tribal constitutions

Reminder: AALS Indian Nations & Indigenous Peoples Call for Papers on Same-Sex Marriage & LGBT Families

Ann Tweedy

The deadline is coming up 9/1. Please submit if you have a qualifying research project and also feel free to share widely:

The Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples Section of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) invites paper proposals on the following topic. How do Indian Tribes, First Nations, and other Indigenous Peoples regulate same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships, and adoption and foster parenting by same-sex couples and LGBT individuals? What role does evidence of Tribal culture and tradition, if any, play in these decisions? Additionally, what are the processes by which Tribes change their laws with respect to same-sex relationships? More broadly, we are interested in the ways in which Tribes, First Nations and other Indigenous Peoples regulate sexuality and family structure.

Please send proposals of 500 to 1000 words summarizing a paper or work-in-progress you would present on an AALS panel on these issues. The selected panelists will be invited to present their work in a joint program of the Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples and the Law and Anthropology Section, which will be co-sponsored by the Family Law Section. The Program will be held at the AALS Annual Meeting, January 6-10, 2016. Selected papers will be published in the William Mitchell Law Review. Please submit your proposal on or before September 1, 2015 to Michalyn Steele, Chair-Elect, at steelem@law.byu.edu. Questions can also be directed to Ann Tweedy, Chair.

National Native American Bar Association Issues Formal Ethics Opinion on Duties of Advocates in Tribal Disenrollment Proceedings

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is ethics opinion number 1: “Duties of Tribal Court Advocates to Ensure Due Process  Afforded to All Individuals Targeted for Disenrollment”:

National Native American Bar Association Formal Ethics Opinion No. 1

This follows up an earlier resolution from NNABA.

 

Tribes and Same-Sex Marriage in Columbia Human Rights Law Review

Ann Tweedy1 Comment

My article on tribal laws relating to same-sex marriage has just been published in Columbia Human Rights Law Review. It delves into the twelve tribal laws that allow same-sex marriage and also looks at tribal DOMAs, tribal domestic partnership laws, and other tribal laws that bear on same-sex marriage. Finally, it addresses the somewhat limited effects Windsor and the future Supreme Court decision in Obergefell are likely to have on tribal DOMAs.

Thanks to everyone who provided information on tribal laws. I couldn’t have done it without you!

New Scholarship on Tribal Disenrollments

Matthew L.M. Fletcher6 Comments

Arizona Law Review announces its publication of Galanda and Dreveskracht’s piece entitled Curing the Tribal Disenrollment Epidemic: In Search of a Remedy, which has been described as “a must read for all of Indian country” by Indian law scholar Robert A. Williams, Jr. Please see the press release for additional information.

Recent Native America Calling Shows on Tribal Member Disenrollments, Blood Quantum, and Banishment

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here:

http://nativeamericacalling.com/tuesday-may-5-2015-banishment-good-or-bad-for-tribal-communities/

http://nativeamericacalling.com/wednesday-may-6-2015-tribal-enrollment-and-blood-quantum/

Stephen Cornell on Indigenous Self-Government

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Stephen Cornell has published “‘Wolves Have A Constitution:’ Continuities in Indigenous Self-Government” (PDF).

The abstract:

This article is about constitutionalism as an Indigenous tradition. The political idea of constitutionalism is the idea that the process of governing is itself governed by a set of foundational laws or rules. There is ample evidence that Indigenous nations in North America—and in Australia and New Zealand as well—were in this sense constitutionalists. Customary law, cultural norms, and shared protocols provided well understood guidelines for key aspects of governance by shaping both personal and collective action, the behavior of leaders, decision-making, dispute resolution, and relationships with the human, material, and spirit worlds. Today, many of these nations have governing systems imposed by outsiders. As they move to change these systems, they also are reclaiming their own constitutional traditions.

Eighth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Lee v. Cleve Her Many Horses

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the unpublished opinion.

Briefs are here.

Lower court materials here.

Tenth Circuit Finds Federal Question in Thlopthlocco Tribal Town v. Stidham, Orders Tribal Court Exhaustion

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here is the opinion in Thlopthlocco Tribal Town v. Stidham. An excerpt:

The Thlopthlocco Tribal Town is a federally recognized Indian tribe in Oklahoma. An election dispute arose about which individuals were properly elected or appointed to govern the Thlopthlocco people. Seeking to resolve that dispute, the Tribal Town filed suit in the tribal court of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and, accordingly, voluntarily submitted to that court’s jurisdiction.

The Tribal Town subsequently concluded it did not want to maintain its suit in tribal court and dismissed its claims. But the defendant in that suit had, by that time, filed cross-claims. Arguing that the Tribal Town’s sovereign immunity waiver did not cover proceedings on the cross-claims, the Tribal Town attempted to escape Muscogee court jurisdiction, but, in various decisions, several judges and justices of the Muscogee courts held that they may exercise jurisdiction over the Tribal Town without its consent.

The Tribal Town then filed a federal action in the Northern District of Oklahoma against those Muscogee judicial officers, seeking to enjoin the Muscogee courts’ exercise of jurisdiction. The district court dismissed the case, finding that the federal courts lacked subject matter jurisdiction, the defendants were entitled to sovereign immunity, the Tribal Town had failed to join indispensable parties, and the Tribal Town had failed to exhaust its remedies in tribal court. We conclude, however, that the Tribal Town has presented a federal question and that the other claims do not require dismissal. But we agree the Tribal Town should exhaust its remedies in tribal court while its federal court action is abated.

Here are the briefs:

Thlopthlocco Opening Brief

Stidham Brief

Thlopthlocco Reply Brief

Lower court materials here.

 

New Scholarship from Circe Strum on the Cherokee Freedmen

Kate Fort

Here.

Abstract:

Despite a treaty in 1866 between the Cherokee Nation and the federal government granting them full tribal citizenship, Cherokee Freedmen—the descendants of African American slaves to the Cherokee, as well as of children born from unions between African Americans and Cherokee tribal members—continue to be one of the most marginalized communities within Indian Country. Any time Freedmen have sought the full rights and benefits given other Cherokee citizens, they have encountered intense opposition, including a 2007 vote that effectively ousted them from the tribe. The debates surrounding this recent decision provide an excellent case study for exploring the intersections of race and sovereignty. In this article, I use the most recent Cherokee Freedmen controversy to examine how racial discourse both empowers and diminishes tribal sovereignty, and what happens in settler-colonial contexts when the exercise of tribal rights comes into conflict with civil rights. I also explore how settler colonialism as an analytic can obscure the racialized power dynamics that undermine Freedmen claims to an indigenous identity and tribal citizenship.

Information Request on Tribal Gun Laws

Ann Tweedy5 Comments

I’m beginning research on tribal gun laws. If you would like to help, please email any information you have on tribal laws regulating guns or protecting gun rights, such as a copy of the law or information on legislative history, to me at tribalgunrights@comcast.net. I’m particularly interested in efforts to curb gun violence through regulation, especially laws enacted in response to mass shootings, and also in whether any tribes have stand-your-ground laws. But all tribal laws pertaining to guns are of interest to me. You can find my earlier work on tribes and the Second Amendment here.