Patrice Kunesh, Bill Wood, Elizabeth Conway, Jenn Weddle
Incidentally, Bill Wood’s paper, It Wasn’t An Accident: The Tribal Sovereign Immunity Story, is here.
economic development
Reservation Infrastructure Panel at Fed Bar 2014
Patrice Kunesh, Elsie Meeks, Catherine Munson, Bryan Newland, Christine Williams
Fed Bar 2014 Energy Panel
Carla Fredericks, Lynn Slade, Pilar Thomas
Lac Vieux Desert Releases Video about Its Lending Enterprise
Here. Titled “Frozen Homeland.” The blurb: “How the Lac Vieux Desert tribe funds propane for its enrolled members when the tribe finds its homeland frozen in the harshest winter they’ve ever known.”
Supreme Court Declines to Review Old Section 81 Appeal
The Court declined to review Quantum Entertainment Ltd. v. Dept. of Interior. Order list here.
Lower court materials here.
Cert stage briefs:
Quantum Entertainment Cert Petition
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Moves against Three Tribal Payday Lenders UPDATED
Here are the materials in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Great Plains Lending LLC, Mobiloans LLC, and Plain Green LLC (C.D. Cal.):
1 CFPB CID Enforcement Petition
UPDATE:
“Considerations for Climate Change and Variability Adaptation on the Navajo Nation”
Julie Nania & Karen Cozzetto have published “Considerations for Climate Change and Variability Adaptation on the Navajo Nation,” a report coming out of the Getches-Wilkinson Center at CU Law.
The report pdf is here.
Ninth Circuit Affirms Interior’s Decision to Authorize Gold Mine on Mt. Tenabo
Here is the order in Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada v. Dept. of Interior:
CA9 Unpublished Memorandum w Dissent
An excerpt from the dissent:
The BLM’s analysis of why E.O. 13007 did not apply was faulty for three reasons: the analysis failed to recognize that comments regarding the proposal did point to the area where the mine is being built as an area in which worship occurs; it demanded quantification of that use as a condition of Executive Order coverage, when no such quantification is necessary; and it required greater specificity of location than comports with Shoshone religious practices. As to the last point, to require greater specificity would interfere with Shoshone religious practices, as those practices appear to regard certain recognized natural areas, rather than specific set locations, as places for worship.
Briefs are here.
Suit against Lac Vieux Desert Band over Tribal Payday Lending
Here is the complaint in Decker v. RS Financial Services LLC (W.D. Okla.):
An excerpt:
1. This is a lawsuit to recover damages arising from the Defendants’ unconscionable loan/pawn finance charges, which are far in excess of any state’s usury limits.
2. Upon information and belief, RS Financial Services, LLC (“RS Financial”) and Sovereign Lending Solutions, LLC (“Sovereign”) are related entities owned and controlled by Defendant William McKibbin (“McKibbin”), and are in the business of making loans at usurious interest rates.3. Sovereign claims to be an arm of and affiliated with Defendant Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians (“Lac Vieux Tribe”), and to be afforded governmental sovereign immunity.
4. Upon information and belief, the Lac Vieux Tribe receives a fee for allowing Sovereign to claim this affiliation. However, even if the affiliation between Sovereign and the Lac Vieux Tribe was otherwise valid, the conduct alleged in this Complaint is not protected by governmental sovereign immunity.
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