Here is the article.
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| From left, Sturgeon Bay Singers Gary Gibson, Joe Medicine, and Duane Gross participate in a feast and celebration at Camp KinoMaage. (Photo by Dana Sitzler) | |
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News
Oregon approves protective new water quality standards
The standards will become effective once they receive EPA approval. The State’s press release reports that they were developed in collaboration with tribes and others and that they are designed to be protective of those, including tribal members, who consume large amounts of fish. The press release is here.
NYTs Coverage of Interior Shift on Off-Reservation Casinos
Here.
An excerpt:
Rescinding a Bush-era rule, the Interior Department said Tuesday that it would consider allowing Indian tribes to build casinos far from their reservations, raising the possibility that new gambling resorts could be built close to New York and elsewhere around the country.
The rule, adopted in January 2008, said that tribes could not open casinos beyond commuting distance from their reservations, and led to the rejection of at least 22 applications, including one by the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, which wanted to build a casino 350 miles from its reservation and 90 miles northwest of New York City.
Another tribe seeking to build a casino near New York, the Stockbridge-Munsee, sued the department over the ruling, and New York’s senior senator,Charles E. Schumer, lobbied heavily to have it overturned.
On Tuesday, Larry Echo Hawk, the assistant secretary for Indian affairs at the department, said the rule was being rescinded, adding that it “was unnecessary and was issued without the benefit of tribal consultation.”
Wash. Dept. of Corrections Issues New Regs on American Indian Religious Freedom
Here:
And here is news coverage. An excerpt:
The state of Washington’s Department of Corrections and United Indians of All Tribes Foundation have partnered to provide incarcerated offenders with religious support and resources.
Under an agreement signed last month, Seattle-based United Indians will provide religious services in the state’s 12 prisons, which, as of Dec. 2010, hold 1,620 American Indian/Alaska Native-affiliated inmates (though the actual population could be much more because many inmates don’t identify themselves as Native). The goal of the effort is to not only help offenders gain a greater sense of who they are but also to assist them transition more seamlessly into their respective communities.
“It’s extremely important for Indian Country to work collaboratively with the DOC to ensure Native inmates can freely exercise tribal religion, particularly as a means of rehabilitation and preparing them for their return to tribal communities and mainstream society,” said United Indians Vice Chairman Gabriel Galanda.
Congrats to Dean Kathryn Rand
Here is the news article.
500 Police Raid Quebec Mohawk Communities ~ Kanesatake ~ Oka ~ Akwesasne
Here’s the breaking story, as reported by CBC News.
A major police operation is underway involving 500 police officers in the Mohawk community of Kanesatake, Que., located about 60 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
Both the RCMP and the Sûreté du Québec have officers on the ground, and the target is organized crime and drug trafficking.
Raids are also being done in Akwesasne and Oka, the municipality next to Kanesatake, although it’s unclear how many arrest warrants are being carried out.
Police are expected to release more details during a news conference at SQ headquarters in Oka.
The last major drug raids in Kanesatake were in May 2009, when 13 people were arrested on the Mohawk territory. That operation involving more than 300 police officers was the result of a year-long investigation launched after some Kanesatake residents complained to police.
Andrew Cohen Criticizes Supreme Court over Jicarilla Decision
Here is the article, from the Atlantic.
An excerpt or two:
The United States Supreme Court Monday once again stuck it to Native American litigants. In a 7-1 opinion (Justice Elena Kagan recused), the Court sided with the U.S. government and against theJicarilla Apache Nation in a fiduciary-duties case brought by the Nation to determine whether and to what extent federal officials mismanaged the tribe’s money. The decision was hardly sweeping– it involved a discovery dispute and the application of the attorney-client privilege– but it’s still worth a closer look.
The Nation sued the feds in 2002 asserting that the government breached its fiduciary duty to properly manage funds generated from the culling of timber, gravel and oil and gas resources from the Tribe’s land in Northeastern New Mexico. As all plaintiffs do, the Nation sought through discovery access to government documents that its lawyers thought might help establish that federal officials “failed to maximize returns on trust funds, invested too heavily in short-term maturities, and failed to pool its trust funds with other tribal trusts.”
For six years, the Tribe and the government futzed around in “alternative dispute resolution” trying to reach a settlement. During this time, the feds turned over thousands of relevant documents to Tribal attorneys but failed to produce 226 documents which government officials said were protected by the “attorney-client privilege, the work-product privilege, or the deliberative-process privilege.” The tribe went to court seeking to compel the production of those documents, arguing that its interests fell under a widely-acknowleged exception to the general rule that such documents may lawfully be protected from disclosure.
And in a biting critique:
Acting SG Neal Katyal Stepping Down
Here is the news from BLT.
In a relatively short period of time, his presence in the OSG had a big effect on tribal interests. His Indian law legacy in the SG’s office remains to be seen, given how so many cases remain pending, but hopefully he’ll be handling a few more Indian law cases in the future.
Toward a Pilot Program to Build Judicial Expertise in Indian Law Cases
To borrow from a BLT headline, “Pilot Program Will Build Judicial Expertise in Patent Cases.”
It would be nice to see something like this in Indian law. Here is an excerpt (just replace “patent” with “Indian law”):
A congressionally-created pilot program to give district court judges greater expertise in patent cases will begin next month in most of 14 selected courts.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) announced this week which district courts will be participating in the 10-year project. To be eligible to participate, courts had to be among the 15 district courts in which the largest number of patent and plant variety protections cases were filed in 2010, or be district courts that adopted or certified to the director of the AOUSC their intention to adopt local rules for patent and plant variety protection cases.
Which 15 district court would be candidates for a similar program in Indian law? Let us toss out a few suggestions:
State Bar of Wisconsin Mining Law Symposium, Thursday, August 25, 2011
The State Bar of Wisconsin will host a Mining Law Symposium CLE on Thursday, August 25, 2011 which in many ways is in response to the proposed mine to be situated in the Penokee-Gogebic Iron Range in northwest Wisconsin, very near the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe Reservation, by Gogebic Taconite.
Here is information on the CLE:
Here is a Milwaukee Sentinel Journal article discussing Bad River Chairman Mike Wiggins’ concerns with the proposed mine:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/119739399.html
Here is recent article describing the mine from Northwoods Wilderness Recovery:
Turtle Talk 
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