Lecture

Saginaw Valley St. Univ. Barstow Lecture on Indian Law — April 1

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here (the paper is here):

Barstow Lecturer to Explain History of Indian Land Law

Saginaw Valley State University will host a lecture by American Indian legal expert Matthew Fletcher Thursday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall. In his talk, he will explain how a 2007 decree finally ended a 170-year-old dispute regarding Michigan Indians’ land rights. The lecture is part of SVSU’s Barstow Humanities Seminar series.

Fletcher says the delay owes its origins to miscommunication. In 1836, five Michigan Indian tribes entered into a treaty with the state and federal governments over “inland rights” – a treaty in which the Indians ceded their land in exchange for defined areas where they could fish, hunt and gather. The problem was that two of the treaty’s key words – “occupancy” and “settlement” – had vastly different meanings in the local Indian language. Relying on their understanding, the Indians agreed to the treaty.

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Prof. Fletcher to Deliver USD Dillon Lecture

Kate Fort

From the Sioux City Journal:

USD Dillon Lecture to Address Indian Law

By Nick Hytrek Journal staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 10:00 am |

VERMILLION, S.D. — Michigan State University law professor Matthew L.M. Fletcher will present the University of South Dakota’s annual Dillon Lecture, “Rebooting Indian Law in the Supreme Court.”

Fletcher’s lecture is set for 7 p.m. Feb. 18 in the law school courtroom.

In addition to teaching courses on Indian law, Fletcher sits as an appellate judge for various tribes.

The Dillon Lecture is being presented in conjunction with the South Dakota Law Review Symposium, scheduled for 10 a.m. Feb. 18 in the law school courtroom. In addition to the symposium, USD’s Native American Law Students Association is hosting the 2010 National NALSA Moot Court Competition Feb. 19-20.

The Dillon Lecture is named for Charles Hall Dillon, a pioneer South Dakota lawyer and South Dakota Supreme Court justice who died in 1928.

Fletcher Talk before UCLA Critical Race Studies Program Today

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

I’ll be speaking at UCLA today about my book project tentatively titled, “Consent and Resistance: American Indians and Consent Theory.”

Here’s the flyer for the entire speaker series:

CRS Native Speaker Series flyer

American Indian Sports Mascots Talk Tonight at MSU

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Indian Heritage Month Talks at GVSU This Week

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Loosemore Auditorium

6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Special Guest:  Dennis Banks

Movie:  We Shall Remain: Episode V – Wounded Knee followed by a firsthand discussion with Dennis Banks.

Dennis Banks (Ojibwe) is one of the co-founders of the American Indian Movement (AIM).  AIM began in Minneapolis in 1968 to prevent police brutality against urban Indians.  It grew rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Banks took a leading role in the decisions leading to the takeovers of Alcatraz Island and Bureau of Indian Affairs Office in Washington D.C., to bring attention to the poor living conditions American Indians endured throughout the United States.  In 2004, he authored Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement.

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

L.V. Eberhard Center, 2nd Floor, Auditorium

7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Movie:  The Business of Fancydancing (Written & directed by Sherman Alexie)

Special Guests:  Paul Collins, Jennifer Gauthier, Shannon Martin

Friday, November 13th, 2009

L.V. Eberhard Center, 2nd Floor

5:15 p.m.: Traditional Native American Ceremony

5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.:  Journey to Forgiveness: Implications for Social Change

Special Guests:  Hunter Genia, George Martin, Shannon Martin

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Seating is first come/first serve – overflow seating in the Eberhard Auditorium and DeVos Center)

Special Guest:  Sherman Alexie

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Talk at Columbia Law School re: DV in Indian Country

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

I’ll be presenting my paper “Addressing the Epidemic of Domestic Violence in Indian Country by Restoring Tribal Sovereignty” at Columbia Law School today, on the gracious invitation of the Columbia NALSA and Domestic Violence Project.

Linda Hogan to Speak at Aquinas College Next Week

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

As part of the continuing Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College , Linda Hogan, one of the most influential and provocative Native American figures in contemporary American literature, will read and speak in the Wege Center Ballroom on the Aquinas campus.  The event will be held on October 29 at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Hogan, a Chickasaw poet, novelist, essayist, playwright and activist, grew up in a military family, spending most of her childhood in Oklahoma and Colorado .  Hogan received her master’s degree in English and creative writing from the University of Colorado , and was the writer-in-residence for the states of Colorado and Oklahoma .  In 1982 she became an assistant professor in the TRIBES program at Colorado College , Colorado Springs after which she became an associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota .  She then moved to the University of Colorado as a professor in the English department.  She left that position to become a full-time writer.  Hogan’s writing is prolific, and she has distinguished herself as a political ideologist and an environmental/philosophical theorist.

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Podcast on the History of the Department of Interior: “Sick Man” of American Government

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Thanks to Legal History Blog for this one (the “sick man” line is from that blog):

Patricia Limerick
Parks and Politics: Saving the American Environment
The University of Colorado, Boulder
July 22, 2008
Running Time: 51:41 (click here to find the play button)


Bureaucrats, University of Colorado professor of history Patricia Limerick argues, are often the most overlooked (at best) or reviled (at worst) of government officials, but they wield tremendous powers that shape Americans’ daily lives. Nowhere is this more true than in the bureaucracy of the U.S. Department of the Interior. A wide-ranging agency charged with both protecting land and promoting its use, the Department of the Interior implements federal law over millions of acres of land and mediates the claims of environmental, mining, foresting, farming, and ranching interests, among others. Bureaucracies like the Department of the Interior may be boring, Limerick argues, but historians cannot ignore their impact on the development of the American West.

Talk before the U-M ACS Chapter re: Domestic Violence in Indian Country — April 9

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

I’ll be presenting a short talk on my ACS Issue Brief “Addressing the Epidemic of Domestic Violence in Indian Country by Restoring Tribal Sovereignty” this Thursday at 12:20 at the University of Michigan Law School.

The U-M ACS chapter and the U-M NALSA —  are co-hosting.

Stuart Banner Talk Tuesday, March 24

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The Indigenous Law and Policy Center is pleased to host Stuart Banner, a UCLA law professor and author of “Possessing the Pacific” and “How the Indians Lost Their Land” Tuesday, March 24, at 11 AM.

Prof. Banner will be talking about these two books. Michigan State Prof. Charles Ten Brink and U-M History VAP/ post-doctoral fellow at the Michigan Society of Fellows Miranda Johnson will be serving as commentators after Prof. Banner speaks.

Prof. Banner’s talk is part of the Center’s spring speaker series, in which we bring in authors of recent books relating in some way to Federal Indian Law.

The talk is at 11 AM in the Castle Board Room, and a light lunch will be provided. Hope to see you there!