Announcements

New Yale University Press Book on The History of the Tule River Tribe (by Gelya Frank & Carole Goldberg)

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Defying the Odds

The Tule River Tribe’s Struggle for Sovereignty in Three Centuries

  • Gelya Frank and Carole Goldberg

  • Mar 15, 2010
    432 p., 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
    40 b/w illus. + 15 maps
    ISBN: 9780300120165
    ISBN-10: 0300120168

An anthropologist and a legal scholar combine expertise in this innovative book, deploying the history of one California tribe—the Tule River Tribe—in a definitive study of indigenous sovereignty from earliest contact through the current Indian gaming era.

Gelya Frank is Professor of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy and Anthropology at the University of Southern California and Director of the Tule River Tribal History Project. Carole Goldberg is the Jonathan D. Varat Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles and Director of the Joint Degree Program in Law and American Indian Studies.

NAGPRA Review Committee Call for Information from Tribes about NAGPRA Compliance

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Federal Register: “For the May 14 meeting, the Review Committee is soliciting presentations by Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, museums, and Federal agencies on both the positive experiences and the barriers encountered with NAGPRA compliance. The deadline for submitting presentations on this topic is April 9, 2010. Electronic submissions are preferred, and are to be sent to: David_Tarler@ nps.gov.

Mailed submissions are to be sent to:
Designated Federal Officer, NAGPRA
Review Committee, National Park
Service, National NAGPRA Program,
1201 Eye Street, NW., 8th Floor (2253),
Washington, DC 20005.

NNABA Annual Meeting Agenda for TODAY

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

NNABA ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE

DATE:            Wednesday April 7, 2010

TIME:            4:00-6:00pm (Changed from 1:00-5:00pm time in Fed Bar agenda)

LOCATION: Fed Bar Conference/Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino, Sante Fe, NM

ROOM:          Mesa A-B

AGENDA
(1) National Legislative and Litigation Update
John Dossett, General Counsel, National Congress

(2) NNABA Native Identity Fraud-“Box-Checking” Initiative Update/LSAC Minority Enrollment Updates
Mary Smith, Obama Nominee AAG DOJ Tax Division
Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, President-Elect NNABA

(3) Obama Administration Nominations/Judicial Nominations/“Tribal Liaison” Positions
Heather Dawn Thompson, Past-President NNABA

(4) Discussion of Newly Proposed NNABA Resolutions

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NAGPRA Repatriation Roundtable at University of Michigan — April 9

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

REPATRIATION ROUNDTABLE

MOVING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Friday, April 9

2:30-3:30pm

4448 East Hall

With the new federal regulations of Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) regarding “culturally unidentifiable” human remains becoming law in May, this roundtable, sponsored by the Ethnography-as-Activism Repatriation Subgroup, seeks to explore the University of Michigan’s future in the process of implementing these new regulations.

Please join us for short presentations from our panelists followed by what we hope is an engaging conversation.

Speakers:

  • Dean Toni Antonucci
    • Chair, Advisory Committee on Culturally Unidentifiable Human Remains (CUHR) under NAGPRA; Associate Vice President for Research – Social Sciences and Humanities; Professor, Department of Psychology; and Research Professor, Institute for Social Research
  • Professor Wenona Singel
    • Assistant Professor of Law & Associate Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center at Michigan State University
  • Professor Stuart Kirsch
    • Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, UM

For more information about our group and about NAGPRA, please visit our website:


“The institution could not have a future with tribes until it had resolved its past”
Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Anthropology News, March 2010

Saginaw Valley St. Univ. Barstow Lecture on Indian Law — April 1

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here (the paper is here):

Barstow Lecturer to Explain History of Indian Land Law

Saginaw Valley State University will host a lecture by American Indian legal expert Matthew Fletcher Thursday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall. In his talk, he will explain how a 2007 decree finally ended a 170-year-old dispute regarding Michigan Indians’ land rights. The lecture is part of SVSU’s Barstow Humanities Seminar series.

Fletcher says the delay owes its origins to miscommunication. In 1836, five Michigan Indian tribes entered into a treaty with the state and federal governments over “inland rights” – a treaty in which the Indians ceded their land in exchange for defined areas where they could fish, hunt and gather. The problem was that two of the treaty’s key words – “occupancy” and “settlement” – had vastly different meanings in the local Indian language. Relying on their understanding, the Indians agreed to the treaty.

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Indian Law Clinic Symposium — June 20-21, 2010 @ ABQ

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Flyer here: SAVE THE DATE Flyer

Michigan Indian Law Day Agenda (UPDATED) — April 2

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

University of Michigan NALSA

2010 Indian Law Day Schedule

Looking Inward: Tribal Governance

Blessing

1:00 – 1:10

Joseph Brave-Heart

Keynote Speaker

1:10 -1:40

Frank Ettawageshik

Former Tribal Chairman, Little Traverse Bay

Bands of Odawa Indians

Tribal Constitutions

1:45 – 2:25

Allie Maldonado, Assistant General Counsel,

Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians

Mike Phelan, Office of the General Counsel

Pokagon Band Potawatomi Indians

Tribal Courts

2:30 – 3:10

Prof. Matthew Fletcher, Michigan State University College of Law

Amy Kullenberg, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians

Break/Refreshments

3:10 – 3:25

Tribal Economic Diversification

3:25 – 4:05

Zeke Fletcher, Associate, Rosette & Associates

Prof. Matthew Fletcher, Michigan State University College of Law

Dance for Mother Earth Powwow — April 10-11, Saline Middle School

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Materials here.

Press Release – 2010 Powwow

ANN ARBOR, MI—For the second year in a row, the University of Michigan campus will not hear the sound of powwow drums, singing, and jingle dancing. Nor will it host some 5,000 Native dancers, drummers, artisans and other powwow people at the annual event—one of the largest student run powwows in the country.

The Native American Student Association (NASA) at the University of Michigan announces its decision to keep the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow from the campus of the University of Michigan.  The 38th Annual Dance for Mother Earth Powwow again will be held at Saline Middle School April 10-11, 2010.

The reason? In honor of their ancestors, they are continuing their protest of the University’s ongoing failure to return ancestral human remains to tribes—and to meet federal requirements to engage tribes towards that end.

According to federal inventories, the University Of Michigan Museum Of Anthropology holds 1,390 individuals in its archaeology “collection.” Despite three years of advocacy on the part of many tribal, student and faculty groups, archaeology curators have been steadfast in resisting legal and ethical calls for the reburial of these individuals. Michigan tribes have officially and unofficially notified the museum that by failing to proactively pursue consultation with tribes, the university is in violation of a federal law.  The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed in 1990, requires museums to conduct tribal consultation and to apply due diligence in obtaining it.

Last October—nearly two decades after NAGPRA was passed—U of M got serious about developing appropriate protocols about Native human remains in its “collection.” The U announced the formation of a committee to develop “advice that is pro-active, respectful and responsive to all interested parties.*

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U-M Law Day 2010 Poster (April 2, 2010)

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

U-M Law School, April 2, 2010, at 1-5 PM.

Confirmed speakers include Frank Ettawageshik, Matthew Fletcher, Allie Maldonado, Mike Phelan, and Zeke Fletcher.

Angela Riley to Join UCLA Law & American Indian Studies

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Angela Riley, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and one of its appellate justices, and a tenured law professor at Southwestern Law School, will join the UCLA Law School faculty as a tenured professor. Professor Riley also will be Director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center.

This is outstanding news for Indian Country and American Indian studies!