Scholarship

New Book: Reparations for Indigenous Peoples (Oxford)

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here’s the link to the book, a collection of essays edited by Federico Lenzerini, and published by Oxford. And here are a few interesting chapters:

Gerald Torres, “Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Indigenous Peoples and Reparations”

David C. Williams, “In Praise of Guilt: How the Yearning for Moral Purity Blocks Reparations for Native Americans”

Sarah Krakoff and Kristen Carpenter, “Repairing Reparations in the American Indian Nation Context”

Reparations for Neglect of Indigenous Land Rights at the Intersection of Domestic and International Law — The Maya Cases”

Academic Review: Susan Gray, David Wilkins & Sheryl Lightfoot, and Siegfried Weissner

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are a few recent scholarly articles of interest to the blog:

Susan Gray, Miengun’s Children: Tales from a Mixed-Race Family, 29:2&3 Frontiers 136 (2008) — article about the children of Northport, Michigan missionary George N. Smith

David Wilkins & Sheryl Lightfoot, Oaths of Office in Tribal Constitutions, 32 Am. Indian Q. 389 (Fall 2008)

Siegfried Weissner, Indigenous Sovereignty: A Reassessment in Light of the UN Declaration, 41 Vand. J. Int’l L. 1141 (2008)

Business Law Today Feature on Indian Businesses and Tribal Courts

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The ABA’s Business Law Today features several short articles on federal Indian law and business here. Links to the articles are below the fold.

Our mini-theme: Native America

Culture, Business and the Law

The law is a system that provides social cohesion while at the same time revealing much about our culture in a nation of many people and customs. In this issue, we celebrate the Native peoples of our nation, which include Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.

Few of us have had the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of the people who have lived for centuries in the places we now call home. The articles in this issue are written by lawyers who are part of Native communities and provide unique insight into the interplay between America’s federal, state, and tribal laws.

One author grew up on a reservation, not having seen the ocean on the East or West Coast prior to earning admittance to one of the best, and most elite, undergraduate universities in the country. This author currently spends half the year near the Pacific Ocean and half the year on the reservation. Another author grew to adulthood before learning of the family’s Native culture and beginning a life-altering journey of discovery, which included going through traditional rituals to be formally admitted to the tribe.

While the articles focus on legal, procedural, and business issues implicated when dealing with Native peoples or their lands, they also provide some perspective on the incredible wealth of cultures in this country that is reflected in our legal system.

–Nicole Harris

San Francisco

Deal or no deal?
Understanding Indian Country transactions
By Gabriel S. Galanda and Anthony S. Broadman
Encouraging business with Indian tribes
A brief discussion of the tribal exhaustion doctrine
By Thomas Weathers
Tribal courts and alternative dispute resolution
Mediated settlements and arbitration awards in tribal court
By Pat Sekaquaptewa
Avoiding trouble in paradise
Understanding Hawai`i’s law and indigenous culture
D. Kapua`ala Sproat

Christian McMillan Wins Reid Prize for “Making Indian Law”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Congrats to Christian McMillen for this award. Incidentally, Professor McMillen is a named amicus in the historians brief in Carcieri v. Kempthorne.

John Phillip Reid Book Award (H/t to Legal History Blog and Patrick O’Donnell)

Named for John Phillip Reid, the prolific legal historian and founding member of the Society, and made possible by the generous contributions of his friends and colleagues, the John Phillip Reid Book Award is an annual award for the best book published in English in the previous year in any of the fields broadly defined as Anglo-American legal history.

Christian W. McMillen’s Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory is a deeply researched and elegantly written study of the Hualapai case and its background.

Continue reading →

Idaho Law Review — Call for Papers

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

This call for papers seeks submissions for the AALS Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples Section’s 2009 publication of selected papers.  The Section will meet during the American Association of Law School’s Annual Conference on January 8th, 2009.  The Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples Section Meeting will focus on “New Directions in International Law and Indigenous Peoples.”  The University of Idaho Law Review will be publishing the papers on this topic accepted for publication.

The papers should address the themes of international law developments impacting the lives of Indigenous Peoples.  With the passage on Sept. 13, 2007 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the international community has taken a major step in the direction of being responsive to the efforts of Indigenous peoples to bring awareness to global and local issues.  Subject areas for papers may include: international human rights and Indigenous peoples; applying specific international documents to Indigenous issues; the increasing intersectionality of international and Indigenous law; the changing discourse over Indigenous peoples’ status in the international arena; influences of international law within Indigenous communities and jurisprudence; and related topics along these lines.

Continue reading →

Arizona State Bar Indian Law Section Newsletter — Fall 2008

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

“The Arrow” — arizona-indian-law-fall-08

Highlights:

A Substantial Burden: Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Serv., 535 F.3d 1058 (9th Cir. 2008)

Indian Law Section 2008-2009 Writing Competition Call for Entries

Barona v. Yee: State Taxation of Tribal Construction Projects

Spring Speakers Series Finalized

Kate Fort

The final dates and speakers for our Spring Speakers Series has been finalized.  The Indigenous Law and Policy Center at MSU College of Law will be hosting four events this spring, and all of the details can be found at our Spring Speakers Series, 2009 page.

Marren Sanders on Ecosystem Co-Management Agreements and Nation Building

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Marren Sanders has posted her paper, “Ecosystem Co-Management Agreements: A Study of Nation-Building or a Lesson on the Erosion of Tribal Sovereignty?“, forthcoming in the Buffalo Environmental Law Journal. Here is the abstract:

This article examines tribal sovereignty and resource management in the era of environmental self-determination through the lens of the Cornell/Kalt model of nation building in Indian Country. The nation building model holds that tribes can achieve self-determination by acting, thinking, being, and relating as independent, self-governing nations, regardless of whether they are recognized as such by outsiders. After setting the stage, the article looks at ecosystem management and species co-management agreements that have been initiated between tribes and federal and state agencies. In the framework of case studies, it focuses on the elements of de facto sovereignty and analyzes the success of various tribes’ approaches to ecosystem co-management. It concludes that co-management agreements can offer significant benefits to Indian nations, but they can pose extraordinary challenges to tribes and are not without risks. However, if crafted correctly, these agreements can also motivate tribes to build nations.

Kevin Washburn — First Canby Lecture at ASU

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Kevin Washburn posted his lecture, “American Indians, Crime, and the Law: Five Years of Scholarship in Criminal Justice in Indian Country,” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This essay is a lightly-edited and footnoted draft of the inaugural Canby lecture presented by Professor Washburn as the inaugural William C. Canby, Jr., Scholar in Residence at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2008. It briefly praises Judge Canby and his influences on the author and then presents some of the highlights of Professor Washburn’s critical commentary on Indian country criminal justice, which reflected Professor Washburn’s most important work in the first five years of his career. It also briefly summarizes legislation recently introduced in the United States Congress that is intended to respond to several of Professor Washburn’s concerns.

Barbara Atwood on Permanency for Indian Children under ICWA

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Barbara Atwood has posted “Permanency for American Indian and Alaska Native Foster Children: Taking Lessons fromTribes” on SSRN. This paper is forthcoming from the Capital University Law Review. The abstract:

This paper, presented at Capital University’s 4th Annual Wells Conference on Adoption Law, addresses the implications of the child welfare goal of permanency for children who qualify as “Indian children” under federal law. The federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 currently promotes permanency for foster children through severance and adoption, despite the policies of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 and the traditions of many North American tribes in which more fluid approaches to parenting and child-rearing are common. With tribal practices as a model, the paper advocates that state courts make greater use of customary adoption, extended family care, and guardianship as a culturally appropriate path to permanency.