“A Howl: A Comics Collection of Wolves, Werewolves, and Rougarou” Kickstarter Campaign Begins Today

Here.

Bay Mills Indian Community Brings Contested Case against Line 5 Tunnel Proposal

Here.

Trickster 10th Anniversary Edition Releases May 3, 2021

This 10th Anniversary Edition includes a new trickster tale (by Fletcher) and storytelling guides.

Available from Chicago Review Press here. Also ask for it at your local independent bookstore. My faves are Birchbark Books, Schuler Books, Horizon Books, and Brilliant Books.

Last Call for ILPC/TICA Conference CFP

Head to www.indigenouslawconference.com for details. CFPs are due tomorrow, May 1, 2021.

Interior Withdraws M-37064 and Issues M-37069 (AK Land into Trust)

Previous post here.

New M-letter here.

Nice job, (Principal Deputy) Solicitor Anderson.

NCJFCJ ICWA Courts Publication

NCJFCJ has a cool new publication on ICWA courts, specifically the Duluth ICWA court which is (in my humble opinion) the national model for this work. Here is an older WaPo article on the court (one of the best mainstream press ICWA articles out there), and the publication is below.

Ninth Circuit Restores Navajo Nation’s Water Rights Trust Breach Suit

Here is the opinion in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior. Briefs here.

An excerpt:

Moreover, neither Morongo nor Gros Ventre nor Jicarilla involved claims to vindicate Winters rights, which provide the foundation of the Nation’s claim here. Unlike the plaintiffs in those cases, the Nation, in pointing to its reserved water rights, has identified specific treaty, statutory, and regulatory provisions that impose fiduciary obligations on Federal Appellees—namely, those provisions of the Nation’s various treaties and related statutes and executive orders that establish the Navajo Reservation and, under the long-established Winters doctrine, give rise to implied water rights to make the reservation viable.

                      *. *  *

We hold in particular that, under Winters, Federal Appellees have a duty to protect the Nation’s water supply that arises, in part, from specific provisions in the 1868 Treaty that contemplated farming by the members of the Reservation.

Marshall Project and NPR on How Alaska OCS Stole Millions from Alaska Native Foster Kids

If you, like me, enjoy starting your day with the clarifying anger of a thousand white hot fires, may I recommend this article on how various state agencies rerouted foster children’s SSI benefits to pay for their own foster care–especially impacting Alaska Native children. A few of those children are highlighted in this article:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/04/22/foster-care-agencies-take-thousands-of-dollars-owed-to-kids-most-children-have-no-idea

The Marshall Project and NPR have found that in at least 36 states and Washington, D.C., state foster care agencies comb through their case files to find kids entitled to these benefits, then apply to Social Security to become each child’s financial representative, a process permitted by federal regulations. Once approved, the agencies take the money, almost always without notifying the children, their loved ones or lawyers.

At least 10 state foster care agencies hire for-profit companies to obtain millions of dollars in Social Security benefits intended for the most vulnerable children in their care each year, according to a review of hundreds of pages of contract documents. A private firm that Alaska used while Hunter was in state care referred to acquiring benefits from people with disabilities as “a major line of business” in company records.

Some states also take veterans’ benefits from children with a parent who died in the military, though this has become less common as casualties have declined since the Iraq War.

Secretarial Order 3400: “Delegation of Authority for Non-Gaming Off-Reservation Fee-to-Trust Acquisitions”

Here.

Arizona COA Holds Federal Law Preempts State Taxes on Trust Land Improvements Regardless of Ownership

Here is the opinion in South Point Energy Center v. Arizona Dept. of Revenue.

Prior post here.