North Dakota DCT Dismisses Contract Claim against MHA Nation

Here is the order in Bird Industries Inc. v. Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation (D.S.D.):

Prior post with briefs here.

Dept. of Justice [almost certainly over Interior’s objections] and Arizona File Cert Petitions in Navajo Nation Water Rights Trust Suit

Here is the petition in Dept. of the Interior v. Navajo Nation:

Question presented:

Whether the federal government owes the Navajo Nation an affirmative, judicially enforceable fiduciary duty to assess and address the Navajo Nation’s need for water from particular sources, in the absence of any substantive source of law that expressly establishes such a duty.

Here is the petition and the partial acquiescence by Justice in Arizona v. Navajo Nation:

Questions presented:

I. Does the Ninth Circuit Opinion, allowing the Nation to proceed with a claim to enjoin the Secretary to develop a plan to meet the Nation’s water needs and manage the mainstream of the LBCR so as not to in- terfere with that plan, infringe upon this Court’s re- tained and exclusive jurisdiction over the allocation of water from the LBCR mainstream in Arizona v. California?
II. Can the Nation state a cognizable claim for breach of trust consistent with this Court’s holding in Jicarilla based solely on unquantified implied rights to water under the Winters Doctrine?

Lower court materials here.

Critical Race Theory Summer School — Indigenous Peoples Issues

Kim Crenshaw’s African American Policy Forum is hosting it’s third Critical Race Theory Summer School and this year for the first time will have a full week of classes focused on indigenous peoples’ issues and the intersections with Critical Race Theory and Practice.

Northern Arapaho Tribe Set for Trial in Law Firm Overbilling Suit

Here is the complaint in Northern Arapaho v. Baldwin Crocker & Rudd (Wyo. Dist. Ct.):

American Indian Law Journal, Volume 10, Issue 2

Here:

Current Issue: Volume 10, Issue 2 (2022)

Articles

PDF

Extraction of Personal Data: A New Form of Colonialism or Continuation of a Colonial Practice? Adult Native American Adoptees Resist Assimilation and Rebuild Erased Identities
Leonard Mukosi

PDF

Crossing the Dark and Fearful River: Monsanto, PCBs, and Emerging Tort Theories
Keith Dornan and Jamie Hearn

PDF

Case Law on American Indians
Thomas P. Schlosser

PDF

The Rule Against Hearsay, Indigenous Claims and Story-Telling as Testimony in Canadian Courts
Zia Akhtar

PDF

A Watershed Moment: The Health and Economic Impact of Water Sustainability in the Navajo Nation Post Pandemic
Onnaedo Nwankwo

Arizona State Court Dismisses Employment Suit against Navajo Sage Memorial Hospital

Here are the materials in El-Meligi v. Navajo Health Foundation — Sage Memorial Hospital, Inc. (Ariz. Super.):

California Federal Court Dismisses ADA Suit against Tule River Tribal Council

Here are the materials in Block v. Tule River Tribal Council (E.D. Cal.):