Education

News Coverage of Michigan v. Illinois/US in Asian Carp Suit

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

One question might be … why wait until the Supreme Court goes into its holiday recess?

From the Detroit News:

Detroit — Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to flex its muscle in the fight to keep invasive Asian carp from Lake Michigan. In a press conference this morning, Cox announced his intention to sue the State of Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to force them to close off waterways leading to the lake.

His move comes just weeks after authorities poisoned a section of the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal to halt the spread of the carp, which are considered a major threat to the ecosystem of Lake Michigan. That project produced one Asian carp above an electrical barrier designed to keep the fish out of Lake Michigan.

“With the finding of (Asian carp) DNA within 6 miles of Lake Michigan recently … quite simply, now is the time,” Cox said. “These agencies have not acted quickly enough.”

Cox is calling for:

Continue reading →

News Article about Tohatchi Elementary School

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From Yahoo:

TOHATCHI, N.M. – Fifth grader Darius Yazzie’s after-school chores include hauling water for horses and feeding chickens, while his classmate, Shanika Begay, rides a bus 15 miles each way through the rolling hills of this impoverished corner of the Navajo Nation.

Some students travel a much greater distance, as far as 45 miles on dirt roads that become impassable in bad weather. Some of their homes lack electricity and running water. About 83 percent of Shanika’s and Darius’ classmates are poor, according to state data, with about 80 percent designated as English language learners.
While Tohatchi Elementary School is a new building this year, with walls decorated with Navajo language posters and student artwork, the demographics of poverty and language have added up in the past to some of the worst test scores in New Mexico.

But about four years ago, Shanika, Darius and other students noticed a change.

A bespectacled, mustachioed man with a buoyant character was there to greet them each morning. George Bickert, who as a first-year principal had to get a special waiver to take the job, immediately learned his students’ names. He gave them smiles, hugs and high fives. He led early morning basketball games, which Darius loved.

Like those games, Bickert turned academics into a challenge, one that he believed these students could win. And win they did.

Tohatchi boosted its math scores from 15 percent of the students being proficient in 2006 to nearly 78 percent this year. Reading scores rose from nearly 28 percent of the students being proficient to almost 71 percent this year, according to state data. Continue reading →

Michigan Indian Day is TOMORROW!

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Registration materials are here.

Here is the agenda:

Morning keynote:

9:15-10:30 AM — Historical Context of Boarding School Experiences & the Reverberation to Subsequent Generations

—Suzanne Cross, PhD

10:45 AM-Noon — S-1 — Intra & Inter Generational Effects of Boarding School Experiences: From the Voices of Native Women

—Le Anne Silvey, PhD, MSW

10:45 AM-Noon — S-2 — Intergenerational Trauma: Recognizing & Treating Grief & Loss in American Indian/First Nations College Students

—J. Tawa Sina, PhD

10:45 AM-Noon — S-3 — Boarding Schools & Scholarship: Considerations in Research

—James M. McClurken & Veronica Pasfield

10:45 AM-Noon — S-4 — Traditional Approaches to Prevention of Stress, Diabetes & Heart Disease

—Reddog Sina, DO, PhD

1:30-2:45 PM — S-7 — Healing the Hidden Scars: Coping with the After Effects of Historical Abuse

—Susan M. Montroy, MSW/LMSW

1:30-2:45 PM — S-8 — The Role of Language in the Revitalization of Identity Formation

—Helen Roy, Adam Haviland, and Autumn Ellie Mitchell

1:30-2:45 PM — S-9 — Substance Abuse Prevention & Treatment

—Cheryl Samuels, PhD

1:30-2:45 PM — S-10 — Elders’ Discussant Session: Historical Trauma, Boarding School Food Socialization, Intergeneration Eating Habits & Health

—Heather Howard, PhD

Afternoon keynote:

3:00-4:15 PM — Healing the Wounds: Historical Trauma & Urban Health Disparities

—Jerilyn Church and Josette French, MD

Amicus Brief in American Indian Religious Freedom Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

We filed a short amicus brief in A.A. v. Needville Indep. Sch. District before the Fifth Circuit (Needville-Historian Amicus Brief) on behalf of Drs. Suzanne Cross and K. Tsianina Lomawaima.

The ACLU of Texas is lead counsel in this case, a challenge to a Texas public school’s decision to suspend a kindergarden student because he refused to cut his long hair. He is a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe. The family was successful before the district court, but the school district appealed.

Other materials:

Arocha DCT Order

Appellees Brief

2009.04.27 Appellants Brief

University of Montana School of Law Dean Search

Kate Fort

One of the five finalists for the Montana Law School dean position practices Indian law. Greg Murphy is admitted to three tribal bars in Montana. He lists Indian law as one of his main practice areas.

h/t The Faculty Lounge

Lloyd Miller: A New Deal for Native America

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

From Lloyd Miller, partner in the law firm of Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry, LLP:

In only two months President Obama has already begun to make his mark in forging a new era in Native American affairs.  After eight years marked mostly by neglect, this is welcome news, for Tribal leaders have been yearning for the profound change that can only come from a committed White House — change that calls upon the Nation not only to remember its forgotten First Americans, but to craft a new deal that embraces tribal governments as true partners in the Nation’s family of governments.  Under President Obama, all indications are that this new deal will include promoting genuine tribal self-determination, honoring the unique place Indian Tribes occupy under the Constitution, and honoring fully the trust responsibility born of treaties and the Nation’s tragic early history with Indian Tribes.

Most Americans are only dimly aware of today’s tribal governments, and for many that knowledge is limited to casinos.  Few know that less than one-half of America’s 562 Tribes actually operate gaming facilities of any kind (nearly half of them in California).  Few know that, of those that do, the well-known top 10% account for over 50% of total tribal gambling revenues, while roughly half the Tribes account for less than 10%.  The fact is, across Native America gambling is commonly little more than a breakeven proposition, providing local employment and moderately enhanced health, educational and public services.

Still, popular interest in Indian gambling has eclipsed the real picture of Native America, which remains largely out of the public eye: communities living in third world conditions without basic running water or sanitation and suffering disproportionately high rates of communicable diseases; reservations and villages with little physical infrastructure; child suicide rates 2.5 times the national average (and for teens in some regions, 17 times the national average); overwhelmed law enforcement and justice systems funded at 40% the national average, with half of all offenders on the street due to dangerously overcrowded facilities; and crumbling schools with over $800 million in deferred maintenance, producing children who score lower in reading, math and history than every other ethnic group in America.

Although in many places conditions are improving, for too many in too many places America has gravely neglected its First Americans.
Continue reading →

Two Recent Indian Law Related Posts at the Legal History Blog

Kate Fort

Here are two recent Legal History Blog posts which may be of interests to readers of this blog.  Follow the links for more information about both:

Hernandez-Saenz Reviews “Empire of Laws and Indian Justice in Colonial Mexico”

H-Law has published “Law and Indigenous Peoples in Seventeenth-Century Mexico,” a review by Luz Maria Hernandez-Saenz, Department of History, University of Western Ontario, of Brian Philip Owensby’s Empire of Law and Indian Justice in Colonial Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2008).

Soliz and Joseph on Native American Literature, Ceremony and Law

Native American Literature, Ceremony, and Law is a new essay by Cristine Soliz, Colorado State University-Pueblo, and Harold Joseph. It will appear in MLA OPTIONS FOR TEACHING LITERATURE AND LAW, Austin Sarat, Cathrine Frank, Matthew Anderson, eds., 2009. Here’s the abstract (only the abstract, not a fuller essay, is available to download on SSRN).

UVIC Law 2009 Summer Session and Indigenous Law Program

Kate Fort

The Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, will once again be offering a Summer Session of fully accredited LL.B. degree courses in Summer 2009 (May 6 to August 17). In addition to course offerings in subjects such as Evidence, Business Associations, and Civil Procedure, we are particularly delighted to announce that the 2009 Summer Session will feature a special concentration in Indigenous Law – a program that consists of three innovative courses taught on an intensive basis over 6 weeks (June 29 to August 17) and focusing on the relationship between Canadian law and the legal systems of three Indigenous Nations.

Professors for the Indigenous Law courses include:

Dr. John Borrows, F.R.S.C., Law Foundation Professor in Aboriginal Justice, UVic Law (Ojibway)

Dr. Gordon Christie, Professor, UBC Law (Inuit)

Professor Val Napoleon, Professor of Law and Native Studies, University of Alberta (Cree & Dunne’zaa)

The Indigenous Law Courses to be offered (June 29 to August 17) are:

Law 340 Indigenous Lands, Rights and Governments (1.5 units)

Law 343 A03 The Management of Interpersonal Relations in the Legal Orders of Indigenous Peoples (1.5 units)

Indigenous Elders and practitioners will also be involved in the course delivery, and there will be a special conference in Indigenous Legal Traditions during the Program on July 16-17.

These courses will provide an unparalleled insight into the relationship between Canadian law and Indigenous legal traditions that will break new ground in the field. Experience developed in the Program will be used to develop further courses and programs on Indigenous peoples’ laws within Canadian law schools.

Law students from other Canadian law schools, lawyers, and graduate students from other disciplines studying Indigenous issues are encouraged to apply and participate in this exciting Indigenous Program.

For further information please contact:

UVic Law’s Admissions Office:
Faculty of Law
University of Victoria
PO Box 2400 STN CSC,
Victoria, BC V8W 3H7

Phone: (250) 721-8151
Fax: (250) 721-6390
Email: lawadmss@uvic.ca<mailto:lawadmss@uvic.ca>

Meg Noori in the Freep

Kate Fort

Patricia Montemurri at The Freep profiles Meg Noori, a University of Michigan professor who teaches Anishinaabemowin.  Click through for some nice photos and an audio clip of her class.

“Izhaadaa Giizhigowaande!

Catch Margaret (Meg) Noori at any University of Michigan event and that’s how she exhorts fellow Wolverines to “Let’s Go, Blue.”

Meg, 43, is a professor of Ojibwe Language and Literature. In the classroom and at home, she seeks to celebrate and preserve a language of the American Indians who populated the Great Lakes region for several hundred years before European settlers arrived.

Using the language of her ancestors every day, says Meg, “is one of the most meaningful things I can do.”

US v. Nystrom — Bribery of Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Official

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

In this case, the District of South Dakota accepted a magistrate report and recommendation not to dismiss federal charges of bribing a tribal school official.

us-v-nystrom-dct-order

us-v-nystrom-magistrate-report