Scholars of Federal Indian law have often celebrated President Richard Nixon for advancing tribal interests through legislation and policy initiatives. Far less attention has been paid to his impact on Federal Indian law through the appointments he made to the U.S. Supreme Court. During the time his four appointees served together, the Supreme Court rendered three decisions that are among the most harmful to tribal interests of the modern era. Whether any President should be held responsible for the decisions of his appointees is no simple question. It is worth noting, however, that President Nixon had every reason to know the issues in those three cases would likely reach the Supreme Court. Yet he did not investigate or take into account his appointees’ views on Native issues before making the appointments. Further, for at least one of the appointees—the one most consistently hostile to tribal interests—there was ample evidence of those views had President Nixon cared to check.

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A growing body of international legal principles recognizes the right of indigenous people to water resources as a key component of their rights to self-determination, land, and economic self-sufficiency. These legal norms impose obligations on states both to recognize this right and to take affirmative steps to allow indigenous people to realize it. While the United States has not formally acceded to many of the applicable international instruments, the primary principles are embodied in instruments it has joined, and, in addition, some of these principles may constitute customary international law that applies regardless of accession.

Part I of this Article examines this body of legal principles as they relate to indigenous people’s access to water resources and also examines the international institutions which have been set up to interpret and implement these principles. Part II discusses the bipartisan federal policy over the last five decades in the United States to promote and protect the self-determination of Indian Tribes and the specific actions the United States has taken over that time period concerning Indian water rights. Finally, Part III discusses how international legal principles and mechanisms might be used to support a more comprehensive approach by the United States to address the unmet water needs of Tribes, rather than the current approach that focuses primarily on the adjudication and settlement of individual Tribes’ legal claims to water.

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Criminal jurisdiction in Indian country is defined by a central, ironic paradox. Recent federal laws expanding tribal criminal jurisdiction are, in many respects, enormous victories for Indian country, as they acknowledge and reify a more robust notion of tribal sovereignty, one capable of accommodating increased tribal control over safety and security on Indian reservations. At the same time, the laws make clear that sovereignty comes at a price, potentially working to effectuate further assimilation of tribal courts and Indian people. As a result, at the same time that tribal sovereignty gains ground in ways critical to autonomy and self-governance, it is simultaneously threatened by exogenous forces that have the potential to homogenize tribal justice systems legally, politically, and—in particular—culturally.

This Article offers the first comprehensive assessment of the Tribal Law and Order Act and the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, respectively, to show how they relate to one another on the ground and the implications for tribal sovereignty and self-determination. Ultimately, based on data compiled for the first time as well as extensive secondary sources, I argue that expanded criminal jurisdiction and punishment authority have, perhaps paradoxically, enhanced the ability of tribes to develop and enforce policies, laws, and procedures that are consistent with tribal custom and tradition. This presents a unique opportunity worthy of further exploration. In other words, rather than sovereignty and assimilation expanding in tension with one another, I find that the application of the laws has been experienced in tribal communities, as least anecdotally and preliminarily, as greatly enhancing—not threatening or destroying—tribal sovereignty and Indian cultural survival.

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