News

Trudeau’s New Cabinet Includes First Indigenous Person as Attorney General of Canada and Justice Minister

Kate Fort1 Comment

Here.

Central to Trudeau’s cabinet is Jody Wilson-Raybould who was sworn-in as Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada. The former Assembly of First Nations regional chief of British Columbia and Crown prosecutor becomes the first Indigenous person to hold the senior portfolio which plays a role in almost every federal matter.

Also:

Led by Theland Kicknosway, a 13 year-old Pottawatami-Cree youth from Wahpole Island, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his new cabinet walked into history Wednesday as they were sworn into office in the ballroom of Rideau Hall.

 

DOJ Sues S. Dakota DSS for Discrimination Against Tribal Job Applicants

Sarah M Donnelly

DOJ Press release here.

U.S. v. S.D. DSS Complaint here.

According to the complaint, in October 2010, Cedric Goodman, a Native American with supervisory experience as a social worker, as well as several other well-qualified Native Americans, applied for an Employment Specialist position at DSS’s Pine Ridge Office.  The complaint alleges that after interviewing Goodman and the other Native American candidates who met the employer’s objective job qualifications, DSS removed the vacancy and hired no one.  The next day, however, DSS reopened the position and ultimately selected a white applicant with inferior qualifications and no similar work experience.  The complaint alleges that DSS discriminated against Goodman and other similarly-situated Native American applicants based on their race.

In addition, the complaint alleges that denying Goodman’s application was part of a pattern or practice of race discrimination by DSS, where the agency repeatedly removed job postings and used subjective, arbitrary hiring practices to reject qualified Native American applicants for Specialist positions.

Over a two year period beginning in 2010, DSS posted 18 Specialist vacancies for its Pine Ridge Reservation Office.  Even though the agency received nearly 40 percent of its applications from Native Americans, DSS hired 11 Whites and only one Native American, while removing six other openings entirely.

Grand Ronde Enacts Marriage Equality Statute

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

MSU Law Alum/Board of Trustees Member Bryan Newland Selected for “Class of 2015 Up & Coming Lawyers”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is “Presenting … the Class of 2015 Up & Coming Lawyers” from Michigan Lawyers Weekly.Newland

Yale Native Study Group Overview of Dollar General v. Mississippi Choctaw Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here, “YGSNA Members Prepare Amicus Briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court, DOLLAR GENERAL CORP. vs. MISSISSIPPI BAND OF CHOCTAW INDIANS.” An excerpt:Shame on Dollar General

In 2000, the Dollar General Corporation entered into a series of agreements with the Mississippi Band Choctaw Indians to open a Dollar General store on the Tribe’s lands in Mississippi.  Numerous national chains and corporations maintain commercial establishments on tribal lands, leasing lands, facilities, and related commercial venues for their enterprises.  Such leases and agreements form contracts that are executed by both tribal and corporate attorneys.

Dollar General agreed not only to lease lands from the Tribe for its retail business but also to enter into the Tribe’s Youth Opportunity Program, which places tribal youth in working environments.  In Summer 2003, a 13-year-old entered this program and was placed within the Dollar General store under the supervision of a store manager who, the minor and his parents allege, sexually assaulted him.  Since the United States Supreme Court, in 1978, declared that Tribal Governments may no longer exercise their inherent criminal jurisdiction over Indians who commit crimes on tribal lands, the minor, his family, and the Tribe looked to the local U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecution. The United States declined to proceed with a criminal complaint, and the minor and his parents then sued Dollar General and its employee in tribal court, seeking damages relating to the child’s injuries. The District Court and Mississippi Band of Choctaw Supreme Court both sided with the minor.

Washtenaw Circuit Judge Tim Connors Honored with Judicial Excellence Award

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

GRAND RAPIDS, MI, October 28, 2015 – The Michigan Judges Association has announced that Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Timothy P. Connors is the 2015 winner of the Hilda Gage Judicial Excellence Award. Judge Connors has served on the bench since 1991, serving as chief judge for more than a decade, and also serving by appointment as Judge Pro Tem for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

“Judge Connors has led groundbreaking efforts to strengthen the juvenile court in Washtenaw County and he has been an instrumental collaborator in developing strong state-tribal court relations,” said Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget McCormack. “Because of his efforts, Washtenaw’s juvenile court system looks dramatically different in the six short months he has presided over this docket.”

“His impact on child welfare cases transcends the systemic reform efforts he has undertaken,” Justice McCormack said. “On each individual case, he carefully listens to each family’s story. According to the lawyers who regularly appear before him, no matter the result in the particular hearing or case, the parties all leave feeling that they have been heard. The community’s respect for the juvenile court has grown because of his approach.”

This award is named after the late Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Hilda Gage and recognizes Circuit and Court of Appeals judges who have excelled in trial and docket management, legal scholarship, and contributions to the profession and the community. The award honors current or former judges who serve their profession and their communities with integrity, skill, and courage every day.

A biography of Judge Connors is available here.

Federal Agents Raid Menominee Tribe

Sarah M Donnelly3 Comments

U.S. News report here.

Search warrant and affidavits (PDF) here.

The Tribe is being accused of growing hemp plants with too much THC in them, but the Tribe says they were upfront to the Feds about seedlings they received for industrial hemp research:

Former U.S. Attorney for North Dakota Tim Purdon is working with the Menominee tribe and blasted the raid as a “waste of resources” that “is exacerbated by the fact that the Tribe had agreed to act itself to destroy individual strains of the hemp crop that the Tribe and the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed were problematic.”

“This misallocation of federal resources is exactly what the [2013] Cole and [2014] Wilkinson Memos were designed to prevent,” he said, referring to the Justice Department memos allowing states and tribes, respectively, to regulate marijuana.

The Menominee Tribe legalized marijuana back in August, but the government has not yet enacted regulations concerning its sale and production.

NYTs Profile of Nottawaseppi Huron Potawaomi Tribal Economic Diversification 

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is “Indian Tribes Look Beyond Casinos for Income.“

Bears Ears Coalition Materials

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Press Release:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 15, 2015) — The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition — an historic partnership of five sovereign Tribal Nations — today formally presented to the Obama Administrationtheir proposal for the creation of a 1.9 million acre, collaboratively managed national monument in southern Utah. A copy of the proposal was also delivered to Representatives Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz of Utah.

The Hopi, Navajo, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni Tribes created the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition in July of this year with the mission to protect and preserve the Bears Ears region, to which they have ancestral and contemporary ties. The sovereign-led proposal is formally supported by an additional 19 Tribes as well as the National Congress of American Indians.

“This proposal originates from the heart of Indian Country,” said Eric Descheenie, Co-Chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and advisor to Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye. “By protecting these sacred ancestral lands we can take a very important step towards healing.”

The Bears Ears National Monument proposal is named for the Bears Ears buttes – two prominent landforms at the center of a landscape rich in antiquities, with more than100,000 archaeological and cultural sites that are sacred to dozens of tribes. However, rampant looting and destruction of the region’s structures, artwork, and gravesites is ongoing, and oil, gas and potash extraction also loom as threats. “This destruction of our sacred sites—including the gravesites of our ancestors—deeply wounds us,” said Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, Councilwoman to the Ute Mountain Ute.  “Bears Ears should have been protected long ago. It has been central to our creation and migration stories since time immemorial.”

“The Antiquities Act was written to protect Native American artifacts on public lands,” said Alfred Lomahquahu, Vice Chairman to the Hopi Nation.  “But this is the first time tribes have ever come together to call on the President to use the Antiquities Act.”

The collaborative management the proposal calls for—between Tribes and the federal government—would not change the ownership of the land; tribes and agency officials would be working together as equals to make joint decisions. As with any national monument, members of the public and key stakeholders will have ample opportunity to contribute to the development of plans and policies.  

Prior to presenting their proposal to the Obama Administration, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition delivered copies to Representatives Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz of Utah. Reps. Bishop and Chaffetz have been working on a Public Lands Initiative, which seeks to address federal land management in the Bears Ears and other regions of eastern Utah. However, as the Bears Ears proposal details, Tribes have been excluded despite their extensive effortsto have the proposal considered as part of the Public Lands Initiative.

Still, at a press conference at the National Press Club, the tribes emphasized that the proposal is an opportunity to bring people together—including Representatives Bishop and Chaffetz. “It’s not just for us to get healed,” said Willie Grayeyes, chairman of Utah Diné Bikéyah, a nonprofit that developed and built grassroots support for the proposal among tribal members. “It’s for our adversaries to be healed too. We can come out dancing together.”

The proposed monument would be open to all members of the public.

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Contact: Natasha Hale at 505-906-8303 or BearsEarsPress@gmail.com.

The full proposal, timeline, B-roll, photos and other media resources can be accessed at: http://www.bearsearscoalition.org/media-resources/

Bears Ears Coalition site

PROPOSAL TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA FOR THE CREATION OF BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT