We previously posted the study here.
Here is the updated study:
Justice in Indian Country- A Case Study of the Tulalip Tribes
tribal constitutions
Tulalip Tribes Justice System Case Study
Important scholarship. [Will be replaced soon.]
Updated version:
Justice in Indian Country- A Case Study of the Tulalip Tribes
Literary Scholarship on the White Earth Revised Constitution Ostensibly Drafted by Gerald Vizenor
Here are a pair of articles about a constitution drafted at White Earth by a team headed by Gerald Vizenor.
These are from the most recent issue of Studies in American Indian Literatures. I have a book review in the same issue of Vizenor’s Native Liberty:
Kansas COA Affirms Tribal Authority to Adjudicate Kickapoo Tribal Member Land Disputes
Here is the opinion.
An excerpt:
Nancy Sue Bear claims the Brown County District Court did not have jurisdiction to dissolve the family partnership and then partition and order the sale of real estate that she and her family, all enrolled members of the Kickapoo Nation Tribe, had farmed on the Kickapoo Reservation. Indian tribes are domestic dependent nations that exercise inherent sovereign authority over their members and territories. Because all of the parties to their action are enrolled members of the Kickapoo Nation Tribe and all of the land is located within the Kickapoo Reservation, we hold that the tribal court is the proper forum for resolving this dispute. It is a matter of sovereignty. We reverse the judgments of the district court and remand the matter with directions to dismiss the case.
NYTs Article on California Tribal Disenrollments
Here.
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Changes Tribal Membership Criteria
Here is the news coverage. An excerpt:
A deeply divided Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council has voted to change the requirements to become a member of the Tribe.
In a 6 to 5 vote, the council voted to tighten the source of the Indian blood quantum requirement for members.
The Tribe’s constitution, adopted in 1986, requires that members be descended from a person on one of three lists compiled in the 19th century, or from a Tribal base role compiled in 1982, plus be at least one-quarter “Indian blood.”
The constitution does not, however, define what is meant by Indian blood.
Early version of the Tribe’s enrollment ordinance also left it largely undefined, and it was interpreted to mean descent from most North American indigenous people. The council then tightened that to define it as descent from a member of any federally recognized Tribe.
The newest version, adopted at a special session of the Tribal Council Oct. 26, specifies that only “Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan” blood counts toward the one-quarter Indian blood.
“Tribal Council finds that the current definition of ‘Indian blood’ provided in (the enrollment ordinance) is overly broad and inconsistent with the constitution,” said the resolution adopting the revised law. “The Tribal Council finds that blood inherited from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan is the only blood directly relevant to membership under the constitution of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.”
Under the old law, for example, a child born to a Saginaw Chippewa Tribal member with one-fourth Indian blood and a full-blooded member of the federally recognized Navajo Nation would qualify for membership. By most reckonings, that child would have five-eighths Indian blood quantum.
Under the new law, that child would not qualify as a Saginaw Chippewa.
New Scholarship on the Cherokee SCT Decision re Freedmen
Darryl Omar Freeman has posted “Neo-Colonial Adaptation or Neo-Sovereignty: Oklahoma Cherokee/African Ancestry Freedmen Conflict” on SSRN.
Might want to do some quick fact checking on Ward Churchill’s membership status with United Keetoowah Band.
Commentary: Cherokee Nation SCT Quashes Injunction Issued by Federal Court in Cherokee Freedmen Case
Here is a link to the Cherokee court order, via Indianz, and a news article from an informer reader on the issue.
The real question becomes, then, will the vote tally seeming to favor Bill John Baker be sufficient to make irrelevant the votes of the descendants of the Cherokee Freedmen, hopefully mooting this inter-judicial showdown.
I have advocated that tribal courts, in narrow circumstances, should resist federal court orders where the federal court appears to have no other source of jurisdiction but for pure federal common law, such as National Farmers Union. I was thinking, and continue to think, that certain questions of tribal court authority should not concern federal interests — subject areas like tort claims by tribal members against nonmembers who have burned down the entire reservation or tortiously damaged tribal government property and vital materials. But I’d hate to see tribal sovereignty go to the wall to defend the decision of one tribe to clumsily racialize its membership criteria. [I say clumsy because the Dawes rolls are so obviously flawed as to make membership decisions involving the Freedmen with them is negligent at best, and racist at worst.]
The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court could have done what the U.S. Supreme Court has done in circumstances involving international law — defer to the policymaking branches and invoke a form of the political question doctrine. The Court could have simply sat on the case until the dust settled. In fact, it appears both the Nation and the Freedmen descendants asked them to do so. Cherokee already lost millions in HUD money. The tribal court isn’t doing much to alleviate this dispute, and appears to be inflaming it even more.
Self-Government For Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia?
CTV recently released (October 4) a tiny story on what could be a monolithic advancement for the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia, and in turn for aboriginals throughout Canada. Here’s the story. However, be forewarned, this small piece, not even 200 words, barely offers any substance and reads more like an Onion article (“[O]ne of the most pressing details to work out for the Mi’kmaq is to find a place to put a House of Assembly”). And perhaps tellingly, Federal Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister John Duncan would not offer comment on it. Curioser and curioser. Stay tuned…
Nevada Lawyer Magazine Indian Law Theme Issue
Nevada Lawyer – August 2011
Feature Stories:
- A Quick Guide to Nevada’s Tribal Courts
- Appellate Law in Nevada Indian Country: The Inter-Tribal Court of Appeals
- A Snapshot of Indian Criminal Law in the District of Nevada
- Tribal Courts in Nevada: Alive and Well
- Nevada Legal Services Tribal Court Advocate Training Project
- Washoe Tribal Court Tradition Comes Full Circle
- Judge “Joe” Van Walraven – Full-time Judge for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony
- Article for CLE Credit: The ABCs of Practicing in Tribal Court (Want CLE Credit for this article? Take the quiz online!)
- Online Exclusive: Bureau of Indian Affairs Oversees Tribal Governance and Courts
- Online Exclusive: All Over the Map
- Event Recap: The State Bar of Nevada Annual Meeting
Turtle Talk 
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