News

Rebecca Tsosie Named ASU Regents Professor

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here. An excerpt:

Rebecca Tsosie is one of the most highly regarded scholars of Indian law in the world, authoring more than 40 law review articles and book chapters during the past 15 years. She is co-author of the nation’s leading treatise on Indian law, “Indian Law: Native Nations and the Federal System.” Her work is widely cited and she has contributed chapters to almost every leading volume on American Indian law published since 2001.

Among the many awards she has been granted include the Native Nations Distinguished Alumnus Award from the UCLA School of Law. She is a past recipient of the American Bar Association’s 2002 Spirit of Excellence award and she was honored as Professor of the Year in 2009 at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. The University of Oregon awarded her its inaugural Oregon Tribes Professor of Law position.

As executive director of the ASU Indian Legal Program for 15 years, Tsosie was instrumental in transforming the program into one of the nation’s best and she helped in the formation of the law schools master’s degree program in Indian Law. A graduate student mentor, she also serves on many law school and university committees and she aided in the formation of the Indian Legal Clinic that was recently awarded the President’s Award for Social Embeddedness.

As a valued member of the American Indian community, she is a Supreme Court justice for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and San Carlos Apache Tribe. She is also engaged in public education efforts and training Indian law attorneys.

Salon: How Abusers Get Away with Targeting Indian Women

Matthew L.M. Fletcher4 Comments

Here.

An excerpt:

“We have serial rapists on the reservation — that are non-Indian — because they know they can get away with it,” said Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center in Lake Andes, S.D. “Many of these cases just get dropped. Nothing happens. And they know they’re free to hurt again.”

Beltway Indians: Sen. Cantwell to be New Chair of SCIA

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Senator Akaka Bids Farewell to the Senate

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Article and video of Sen. Akaka’s speech. The clip is the portion of his speech about native sovereignty, self-determination, and Hawaiian recognition.

The Nation on the Republican House Leadership and VAWA

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here.

Via Pechanga.

Michigan Public Radio Environment Report — Two Stories

Kate Fort

Here.

This morning The Environment Report covered NAGPRA and a road project in Oscoda County where workers uncovered remains. The Department of Transportation is working with the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe.

Also, the Report covered potential invasive species in the Great Lakes and an online resource developed by NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab to identify the species (including killer shrimp. Huh.).

 

White Earth Band Chippewa Tribal Council Awarded Grant for Constitutional Reform

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

White Earth Tribal Council awarded Bush Foundation grant for constitutional reform process

WHITE EARTH, MINN. –  The Bush Foundation has recently approved a grant of $379,771 to the White Earth Tribal Council to help support the White Earth Nation’s constitutional reform process. White Earth’s match of $10,394 brings the total to $390,165.

In 2009, White Earth convened a Constitution Convention and drafted and ratified a new White Earth Nation Constitution.  The Bush Foundation funds will be used to inform and prepare White Earth constituents for a referendum on the White Earth Nation Constitution.

“Constitutional reform is imperative to the sovereignty, self-determination, and economic development of the White Earth Nation,” said White Earth Chairwoman Erma J. Vizenor.

“The present Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Constitution that has governed White Earth since 1936 is a boilerplate constitution from the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934,” said Vizenor.  “This boilerplate tribal constitution is similar to a business charter, lacking a separation of powers with no provision for an independent judicial system, weak assertion of jurisdiction, and restricting tribal citizenship to eventual extinction.”

The Bush Foundation was established in 1953 by 3M executive Archibald Bush and his wife, Edyth, and today works in communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share the same geographic area.

MSU Law Alum Bryan Newland Joins Fletcher Law, PLLC

Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

FLETCHER LAW, PLLC ANNOUNCES ADDITION OF BRYAN NEWLAND

FletcherLaw, PLLC is proud to announce that Bryan Newland has joined the Firm as a Member. Bryan comes to Fletcher Law, PLLC following three years of service in President Obama’s Administration at the Department of the Interior. At the Department, Bryan served as a Policy Advisor to Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk, Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Del Laverdure, and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn.

In his service, Bryan led the Department’s efforts to reform its Indian leasing regulations, and was instrumental in the passage of the HEARTH Act. Bryan also advised the Assistant Secretary on land-into-trust matters, energy policy, and gaming policy – where he helped bring about a transformation in the Federal Government’s policy relating to tribal-state gaming compacts.Newland

Bryan is a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe), and is a 2007 graduate of the Michigan State University College of Law with a certificate from the Indigenous Law and Policy Center. He has extensive legal and policy experience relating to Indian and commercial gaming, Indian land issues, reserved treaty rights, tribal colleges, and energy development. Bryan has also represented clients relating to campaign finance compliance, election law, and other political matters.

FletcherLaw, PLLC is a national Indian-law firm based in Lansing, Michigan, and provides its clients with legal counsel and strategic consulting services. The Firm was founded in 2012 by Zeke Fletcher, a citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

 

To contact Zeke Fletcher at Fletcher Law, PLLC, email zfletcher@fletcherlawpllc.com or call (517) 755-0776. To contact Bryan Newland, email bnewland@fletcherlawpllc.com or call (517) 862-5570.

HuffPo: Eric Cantor Blocking VAWA Reauthorization because of SAVE Native Women Act

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here.

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the author of the Senate VAWA bill, went to the Senate floor on Thursday and plainly announced that House Republican leaders are blocking his bill “because of their objections to [the] … tribal provision.”

Leahy explained the provision, probably the least understood of the three additions in the Senate bill: It gives tribal courts limited jurisdiction to oversee domestic violence offenses committed against Native American women by non-Native American men on tribal lands. Currently, federal and state law enforcement have jurisdiction over domestic violence on tribal lands, but in many cases, they are hours away and lack the resources to respond to those cases. Tribal courts, meanwhile, are on site and familiar with tribal laws, but lack the jurisdiction to address domestic violence on tribal lands when it is carried out by a non-Native American individual.

That means non-Native American men who abuse Native American women on tribal lands are essentially “immune from the law, and they know it,” Leahy said.

The standoff over including VAWA protections for Native American women comes at a time of appallingly high levels of violence on tribal lands. One in three Native American women have been raped or experienced attempted rape, the New York Times reported in March, and the rate of sexual assault on Native American women is more than twice the national average. President Barack Obama has called violence on tribal lands “an affront to our shared humanity.”

Of the Native American women who are raped, 86 percent of them are raped by non-Native men, according to an Amnesty International report. That statistic is precisely what the Senate’s tribal provision targets.

The two sources say, to Cantor’s credit, his staff has said they’re willing to try to come up with other solutions to responding to violence against women on tribal lands, as long as the solution doesn’t give tribes jurisdiction over the matter. But proponents of the Senate bill see the limited jurisdictional change as the only realistic way to address the problem.

Update on the White House Tribal Nations Conference

Ann Tweedy1 Comment

Here’s a link to watch the Conference live: www.doi.gov/live [or try here] I understand from friends at Swinomish that Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby will be introducing President Obama at 1:30 EST. However, there have been a lot of corrections to the time of the introduction, so no guarantees on the time.

The earlier post on the conference is here: https://turtletalk.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/president-obama-announces-2012-white-house-tribal-nations-conference/