Here is the study.
Here is news coverage.
Canadian Committee Declines to Recommend a National Inquiry into Violence against Aboriginal Women
Here is the study.
Here is news coverage.
Criminal
Eighth Circuit Affirms Conviction of Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Member for Misapplication of Tribal Funds
Here is the opinion in United States v. Wanna.
An excerpt:
A jury convicted Charlene Wanna of misapplication of funds from an Indian tribal organization and aiding and abetting in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1163 and 2. The district court sentenced Wanna to 33 months imprisonment. Wanna appeals her conviction and sentence. Having appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.
The briefs:
Casper Star-Tribune Editorial on the ILOC Report
Here.
First Circuit Reverses Contempt Citation against Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office
Here is the opinion in the sealed case In re Grand Jury Proceedings:
An excerpt:
A venerable legal Latinism, lex non cogit ad impossibilia, teaches that the law does not compel the impossible. Guided by that august adage, we hold that a subpoena duces tecum compelling the production of documents to a now-defunct grand jury cannot be enforced by civil contempt sanctions before a successor grand jury, and we accordingly vacate the district court’s order holding the appellant in civil contempt. We reject, however, the appellant’s additional contentions that tribal sovereign immunity shielded it from subpoena and that the subpoena was unreasonably broad in scope.
A cautionary note about raising tribal immunity from a federal subpoena:
For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the subpoena duces tecum was unenforceable after the expiration of the issuing grand jury. We therefore vacate the district court’s order holding NITHPO in civil contempt. In the event a subpoena similar in scope is subsequently issued and NITHPO again challenges its validity, our holdings on tribal sovereign immunity and reasonableness of the subpoena shall apply to any such proceeding.
Phil Tinker on Tribal Authority to Regulate Nonmember Conduct in Indian Country
Phil Tinker has posted his paper, “In Search of a Civil Solution: Tribal Authority to Regulate Nonmember Conduct in Indian Country,” forthcoming in the September 2014 issue of the Tulsa Law Review.
Here is the abstract:
Violence in Indian Country is epidemic. Tribal governments, which ostensibly have primary responsibility for keeping the peace within their territory, are hampered by restrictive federal laws that prohibit Tribes from exercising criminal authority over non-Indians. This is so even where those non-Indian lawbreakers live on the reservation and commit acts of violence against tribal members. Instead, the federal government is responsible for investigating and prosecuting most on-reservation crime. This irrational system is the product an archaic federal policies dating back to the 19th century that have never been adequate to protect Indian communities.
ILPC Victoria Sweet on The Human Trafficking of Indigenous Women in the Circumpolar Region of the United States and Canada
Our own Victoria Sweet has posted her newest paper, “Rising Waters, Rising Threats: The Human Trafficking of Indigenous Women in the Circumpolar Region of the United States and Canada.”
Here is the abstract:
Among indigenous people around the world, human trafficking is taking a tremendous toll. While trafficking is not an exclusively indigenous issue, disproportionately large numbers of indigenous people, particularly women, are modern trafficking victims. In Canada, several groups concerned about human trafficking have conducted studies primarily focused on the sex trade because many sex workers are actually trafficking victims under both domestic and international legal standards. These studies found that First Nations women and youth represent between 70 and 90% of the visible sex trade in areas where the Aboriginal population is less than 10%. Very few comparable studies have been conducted in the United States, but studies in both Minnesota and Alaska found similar statistics among U.S. indigenous women.
With the current interest in resource extraction, and other opportunities in the warming Arctic, people from outside regions are traveling north in growing numbers. This rise in outside interactions increases the risk that the indigenous women may be trafficked. Recent crime reports from areas that have had an influx of outsiders such as Williston, North Dakota, U.S. and Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, both part of the new oil boom, demonstrate the potential risks that any group faces when people with no community accountability enter an area. The combination of development in rural locations, the demographic shift of outsiders moving to the north, and the lack of close monitoring in this circumpolar area is a potential recipe for disaster for indigenous women in the region. This paper suggests that in order to protect indigenous women, countries and indigenous nations must acknowledge this risk and plan for ways to mitigate risk factors.
NPR on the VAWA Tribal Jurisdictional Provisions
Here.
An excerpt:
This Thursday, three Native American tribes are changing how they administer justice.
For almost four decades, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling has barred tribes from prosecuting non-American Indian defendants. But as part of last year’s re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a new program now allows tribes to try some non-Indian defendants in domestic abuse cases.
It will be another year before the program expands to other eligible federally-recognized tribes around the country in March 2015. But the Department of Justice has selected three tribes to exercise this authority first, including the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, and the Tulalip Tribes, located north of Seattle.
Tenth Circuit Affirms MCA Conviction over Indian Status Defense
Here is the opinion in United States v. Nowlin.
Briefs later today after the dentist. Briefs here:
Eighth Circuit Affirms Pine Ridge Man’s Drug Conviction, but Criticizes Harsh Sentence
Here is the opinion in Walking Eagle v. United States.
And footnote 2 (joined by two of the judges):
In affirming the denial of postconviction relief to Walking Eagle, we nevertheless observe that Walking Eagle’s 20-year mandatory minimum sentence is another example of a harsh sentence that is required for a non-violent crime in what now seems generally recognized as this country’s continuing but unsuccessful War on Drugs. On August 12, 2013, in a speech before the American Bar Association, United States Attorney General Eric Holder emphasized the need to “fundamentally rethink[] the notion of mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes,” as these sentences “oftentimes generate unfairly long sentences” and, as a result, “breed disrespect for the system.” Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States, United States Department of Justice, Remarks at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates (Aug. 12, 2013), available at http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2013/ag-speech-130812.html.
News Coverage of DOJ Taskforce Hearing #2
Here. An excerpt:
Daniel Cauffman, 21, can speak candidly about the physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepmother when he was a child.
He knows his story of closed-fist punches coupled with other acts of physical violence speaks for hundreds – if not thousands – of children on Native American lands across the country.
“I hope it does help,” said Cauffman, a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Mich.
He was one of several young people to give testimony Tuesday alongside regional experts at a public hearing for the advisory committee to the Attorney General’s Task Force on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence.
“I’m glad they do stuff like this ’cause it does raise awareness,” Cauffman said. “As far as hopes goes, hopefully we can pull kids out of the situation.”
More detailed coverage here.
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