Washington State Appellate Court rules the State had no jurisdiction on a road in the Quinault Tribe Reservation.
We hold that the Quinault Tribe’s grant of a highway easement to the State did not terminate the Quinault Tribe’s interest in the land over which the highway runs and that the State did not have jurisdiction to prosecute Pink for unlawfully possessing a firearm on the road running through the tribal land. Accordingly, we affirm.
Lay advocates in tribal court do not trigger Sixth amendment rights, since they are not a “licensed professional attorney[s]”:
Thus, the issue before the court is whether a tribal public defender, who is not a licensed professional attorney but who appears in tribal court, is “counsel” within the meaning of the Sixth Amendment.
The court found that s/he was not.
From The Twin Cities Daily Planet:
Literary Collaborations
By Aimee Loiselle, The Circle
June 28, 2008
Renowned author Heid Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) currently shares her strong voice and unique perspective with two local literary collaborations. Erdrich recently wrote an essay for the anthology Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers, published by Borealis/Minnesota Historical Society Press. In addition, she is working with emerging prose and poetry writers as a mentor in The Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series.
In this long running case, the Federal Court of Claims found that IHS funding and TPS allocations do not create jurisdiction. Samish Indian Nation is trying to recover money it would have received if the Department of the Interior had not omitted the tribe from the list of federal recognized tribes from 1969-1996.
In this disturbing opinion, the court found that the child was not an Indian child under ICWA, even though both the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the child’s mother demonstrated the child is eligible for membership in the Oglala Sioux Tribe
In a contract dispute between the Tribe and NGV gaming, the court interprets Congressional intent regarding the word “is” in 25 USC 81. Specifically, the Court was concerned with whether Congress intended the word “is” to include the present and future tense.
From the tribal press release via Soo Today:
2008 general election results
SAULT STE. MARIE, ON – The Sault Tribe membership will welcome in a new chairman this year. Darwin (Joe) McCoy successfully defeated incumbent Chairperson Aaron Payment 3,853 to 3,495 to become the fourth chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
“I am really humbled about how things turned out. I look forward to working with our team members, the new and existing board members, and working for our tribal members. I would also like to thank all my supporters and look forward to bringing the tribe into better times,” stated Chairman-Elect Joe McCoy.
From the Seattle Post Intellegencer:
Excerpt:
Native American, black kids more likely to end up in foster care
Percentage of whites put in system among lowest
By JOHN IWASAKI
P-I REPORTER
Until he was 17, Charles Goodwin spent most of his teen years living with foster families and interacting with caseworkers who never fully understood him for a basic reason: None shared his Native American heritage.
The state removed him from his dysfunctional home and passed him through the child welfare system, where some foster parents referred to him as an “Injun” and disregarded his cultural interests, he said, while the state ignored his requests for a Native American caseworker.
“I do think that training and cultural awareness regarding the Native community would help,” said Goodwin, a 21-year-old Seattle resident who is part Blackfoot and Keetoowah and also goes by Miskomaengun, his Indian name. “It’s not everything, but it would be a big step.”
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Turtle Talk 
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