Here are the materials in Suquamish Tribe v. Smith (W.D. Wash.):
Washington Federal Court Rules in Favor of Suquamish over Insurance Company in Tribal Court Jurisdiction Dispute
Author: Matthew L.M. Fletcher
Congrats to Kaighn Smith! Second Edition of “Labor and Employment Law in Indian Country”
Order here.
I Don’t Know Why Indian Country Doesn’t Demand that Congress Pass the RESPECT Act because This Bullshit’s Gonna Keep Happening Until Then [Badger Two-Medicine]
Please see the strongly worded, if misguided, commentary from Judge Leon in Solonex v. Haaland, who sees 40 years of delay on a drilling permit and calls it “Kafkaesque.” It’s hard to disagree with that sentiment — though I wish the court were more understanding that tribal and Indian efforts to stop the drilling proposal began when there were virtually no legal protections for tribes and Native citizens to utilize. It’s time to acknowledge that this drilling should never have been approved over tribal and Indian objections and the RESPECT Act takes us a long way down the road to preventing this B.S. from happening over and over again.
Here is the order in Solonex LLC v. Haaland (D.D.C.):
Prior post on the D.C. Circuit decision from which this case is on remand here.
Briefs:
Fletcher on Teaching Indian Law in the 21st Century
Here is “Teaching Indian Law in the 21st Century,” (hopefully) forthcoming in an edited collection of papers on teaching law in the 21st century.
The abstract:
Since the first Indian law classes were offered in the late 1960s and early 1970s, law teachers mostly have considered the field a niche specialty, even a backwater, unnecessary to anyone not likely to go into law practice in Indian country. In those days, law teachers focused on treaty rights fights. Treaty rights are a critical but small part of Indian country practice. Lawyers in modern day Indian country handle virtually every kind of matter taught in law schools in addition to the Indian law-specific subject matters. Beginning in the 1990s, American Indian tribal nations started to become critical factors in governmental and economic activity throughout much of the United States.
In the 21st century, many law schools offer Indian law — and occasionally offer additional, specialized courses — but generally are still far behind the curve. Worse, when it is offered, the Indian law canon tends to be taught in ways that ignore contemporary tribal agency by emphasizing historical events over modern issues. Modern tribal nations make their own laws. Here I give examples of tribal court cases and tribal statutes law teachers can use to incorporate Indian law into virtually any common law course.
Oregon COA Reverses State Criminal Conviction of Nez Percé Treaty Fishers
Here are the materials in State v. McCormack (Or. Ct. App.):
Klamath and Hoopa Tribes Prevail in Ninth Circuit Klamath River Water Distribution Challenge
Here is the opinion in Klamath Irrigation District v. Bureau of Reclamation.
Briefs:
Klamath irrigation Opening Brief
Lower court materials here.
Metlakatla Prevails in Ninth Circuit on Fishing Rights
Here is the opinion in Metlakatla Indian Community v. Dunleavy.
Briefs are here.
Lower court materials here.
Washington Federal Court Keeps Muckleshoot Out as Party in Duwamish Recognition Suit
Here are the materials in Duwamish Tribe v. Haaland (W.D. Wash.):
14 Muckleshoot Motion to Intervene
Complaint here.
Bad River Wins Trespass Claim against Enbridge
Here is the order in Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians v. Enbridge Evil Energy Co. Inc. (W.D. Wis.):
Will post briefs tomorrow. Some of them are already here.
231 Enbridge Memorandum in Support of 230
Robin Kundis Craig on Tribal Water Rights and Tribal Health
Robin Kundis Craig has posted “Tribal Water Rights and Tribal Health: The Klamath Tribes and the Navajo Nation During the COVID-19 Pandemic” on SSRN. The paper is forthcoming in the St. Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy.
The abstract:
Public health measures to combat COVID-19, especially in the first year before vaccines became widely available, required individuals to be able to access fresh water while remaining isolated from most of their fellow human beings. For the approximately 500,000 households in the United States and over two million Americans who lacked access to reliable indoor running water, these COVID-19 measures presented a considerable added challenge on top of the existing risks to their health from an insecure water supply.
Many of these people were Native Americans, whose Tribes often lack fully adjudicated, quantified, and deliverable rights to fresh water. To highlight the critical role that water rights played in Tribes’ capacities to cope with the pandemic, this essay compares the Klamath Tribes in Oregon, who after 40 years of litigation have fairly securely established themselves as the senior water rights holders in the Klamath River Basin, to the Diné (Navajo Nation), whose reservation—the largest in the United States—covers well over 27,500 square miles of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico but largely lacks quantified water rights or the means to deliver water to households. While access to water was not the sole factor in these two Tribes’ vastly different experiences with COVID-19, it was an important one, underscoring the need for states and the federal government to stop procrastinating in actualizing the water rights for Tribes that have been legally recognized since 1908.
Turtle Talk 
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