Turtle Talk

Sponsored by the AALS Sections on: Associate Deans for Academic Affairs and Research, Critical Theories, Leadership, New Law Professors, Pro Bono & Access to Justice, Professional Responsibility, and Women in Legal Education

Indigenous nations and their citizens have a unique relationship with the United States and its legal system. From having their rights adjudicated by the “Courts of the conqueror,” to the overarching plenary power exercised by the U.S. Congress, to the negotiation of treaties with a president often deemed the “great white father,” the American rule of law and role of lawyers in upholding it have significantly and disparately impacted Indigenous sovereignty and individual rights. A modern renaissance of that sovereignty and the expanding study and understanding of the role it has played in shaping the nation’s structures of power is now beginning to reshape how the law and lawyers should view Indigenous rights in relation to law, justice, and the legal profession. This panel centers the rights of Indigenous nations and their citizens to consider what the American rule of law has meant and how the assertion of Indigenous sovereignty is fundamentally changing those historical (mis-)conceptions.

*What this panel might have looked like in 1977.*

Evan Burnick on a Canon Against Conquest

October 21, 2025Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Evan D. Burnick has published “Canon Against Conquest” in the University of Illinois Law Review.

The abstract:

The interpretive rules that require judges to read treaties, statutes, and other legal texts in favor of Native nations and people have always been contested. But seldom has the future of the “Indian canon” seemed so uncertain. Several sitting Supreme Court Justices have questioned the legitimacy of the Indian canon, expressing skepticism about the roots of the specific rules that constitute it and raising doubts about whether “Congress has always framed statutes in a way that are favorable to Indian tribes.” Other Justices have written or joined opinions that have narrowed and diluted the Indian canon.

This Article maps the origins and development of the Indian canon and defends it on originalist and textualist grounds. It then contends that the canon should be codified to ensure its survival. This codification should be expressly grounded in a constitutional commitment to tribal sovereignty. Tribal sovereignty was part of the law of nations at the Founding; it was built into the original meaning and structure of the Constitution; and it persists today, in spite of state and federal efforts to extinguish it.

Codification is necessary because it is not enough to answer criticisms of the Indian canon from the standpoint of originalism, textualism, or any other methodology that holds sway on the Supreme Court. The canon has been diminished, disparaged, and nearly discarded by judges of a variety of methodological persuasions. Codification will increase the likelihood that the canon will be deployed to protect Native lands, governance, and culture. As an act of legislative constitutionalism, it will be at once entitled to respect and tailored to receive it.

Michigan Tribal State Federal Judicial Forum

October 20, 2025Angie Sanchez

The Indigenous Law & Policy Center is honored to host this year’s Michigan Tribal State Federal Judicial Forum. The open sessions will be held on Monday, October 27^th in the Castle Board Room, Rm 343 in the MSU College of Law.

The Michigan Tribal State Federal Judicial Forum was formally established in 2014 by the Michigan Supreme Court and consists of tribal judges from each of Michigan’s 12 federally-recognized tribes, 12 state court judges, as well as federal judges and officials. Michigan, which is home of 12 federally recognized Indian tribes and tribal court systems, has also enjoyed a long history of collaboration between state and tribal courts.

The Forum will include a presentation by Jeff Davis, Partner at Barnes & Thornburg in Grand Rapids and Chair of the firm’s Native American Law and Policy Practice Group from 12:15 – 1:15 pm in the Castle Board Room. Lunch will be provided. Jeff Davis is the former Executive Director of the Indian Law & Order Commission created by Congress, and he also spent several years as an AUSA in the Western District of Michigan, prosecuting crimes in Indian Country in the district and serving as the liaison for the District’s eleven federally recognized Indian tribes.

For the afternoon sessions, Forum members have dedicated time for a series of educational panels for law students in addition to time for informal networking with the students.

Please register to attend (in person only) at this link: https://bit.ly/MIStateTribalFedForum2025. We hope to see you there!