was stopped shortly after its issuance.

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