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NYTs Profile of Tikigaq School’s Basketball Team in Point Hope, Alaska

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here.

An excerpt:

For three years in a row, the teenagers who spend virtually every evening of the week perfecting their crossovers and fadeaways in the Tikigaq gymnasium — home of the Harpooners — have turned their pickup games into glory. The boys have won the Class 2A Alaska State Basketball Championship each year since 2009, an unprecedented “three-peat” that is all the more remarkable because Tikigaq, isolated on a spit in the Chukchi Sea, has fewer than 60 students in high school and its teams must sometimes fly for 12 hours to play a game.

International Commission Holds Historic Hearing on Violence Against Native Women in the U.S. – U.S. Officials and Native Advocates Agree Violence Must End

Kirsten Matoy Carlson
Terri Henry, Co-Chair, National Congress of American Indians Task Force on Violence Against Native Women, and Tribal Council Representative, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, encouraged the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit Native communities to learn more about the epidemic of violence against Native women. An ILRC photo by Leonardo Crippa.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — During an historic hearing dedicated to their missing and murdered Native sisters throughout the Americas, Native women and tribal advocates resorted to an international human rights body to raise global awareness on the epidemic of violence against Native women in the United States.   Representatives of the United States appearing at the hearing admitted that this level of violence against Native women is “an assault on the national conscience.” Continue reading →

Michigan AG Leads Amicus Brief Against EPA Mercury Controls

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the brief.

The case is American Nurses Assn. v. Jackson.

It is a sad day for everyone living in the Great Lakes watershed that so many states can get behind a lawsuit that will guarantee higher mercury levels in the water and not suffer political backlash. We in Michigan are deeply shamed by the actions of our Attorney General.

Help Raise Awareness about the Epidemic of Violence against Native Women in the U.S.

Kirsten Matoy Carlson2 Comments

Be the first to view a new promo from the Indian Law Resource Center to create awareness about violence against Native women.   Now is the time to seek change that will improve the safety of Native communities, provide access to justice and ensure that perpetrators of violence against Native women are brought to justice.  Do something!

Hearing Today – Violence Against Native Women in the United States

Kirsten Matoy Carlson
According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, one out of three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and three out of four will be physically assaulted.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will hold a hearing on Oct. 25, 2011 at 10:15 a.m. Eastern Time at the General Secretariat Building of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C.  The Commission is an autonomous organ of the OAS, created by countries to protect human rights in the Americas. Click here to watch the live stream.

 

Informational Briefing for Tribal Leaders

Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Tribal leaders and advocates are invited to attend the Indian Law Resource Center’s briefing “Using the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Reforming Federal Indian Law.” The briefing will take place Oct. 29, 2011 in Portland, Oreg. Register online for this free event, space is limited.

Continue reading →

Supreme Court 2011 Term: A Preview of the Indian Law Cases

Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

The “long conference” is next Monday, and so the 2011 Term is under way. Here are the cases that are on the radar, with an emphasis on the petitions on the agenda for Monday.

Petitions Slated for the Long Conference:

Oneida Indian Nation v. Oneida County (No. 10-1420) and United States v. New York (10-1404), involving the Oneida land claims and Sherrill, is already a petition to watch. The fact that the federal government filed a petition is huge, but the Court has denied similar petitions….

Navajo Nation v. EEOC (No. 10-981) and Peabody Western Coal Co. v. EEOC (No. 10-986), along with EEOC v. Peabody Western Coal Co. (No. 10-1080), a conditional cross-petition. This case involves the long-running Navajo tribal employment preference act. Although labeled a petition to watch, the feds are opposing the main petitions, and this one will be denied. A Rule 19 case.

Petitions Slated for Later Conferences:

Arctic Slope Native Assn. v. Sebelius (No. 11-33). This petition involving contract support costs under the Indian Self-Determination Act has a strong chance, with a circuit split between the Federal Circuit (here) and the Tenth Circuit (here and perhaps here).

Salazar v. Patchak (No. 11-247) and Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians v. Patchak (No. 11-246). This one has already been slated a “petition to watch.” The federal government’s effort to protect federal immunity under the Quiet Title Act is almost certain to be granted.

Gila River Indian Community v. Lyon (No. 11-80). Like the EEOC case, a Rule 19 case. One of these days, the SCT will hear a Rule 19 case where an Indian tribe is the missing indispensable party.

Seneca Telephone v. Miami Tribe (No. 11-183). Any case with tribal sovereign immunity as the backdrop has a chance, but this one has no split and no real major issue.

Reed v. Gutierrez (No. 10-1390). Another immunity case, even less likely to be granted than Seneca Telephone, given that Kiowa completely controls this one without doubt.

Corboy v. Louie (No. 11-336). Any petition involving the Native Hawaiians is bound to attract some Justices’ attention, but this one is being brought by tax protesters, not a favored party in the Supreme Court.

Evans v. Wapato Heritage (No. 11-215).

Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians rejects proposed Michigan moose hunt

Nick Reo

As reported in the September 2nd issue of Win Awenen Nisitotung, Sault Tribe Inland Conservation Committee elected not to support a moose hunting season in Michigan. Provisions in the 2007 Inland Consent Decree require tribal (and state) approval of moose hunting. This outcome may frustrate people interested in moving forward with a moose hunt in Michigan; but for Sault Tribe officials, the precautionary route was prudent given the small number of moose that currently reside in the Upper Peninsula and the uncertainty over their population dynamics.

On Justice Ginsburg’s Admission She Doesn’t Read “Most” Amicus Briefs

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Justice Ginsburg admitted earlier this week at a talk at SMU that she doesn’t read most amicus briefs. [A link to an article about her talk is here.] Here is an excerpt of the article reporting on the discussion:

To prepare for oral arguments in all cases, Ginsburg said she reads all the prior opinions and part of the record before opening the lawyers’ briefs. She follows that order so she may spot inaccuracies in the briefs. “Lawyers should know, if they try to distort the record, they will be found out,” she said. Writers of amicus briefs face other concerns: “I have to confess, I don’t read all of those. In fact, I don’t read most of them,” Ginsburg said.

The possibility that Supreme Court Justices don’t read amicus briefs, or only read a few of them, is not new. In fact, the Tribal Supreme Court Project’s greatest successes so far have been  in limiting the number of redundant amicus briefs filed in the Court, and negotiating strategies for targeted, careful amicus briefs.

What is new, a little bit, is the admission from one of the Justices. Our question is this: Will there be an impact on the market for amicus briefs? Right now, just about every Supreme Court practitioner shop in D.C. has clients willing to shell out dough for amicus briefs. Will that market start to dry up, even just a little bit?

Regardless, this information is sobering.