Scholarship

Save the Date: 15th National Indian Nations Conference

Sarah M Donnelly

December 8-10, 2016
Pre-Conference Institutes will be held on December 7, 2016

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Reservation Coachella Valley, California

This national conference provides opportunities for tribal, state, and federal participants to share knowledge, experiences, and ideas for developing and improving strategies and programs that serve the unique needs of crime victims in Indian Country. For information on previous conferences see www.OVCINC.org.

Questions:
Tribal Law and Policy Institute
P: 323-650-5467 ~ F: 323-650-8149
Email: Conference@TLPI.org
Conference Website: www.OVCINC.org

Registration Packets will be available in early summer 2016
Call for Presentations available here.

Formal Justice Department Conference Approval Pending.

Call for Presentations: 15th National Indian Nations Conference

Sarah M Donnelly1 Comment

The Office for Victims of Crime and the Tribal Law and Policy Institute are extending this invitation to participate as a presenter at the 15th National Indian Nations Conference. Workshop presentations should demonstrate methods and strategies to improve safety, as well as promote justice and healing for crime victims through cooperation, and collaboration between Tribal, Federal, State, local and private entities in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Target Audience: The target audience is all persons interested in assisting victims of crime in Indian country including:

Indian Country Service Providers (Tribal, State, and Federal):

  • Child Advocates
  • Child Protection Case Workers
  • Social Services
  • Elder Services
  • Victim Advocates
  • Medical Personnel
  • Law Enforcement
  • Judges & Prosecutors
  • Probation/Corrections
  • Substance Abuse Counselors
  • Traditional Healers

Tribal Community Members:

  • Tribal Leaders
  • Victims/Survivors of Crime
  • Tribal Elders & Youth
  • Tribal College Faculty & Students

We welcome presentation ideas for all levels of experience/knowledge. Presenters must demonstrate expertise in working with Native American communities. Selection Criteria for Workshops will include:

  • Relevance to the target audience
  • Fits into conference theme/goals
  • Presenters demonstrate expertise in working with Native American communities.
  • Encourages interdisciplinary coordination and cooperation
  • Highlights promising practices
  • Introduces innovative strategies
  • Honors and supports victims of crime
  • Workshop demonstrates clear connection to crime victimization

Workshops must conform to the Conference Theme “Harnessing Our Collective Wisdom: Strengthening the Circle of Safety, Justice and Healing” and one or more of the Conference Goals (below):

  • Honoring & Listening to Victim/Survivor Voices: Creating victimcentered/
    sensitive responses; being inclusive of victim/survivors particularly those from un‐served or underserved populations, including LGBTQ victims; and promoting peer to peer learning opportunities.
  • Promoting Safety, Justice and Healing: Justice for victims/justice for all; understanding jurisdictional issues; exercising tribal sovereignty to promote safety & justice; highlighting the resiliency of spirituality & healing in tribal communities.
  • Honoring the Wisdom of the Past: Understanding historical trauma; enlisting tribal elders as keepers of our tribal histories; and embracing traditional teachings.
  • Promoting Traditional Values: Promoting traditional values and incorporating traditional skills in crime victim services; upholding wellness, mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally; and framing victim services around tribal traditions.
  • Ensuring Safety, Justice & Healing for Seven Generations of Children: Addressing child sexual abuse & education on developing programs for victims; emphasis on victims within the juvenile justice system; support for keeping youth within.
  • Working in Harmony: Building partnerships with federal agencies; supporting partnerships between tribes; education on the importance of networking and working together in collaboration to strengthen services; supporting multidisciplinary
    teams; and networking with Native men to address domestic violence & sexual assault.
  • Supporting and Educating Tribal Leaders: Educating and supporting efforts of tribal leaders to achieve accountability and responsibility to victims of crime.
  • Sustaining our Legacy: Developing skills and incorporating cultural approaches to enhance sustainability and measurability; increasing the accuracy of victimization research; and developing capacity within victim services.
  • Healing the Healers: Ensuring safety and support for service providers.

Formal Justice Department Conference Approval Pending.

Questions: Tribal Law and Policy Institute, P: 3236505467 ~ F: 3236508149
Email: Conference@TLPI.org, Website: http://www.OVCINC.org

Mailing address:
Tribal Law and Policy Institute
8235 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 211
West Hollywood, CA 90046

First Issue of Indian Gaming Lawyer

Sarah M Donnelly1 Comment

Download Vol. 1 No.1 (Spring 2016) here.

New Papers from Kyle Whyte

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Our good friend and MSU colleague Kyle Whyte (apparently one of the few diverse philosophers around) has been busy. Here is a sampling of his latest papers (from SSRN):

Incl. Electronic Paper Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change Loss and Damage, and the Responsibility of Settler States
Kyle Whyte
Michigan State University – Department of Philosophy
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Working Paper Series

Incl. Electronic Paper Indigenous Food Systems, Environmental Justice, and Settler-Industrial States
2015. In Global Food, Global Justice: Essays on Eating under Globalization. Edited by M. Rawlinson & C. Ward, 143-156, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Kyle Whyte
Michigan State University – Department of Philosophy
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Accepted Paper Series

Incl. Electronic Paper Indigenous Environmental Movements and the Function of Governance Institutions
Whyte, K.P. 2016. Indigenous Environmental Movements and the Function of Governance Institutions. Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory. Edited by T. Gabrielson, C. Hall, J. Meyer & D. Schlosberg, 563-580. Oxford University Press.
Kyle Whyte
Michigan State University – Department of Philosophy
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Last Revised: May 02, 2016
Accepted Paper Series

Incl. Electronic Paper Indigeneity and US Settler Colonialism
Forthcoming in Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race, Edited by Naomi Zack, Oxford University Press
Kyle Whyte
Michigan State University – Department of Philosophy
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Accepted Paper Series

Incl. Electronic Paper Indigenous Experience, Environmental Justice and Settler Colonialism
Kyle Whyte
Michigan State University – Department of Philosophy
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Working Paper Series

Incl. Electronic Paper Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Renewal and U.S. Settler Colonialism
The Routledge Handbook of Food Ethics, Forthcoming
Kyle Whyte
Michigan State University – Department of Philosophy
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Accepted Paper Series

Incl. Electronic Paper Our Ancestors’ Dystopia Now: Indigenous Conservation and the Anthropocene
Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities, Forthcoming
Kyle Whyte
Michigan State University – Department of Philosophy
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Accepted Paper Series

Deadline Extended till May 23 for G. William Rice Bar Study Scholarship

Sarah M Donnelly

Download flyer here.

New Paper Focuses on Double Taxation in Indian Country

Sarah M Donnelly

Link to article here.

Citation and abstract:

Croman, K. S., & Taylor, J. B. (2016). Why beggar thy Indian neighbor? The case for tribal primacy in taxation in Indian country. Joint Occasional Papers on Native Affairs (JOPNA 2016-1). Tucson, AZ and Cambridge, MA: Native Nations Institute and Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

The law governing taxation in Indian country is a mess. The accretion of common law precedents and the general tendency of states to assert primacy over the taxation of non-Indians create absurd outcomes. This article makes the case three ways. The argument based on the law shows that particularized, fact-specific precedents create a thicket of rulings that impede business development. The argument based on facts shows that these impediments to economic development harm not only tribal economies, but state and local economies, too. And the argument based on just claims testifies to the fact that the current arrangement could hardly have emerged from the actions of willing and informed governments operating in good faith. To borrow from Adam Smith, states beggar their Indian neighbors, seeking fiscal gain to the tribes’ detriment and, ultimately, their own. We conclude by recommending actions to bring fairness and certainty to the law governing taxation in Indian country.

Article Published by ABA, Enforcing Tribal Environmental Laws without “Treatment as a State”

Victoria Sweet

Jill Grant has published an article on the Navajo Nation’s innovative petroleum storage tank inspection and enforcement program. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act lacks a “treatment as a state” provision for Tribes, but the Navajo Nation has found other ways to develop a noteworthy program that enhances environmental protection, Tribal sovereignty, and self-determination.

Link to article here.

Professor Tsosie on Indigenous Identity & Sports Mascots

Ann Tweedy1 Comment

Professor Tsosie’s excellent Federal Lawyer article on identity and sports mascots is available below. Her longer law review article on these subjects is available here.

Tsosie Fed Lawyer Art on Mascots

As one of the curators of the Indian law columns for the Federal Lawyer, I am proud to have solicited this piece and grateful that she could squeeze writing it into her schedule.

New Student Scholarship on Indian Sports Mascots and Nicknames

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

The BYU Education and Law Journal has published “Between a Tomahawk and a Hard Place: Indian mascots and the NCAA” by Stephanie Jade Bollinger. [pdf]

An excerpt::

Thus, a reviewing court should find that agreements between Native American tribes and Universities granting approval for the use of Indian names as mascots should be void as against public policy. If the approval is found to be void, the NCAA would have a harder time basing approval as the primary factor for exemptions from its own mascot policy at championship games. Without the mascot exemption, more universities may decide to eliminate their use of Indian mascots and, in doing so, discontinue the harmful effects from their use of Indian mascots.

New Student Scholarship on Tribal Internet Gaming

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The Jurimetrics Journal at ASU Law has published “A New Formula for Tribal Internet Gaming” by Racheal White Hawk. [pdf]

The abstract:

Tribal gaming is an industry that generates more than $27 billion a year. It comprises forty percent of all gaming in the United States, and has provided more than 628,000 jobs for Native and local communities. While tribal brick-and-mortar casinos contribute numerous economic, cultural, and social benefits to Native communities, Internet gaming profits are a potential boon. Internet gaming is well positioned for rapid growth because tens of millions of Americans use computers, cell phones, and tablets for shopping, games, and entertainment. Furthermore, with the advent of increasingly accurate geolocation technology, filtering, and blocking systems, the age and location of gamblers can be monitored, thus facilitating legal Internet gaming within state borders. Moreover, the potential for tax and licensing revenue from Internet gaming is immense, and states may enter into revenue-sharing agreements with tribes while offering exclusivity for tribal operators. For instance, in California, tribes contributed $467 million to state revenue in 2012 from brick and mortar casinos. States such as Delaware and New Jersey have legalized intrastate Internet gaming to reap tax revenue. California, however, has not yet legalized intrastate Internet gaming. Rather than wait for states to legalize intrastate Internet gaming, some tribes are launching their own online poker and bingo rooms to accept bets from players not located on Indian lands, asserting that doing so is legal under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). However, some states disagree that it is legal under IGRA. To prevent impending expensive and time-consuming litigation and to support tribal economic development, Congress should reform the current regulatory patchwork of federal Internet gaming legislation by legalizing interstate Internet gaming, allowing states to opt out of the federal interstate Internet gaming scheme, and adding a new category specifically for Internet gaming to IGRA.