The Tribal Supreme Court Project: A 25-Year Story in Three Videos

NARF has published three videos on YouTube marking 25 years of the Tribal Supreme Court Project. The videos tell a story about coordinated advocacy and the work still ahead. Together, they trace the Project’s origins, show how its strategy shaped cases such as McGirt and Brackeen, and consider next steps, including earlier work in lower courts, stronger factual records, and pathways for Native attorneys to argue before the Supreme Court.

The third and future-facing video names a gap I wrote about last month. University of Colorado Law School University Distinguished Professor and Nicholas Doman Professor of International Law S. James Anaya, who argued Nevada v. Hicks in 2001, was the last Native attorney to argue before the Supreme Court. The Project’s next chapter, the speakers say, must include mentorship and pathways to a Native Supreme Court practice bar.

The videos celebrate what coordination has made possible. They also address the question of how Indian Country can work to ensure Native advocates have the opportunity to stand at the lectern in future Supreme Court oral arguments.

Click on the image above to watch the videos.

Weekend Watch: PBS North 2-minute video on Manoomin: Culture, Connection & Conservation

Click on the image to watch the video

From PBS North:

Kathleen Smith of the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission shares the deep cultural significance of manoomin, or wild rice, and its connection to Ojibwe language, food systems, and treaty rights.

Worth a Watch: POW! is an Adorable Animated Short by Cowlitz Writer/Director Joey Clift

Watch here.

Written and directed by Joey Clift (Cowlitz Indian Tribe) and created by a largely Indigenous team of Native animation professionals and allies, POW! is an 8 minute animated short about a Native kid scrambling to charge his video game console at a powwow.

The film screened at close to 100 festivals and won top animation honors at almost two dozen, including Best Native American Film at the 2026 Tonkawa Film Festival. 


Click on the image above to watch Joey Clift’s animated short, POW!

A 28 minute podcast interview with Joey Clift is available here, where he talks about the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, storytelling and animation, and Native comedians.

Indigenous Issues in Pop Culture: The Copyright Case Behind the Yellowstone TV Series’ Tribal Land Conflict

A new copyright lawsuit alleges that some of Yellowstone’s most recognizable Tribal storylines first appeared in an earlier, unproduced television series.

Lauren Salkin alleges that she spent more than a decade developing Sovereign Nation, a proposed series about Tribal governance, casino-based power, and conflicts over land and development. According to the complaint, she submitted a pilot, show bible, and pitch deck to Taylor Sheridan’s representatives in 2016 and 2017. Yellowstone premiered in 2018.

The alleged similarities include a Tribal casino serving as the center of governmental power; trust status, zoning immunity, and 99-year leases used as development leverage; expansion beyond reservation boundaries; and Gil Birmingham and Danny Huston appearing in parallel roles.

Salkin claims copyright protection for the way she arranged and dramatized those elements. If decided on the merits, the case will resolve whether that’s protectable expression or just shared material for a modern Western.

Read the complaint here.

North of North Season 2 Trailer

YAAAS

Streaming soon this fall

North of North | Season 2 Trailer

Sad News: Terrence Stamp Walks On

Here.

One of my favorite actors. Loved him in The Limey with Luis Guzman. Would have made a kick-ass Sith (if he wasn’t cast as a sad little chancellor).

Kneel before Zod:

This Guardian article is amazing.

New Film “Bad River” on Bad River v. Enbridge

A new film, BAD RIVER, narrated by Quannah ChasingHorse with Edward Norton, and produced by Allison Abner (writer for Narcos/West Wing and descendant of the Stockbridge Munsee Band), Grant Hill (owner of the Atlanta Hawks) and award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, opens in select AMC Theatres on MARCH 15-20. 

Trailer: www.BadRiverFilm.com

About:  BAD RIVER chronicles the Wisconsin-based Bad River Band and its ongoing fight for sovereignty, a story which unfolds in a groundbreaking way through a series of shocking revelations, devastating losses, and a powerful legacy of defiance. This project brings us into the present, with a David vs. Goliath battle to save Lake Superior, the largest freshwater resource in America. As Eldred Corbine, a Bad River Tribal Elder declares: “We gotta protect it… die for it, if we have to.”  And as New Yorker writer and author, Bill McKibbon wrote about the film: “It’s a powerful chronicle of some of the saddest chapters in American history, and a hopeful picture of the emerging possibilities for power in the crucial fights of our time. And oh, what beautiful country is at stake!”

Opening Cities: New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Washington DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Madison WI, Minneapolis, Ashland WI (with additional cities likely being added.)

50% of all profits will be donated back to the Bad River Band.