Author: Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Ninth Circuit Restores Navajo Nation’s Water Rights Trust Breach Suit

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the opinion in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior. Briefs here.

An excerpt:

Moreover, neither Morongo nor Gros Ventre nor Jicarilla involved claims to vindicate Winters rights, which provide the foundation of the Nation’s claim here. Unlike the plaintiffs in those cases, the Nation, in pointing to its reserved water rights, has identified specific treaty, statutory, and regulatory provisions that impose fiduciary obligations on Federal Appellees—namely, those provisions of the Nation’s various treaties and related statutes and executive orders that establish the Navajo Reservation and, under the long-established Winters doctrine, give rise to implied water rights to make the reservation viable.

                      *. *  *

We hold in particular that, under Winters, Federal Appellees have a duty to protect the Nation’s water supply that arises, in part, from specific provisions in the 1868 Treaty that contemplated farming by the members of the Reservation.

Secretarial Order 3400: “Delegation of Authority for Non-Gaming Off-Reservation Fee-to-Trust Acquisitions”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Arizona COA Holds Federal Law Preempts State Taxes on Trust Land Improvements Regardless of Ownership

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the opinion in South Point Energy Center v. Arizona Dept. of Revenue.

Prior post here.

Tribal Amicus BriefDownload

Pojoaque Pueblo Sues over State Court Assertion of Jurisdiction re: Casino Slip and Fall

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the complaint and associated materials in Pueblo of Pojoaque v. Wilson (D.N.M.):

1 Complaint

1-4 District Court Order

 

Post-Argument Letter Briefing in Yellen v. Chehalis

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

2021.04.23 Chehalis Letter to USSC Clerk of the Court

2021-4-22 ANCs response letter

Confederated Tribes Letter Re Oral Argument Correction 4 20 21 [Ute Tribe/Patterson firm]

US Letter 20-543 20-544

Background materials here.

New Scholarship by Mary Bilder on Native Nations’ Diplomacy and the Framing of the Constitution

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Mary Sarah Bilder has posted “Without Doors: Native Nations and the Convention,” just published in the Fordham Law Review.

Here is the abstract:

The Constitution’s apparent textual near silence with respect to Native Nations is misleading. As this Article reveals, four representatives of Native Nations visited Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Their visit ensured that the Constitution secured the general government’s treaty authority with Native Nations and decisively barred state claims of authority. But, the visits also threatened to disrupt Congress’s passage of the Northwest Ordinance and the vision of nationally sanctioned white settlement. In the process of successfully preventing the representatives from reaching Congress, Secretary at War Henry Knox developed the central tenets of what would become the George Washington administration’s early Indian policy: an acceptance of Native Nation sovereignty, disapproval of unauthorized white encroachment, and an attempt to discourage Native Nations from sending additional representatives. In addition to emphasizing the strong national federal government role and Native Nation sovereignty, this history provides evidence that the Framers’ generation without doors—outside the Convention—critically affected the creation of the Constitution as an instrument and a system of government. Recovering the visits of the deputies to Philadelphia in 1787 and the promises they received, including Washington’s handshake, suggests that the United States today should reaffirm the right and the importance of Native Nations sending deputies to Congress.

Elizabeth Reese Joins Stanford Law Faculty

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the announcement.

An excerpt:

Stanford Law School (SLS) today announced that Elizabeth A. Reese, Yunpoví, which means Willow Flower in the Tewa language, will join its faculty on June 1 as an assistant professor of law. With a focus on American Indian tribal law and constitutional law, Reese’s scholarship examines the way government structures, citizen identity, and the history that is taught in schools can impact the rights and powers of oppressed racial minorities within American law. Reese is tribally enrolled at Nambé Pueblo, one of the six Tewa-speaking pueblos of the northern Rio Grande region, where she is an active member of the community. Reese’s appointment is part of a Stanford University faculty cluster hire to add eminent scholars and researchers who are leaders in the study of the impact of race in America, an initiative under Stanford’s IDEAL initiative. Established in 2018, IDEAL is a larger cross-campus effort to create a more inclusive, accessible, diverse and equitable university for all Stanford community members.

Connecticut SCT Decides Town of Ledyard v. WMS Gaming Inc.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

Town of Ledyard v WMS Gaming

Briefs here.

MSU Alum Bryan Newland to Lead Indian Affairs in DOI

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the White House statement.

Bryan Newland, Nominee for Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Department of Interior

Bryan Newland is a citizen of Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe), and was born and raised on the Bay Mills Reservation on the southern shore of Lake Superior.  He recently completed his tenure as the elected President of Bay Mills Indian Community, where he previously served as Chief Judge of the Bay Mills Indian Community Tribal Court.  From 2009 to 2012, Newland served as a Counselor and Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior – Indian Affairs under President Obama.

Newland is a graduate of the Michigan State University College of Law, with a certificate from the Indigenous Law and Policy Center.  He also received his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University.  He is married to Erica Newland, and they have two children – Graydon and Meredith.