Okay, so this story has a legal angle but not an Indian law angle (that I know of), but I couldn’t resist posting it anyway. As I found out from reading the Merriam Webster blog (here), the word “Yooper” was added to the dictionary after a lengthy campaign by a prosecuting attorney in Delta County, Michigan. Personally, I have yet to make it to the U.P., but it’s on my list.
News
Pascua Yaqui Tribe set to prosecute first non-Indian under VAWA
News coverage includes an overview of the challenges Tribes have faced when non-Indian men batter Indian women on the reservation, a little about the battle to get the VAWA provisions passed, and information about the prosecutor, judge, and public defender who will be involved with this first case. Full article here.
Press Release from Pascua Yaqui regarding the VAWA pilot program here.
From the article:
Tribal police chief Michael Valenzuela drove through darkened desert streets, turned into a Circle K convenience store and pointed to the spot beyond the reservation line where his officers used to take the non-Indian men who battered Indian women.
“We would literally drive them to the end of the reservation and tell them to beat it,” Valenzuela said. “And hope they didn’t come back that night. They almost always did.”
About three weeks ago, at 2:45 a.m., the tribal police were called to the reservation home of an Indian woman who was allegedly being assaulted in front of her two children. They said her 36-year-old non-
Indian husband, Eloy Figueroa Lopez, had pushed her down on the couch and was violently choking her with both hands.This time, the Yaqui police were armed with a new law that allows Indian tribes, which have their own justice system, to prosecute non-Indians. Instead of driving Lopez to the Circle K and telling him to leave the reservation, they arrested him.
Inside a sand-colored tribal courthouse set here amid the saguaro-dotted land of the Pascua Yaqui people, the law backed by the Obama administration and passed by Congress last year is facing its first critical test. . . .
Some members of Congress had fought hard to derail the legislation, arguing that non-Indian men would be unfairly convicted without due process by sovereign nations whose unsophisticated tribal courts were not equal to the American criminal justice system.
“They thought that tribal courts wouldn’t give the non-Indians a fair shake,” said Pascua Yaqui Attorney General Amanda Lomayesva. “Congressmen all were asking, how are non-Indians going to be tried by a group of Indian jurors?”
Against that opposition last year, the Obama administration was able to push through only the narrowest version of a law to prosecute non-Indians. While it covers domestic and dating-violence cases involving Native Americans on the reservation, the law does not give tribes jurisdiction to prosecute child abuse or crimes, including sexual assault, that are committed by non-Indians who are “strangers” to their victims. In addition, the law does not extend to Native American women in Alaska.
“It was a compromise the tribes had to make,” Lomayesva said. “It only partially fixes the problem.”
Still, what will play out over the next months on the Pascua Yaqui reservation is being watched closely by the Justice Department and by all of Indian country. The tribe’s officials are facing intense scrutiny and thorny legal challenges as they prepare for their first prosecution of a non-Indian man.
“Everyone’s feeling pressure about these cases,” said Pascua Yaqui Chief Prosecutor Alfred Urbina. “They’re the first cases. No one wants to screw anything up.”
Portland Bridge to be Named Tilikum Crossing
Shoni Schimmel Selected 8th Overall in WNBA Draft
Here.
Montana School District to Redraw District Lines after Losing Voting Rights Act Case to Native Voters
Here are the materials in Jackson v. Wolf Point School District (D. Mont.) (from the ALCU site):
Final Order
Judge Strong’s Recommendations
Consent Decree
Complaint
Press Release
From the ACLU site:
In January 2014, Wolf Point School District officials conceded voting districts challenged in August 2013 violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. A settlement with the district calls for electing one board member from each of five voting districts to serve on the high school and elementary school boards and one member elected at-large district-wide to serve only on the high school board. Each of the new single-member districts will have populations that vary no more than 1.54 percent. This is a significant change from the existing system in which members of the majority white voting district have been electing one board member for every 143 residents and those in the majority Native American district have been electing one board member for every 841 residents. The settlement will be implemented over two years. The ACLU of Montana and the ACLU National Voting Rights Project sued the Wolf Point High School District in U.S. District Court in 2013 on behalf of seven Native American voters whose right to equal representation was being violated by these malapportioned school district voting districts that give some voters greater representation on the school board. The old districts violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act because they deprived Native Americans of the equal right to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice.
News coverage here.
NYTs Article on Yurok Language Revitalization
Here.
BIA Listening Session on BIA Indian Child Welfare Act Guidelines for State Courts — April 15, 2014 & April 24, 2014
News release here.
Interior Approves Four HEARTH Act Applications
Assistant Secretary Washburn Approves Four HEARTH Act Applications
to Help Spur Economic Development in Tribal Communities (PDF)
Dry Creek Rancheria, Jamestown S’Klallam, Mohegan, and Wichita and Affiliated Tribes join eight others already cleared to process economic development leases without BIA approval
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today approved leasing regulations submitted by four federally recognized tribes, restoring their authority to control the leasing of their trust lands and promoting their self-determination and economic development. This streamlined process for restoring tribal leasing authority is consistent with the objectives of the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership Act, or HEARTH Act.
“Thanks to the HEARTH Act, more tribes have been empowered to take over leasing on their lands,” Assistant Secretary Washburn said. “Tribal governments are the drivers of economic self-sufficiency and prosperity on their reservations and in their communities. The HEARTH Act restores their ability to directly control how their lands can and should be used for the good of their people, now and in the future.”
The four tribes, submitted requests for Secretarial approval of their leasing regulations, are: Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians in California, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Washington State, Mohegan Indian Tribe of Connecticut, and Wichita and Affiliated Tribes in Oklahoma. Each tribe plans to authorize leases for general economic development.
The HEARTH Act was signed by President Obama in July 2012. It restores the authority of federally recognized tribes to develop and implement their own laws governing long-term leasing of federal Indian trust lands for residential, business, renewable energy and other purposes, which greatly expedites the approval of leases for homes and small businesses in Indian Country. Upon one-time approval of its regulations by the Department of the Interior, a tribe may process land leases without having to first gain approval from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
The Assistant Secretary’s action brings to 12 the number of tribes who have had their tribal leasing regulations approved under the Act. The others are: Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, California (Feb. 1, 2013); Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico (March 14, 2013); Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan (April 11, 2013); Ak-Chin Indian Community; California (Nov. 10, 2013); Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians, California (Nov. 10, 2013); Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma (Nov. 25, 2013); Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, California (Dec. 10, 2013); and Kaw Nation, Oklahoma (Dec. 13, 2013).
In November 2012, the Department announced new regulations resulting from a comprehensive reform of the BIA’s antiquated regulations governing its process for approving surface leases on lands held in trust by the Federal Government for Indian tribes and individuals. As trustee, Interior manages about 56 million surface acres in Indian Country.
The new regulations streamlined the leasing approval process on Indian land, spurring increased homeownership and expediting business and commercial development, including renewable energy projects.
The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs oversees the BIA, which is headed by a director who is responsible for managing day-to-day operations through four offices – Indian Services, Justice Services, Trust Services and Field Operations. These offices directly administer or fund tribally based infrastructure, law enforcement, social services, tribal governance, natural and energy resources, and trust management programs for the nation’s federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages through 12 regional offices and 85 agencies.
News Coverage of Alaska Legislative Hearing on ILOC Report
Here. Quotes from tribal judge David Voluck:
“One of the courts I work for issues something as controversial as child support orders, for children in need,” Voluck said, a touch of sarcasm in his voice. “We’re not locking up white people, I don’t have an electric chair, I’m not doing anything that’s frightening. I’m not taxing, I’m not zoning, it has nothing to do with land and everything to do with Native children.”
“Your state is battling us tooth and nail and we are now in the Supreme Court over whether it’s kosher for me to issue a child support order for a tribal child. This, ladies and gentlemen of this committee, I posit is a grave waste of your resources.”
Turtle Talk 
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