Turtle Talk

NDN Collective, Inc. (NDN) announces the release of a Request for Information (RFI) to collaboratively identify contractors and other technical assistance providers who can provide support to Indigenous communities bracing from economic impacts, stresses to public services due to COVID-19. This team will specifically provide assistance in accessing federal stimulus resources for Native Nations, Indigenous-led organizations, and individuals, and other. The RFI is designed to complement COVID-19 Response grants and loans that are offered by NDN to maximize the potential of these resources to solve current critical needs by building capacity to use these funds effectively.

Res Ipsa Loquitur Issues 1 and 2 [History of U.Mich. Student Ad Hoc Committee on Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation, 1996]

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020Matthew L.M. Fletcher

In 1996, Michigan law students formed an Ad Hoc Committee on Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation after the office door of Lance Jones, an African-American faculty member, was defaced with a racist slur. Shortly after that, the Res Gestae, a law student publication, published an attack on Catharine MacKinnon. The Ad Hoc Committee’s formation was followed by the publication of Res Ipsa Loquitur, a newsletter on race, gender, and sexual orientation. We’re making two issues of that newsletter available here.

Here:

Res Ipsa Loquitur Issue 1

Res Ipsa Loquitur Issue 2

Here is a twitter thread that is aggregating the issues and responses to Dean West’s initial statement and the responses from students and others (June 4-June 6)(includes documents).

Notice Case out of California [ICWA]

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020Kate Fort

Since April, the California courts of appeal have been wrestling with California’s new law defining “reason to know” from ICWA’s section 1912 and “reason to believe” (state law standard). In addition, the department has been regularly petitioning to make cases reported rather than unreported. Since April with the In re Austin J. case, California courts have been reshaping their very low bar for notice to tribes into a much higher one, with the caveat that the California standard of “reason to believe” does require contact with tribes though not necessarily formal notice. Given California’s outsized role in notice and inquiry ICWA cases, this is a trend that bears watching, with the understanding this is based on California state law, and not the federal ICWA.

Here is In re M.W., decided on May 11. The Department petitioned for publication on May 15 and it was published on June 5. Under the reason to believe standard, the social worker,

The report documented the social worker’s contact with the 12 tribes by telephone, fax, e-mail, and/or mail, the name of the designated agent for each tribe, the dates of attempted contact with each designated agent (all between May 15 and June 4, 2019), and that each tribe was provided with the minor’s “ICWA Family Tree.” As of the date of the report, four of the tribes had confirmed the minor was not an Indian child. As of the July 10, 2019 hearing, six additional tribes had confirmed the minor was not an Indian child, and the two remaining tribes (the Navajo Nation and the White Mountain Apache Tribe) had acknowledged contact but had not yet provided a definitive response.

I am curious to know how out of state tribes are feeling this system is working, given that while California may change its ways, tribes are generally set up to receive the paperwork to confirm a family’s tribal membership, and we already know that informal phone calls to confirm or deny a child’s eligibility can be problematic. Early outreach is great, if it works to give tribes MORE information and not less.