Here are new materials in the case now captioned Nooksack Indian Tribe v. Zinke (W.D. Wash.):
14 – Motion of 271 Nooksack Tribal Members to Intervene
19 – Nooksack Tribe’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction
22 Nooksack Opposition to Intervention
24 271 Members Reply in Support of Motion to Intervene
26 – Federal Defendants’ Opposition to Preliminary Injunction Motion and Cross-Motion to Dismiss
Here is the opinion in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of Interior:
An excerpt:
The Navajo Nation delivered a proposed funding agreement to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, during a partial government shutdown. By law, the BIA had 90 days after receipt to act on the proposal or it would be deemed approved. The BIA did not consider the proposal “received” until normal government operations later resumed, and issued a partial declination 90 days after that date. The Nation filed an action to enforce the proposal, contending that the BIA’s declination was untimely. The district court granted summary judgment to the DOI, holding that because the Nation had remained silent when the BIA indicated its position on the deadline, the Nation was equitably estopped from asserting an earlier one. The Nation brought the present appeal. We reverse the judgment.
Briefs here.
Lower court materials here.
From Grist:
Out in the middle of nowhere, people look out for one another. That fact is especially evident in the boonies of southern Washington as you cut east along the Columbia River in the company of “Sockeye” Suzy Lumley. If you come across her, don’t be surprised if she hands you some canned salmon.
Here’s the press release from Greenberg Traurig:
Greenberg Traurig’s Heather Dawn Thompson Awarded
Prestigious Bush Fellowship
DENVER – Apr. 3, 2017 – Heather Dawn Thompson, an attorney in the American Indian Law Practice of international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, was recently awarded a Bush Fellowship for her extraordinary leadership in Indian Country. The Fellowship provides an educational grant to pursue the training and experiences Fellows need to become more effective leaders in their community.
Thompson, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, will focus her Bush Fellowship on “self-sufficiency,” for Tribal governments. Thompson wants to better engage the private sector with the Great Plains Tribes in their efforts to build their strength and self-determination. She is experienced in Indian law and economic development nationwide; and, in result, has witnessed economic independence bring freedom to invest in language, culture, and service to tribal citizens. She also believes strong leadership requires the wisdom that the Lakota language and values provide. She will use her Bush Fellowship to pursue corporate and tribal finance, combining it with a focus on traditional Lakota values of leadership and self-sufficiency.
“We are honored to have someone with Heather’s knowledge of Indian country, Native American Law, and tribal economic development serving our clients and also always seeking to learn more to benefit tribes in the Great Plains and beyond,” said Jennifer H. Weddle, co-chair of the American Indian Law Practice. “Her exceptional background and leadership provides valuable perspective to our clients.”
Thompson was selected from nearly 650 applicants, from across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native nations that share the same geography. Fellows determine what they need to become a more effective leader and receive the fellowship grant to make it happen.
Thompson is from South Dakota, where she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota’s Indian Country Section prior to joining Greenberg Traurig. She also previously served as the Director of Government Affairs for the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), the nation’s oldest and largest inter-tribal organization. In addition, she is Past President of both the South Dakota Indian Country Bar Association and the National Native American Bar Association.
She focuses her practice at Greenberg Traurig on American Indian law, federal Indian policy and advocacy, tribal sovereignty, tribal economic development, and tribal nation building. Thompson works with individual tribes, tribal and Indian-owned businesses, intertribal associations, and businesses seeking to partner with tribal corporations. Thompson was published recently, writing an article on “Doing Business with Native American Tribal Corporations.”
Here are the materials in Chemehuevi Indian Tribe v. Brown (C.D. Cal.):
Here is Emily Bazelon and Eric Posner’s “The Government Gorsuch Wants to Undo.” An excerpt:
But the reality is that Judge Gorsuch embraces a judicial philosophy that would do nothing less than undermine the structure of modern government — including the rules that keep our water clean, regulate the financial markets and protect workers and consumers. In strongly opposing the administrative state, Judge Gorsuch is in the company of incendiary figures like the White House adviser Steve Bannon, who has called for its “deconstruction.” The Republican-dominated House, too, has passed a bill designed to severely curtail the power of federal agencies.
Here are several other tidbits on this issue:
Richard Hasen’s “Neil Gorsuch got where he is because of a form of affirmative action.”
Elie Mystal’s “Truck Drivers Weigh In On TransAm Trucking Case, Neil Gorsuch Nomination.”
NCAI/NARF Support Documents: NCAI NARF Gorsuch letter Final and NCAI Summary of Gorsuch Confirmation Hearing
Turtle Talk’s summary of Judge Gorsuch’s Indian law record.
Here are the materials in Pauma Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pauma & Yuima Reservation v. State of California (S.D. Cal.):
Here is “From the Rez and Back: Legal Eagle Helps Her Tribe.”
Here are the materials in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. United States (D.S.D.):
An excerpt:
The above affirmations of a health care trust responsibility are tempered by Supreme Court rulings on the subject of the general trust responsibility, as noted above, and specifically on American Indian health care. The Government argues that because of the lack of a trust corpus, “the sole question is whether the IHS owes any trust duty in relation to its annual appropriations.” Doc. 18 at 18. Where money is appropriated to fulfill a treaty obligation, a trust responsibility attaches; where money is a “gratuitous appropriation,” no trust responsibility is created. See Quick Bear v. Leupp, 210 U.S. 50, 80 (1908). The Supreme Court dealt specifically with an issue regarding appropriations to IHS in Lincoln v. Vigil, 508 U.S. 182 (1993). In Lincoln, the Court held that lump-sum amounts appropriated to IHS were committed to agency discretion, so long as it allocated funds “to meet permissible statutory objectives.” 508 U.S. at 193. At issue in Lincoln was the decision by IHS to discontinue a program assisting handicapped American Indian children in the Southwest and to move that funding to a nationwide program for handicapped American Indian children. Id. at 184. Lincoln focused specifically on whether IHS’s decision to terminate the program could be reviewed under the APA, and whether it should have abided by the APA’s notice-and-comment rulemaking provisions; it did not opine on a general trust responsibility held by IHS for the care of handicapped American Indian children. Id. at 190, 196.
The Eighth Circuit has recognized, in a limited fashion, the trust responsibility of the United States to provide health care to American Indians. See White v. Califano, 581 F.2d 697 (8th Cir. 1978) (per curiam). In White, the Eighth Circuit in a two-page decision required the federal government, rather than the state of South Dakota, to provide and pay for the involuntary commitment of an indigent mentally ill woman enrolled in the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Id. The Eighth Circuit quoted from the district court’s opinion and explained that “[i]n affirming, we adopt the district court’s statement of facts and its reasoning as applied to the conclusions quoted above.” Id. at 698. Specifically, the Eighth Circuit quoted from Judge Bogue’s opinion:
We think that Congress has unambiguously declared that the federal government has a legal responsibility to provide health care to Indians. This stems from the ‘unique relationship’ between Indians and the federal government, a relationship that is reflected in hundreds of cases and is further made obvious by the fact that one bulging volume of the U. S. Code pertains only to Indians.
Id. (quoting White v. Califano, 437 F. Supp. 543, 555 (D.S.D. 1977)). Although the White decisions pre-date the Mitchell line of trust responsibility cases, nothing in those cases overrules or otherwise negates White, especially because White involved a request for specific equitable relief, while the Mitchell line of cases dealt with monetary damages claims made possible under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491, and the Indian Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1505. Relatedly, in Blue Legs v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 668 F. Supp. 1329, 1330 (D.S.D. 1987)—a case seeking declaratory and injunctive relief based on the trust responsibility outside of the health care context—Judge Battey summarized White, explaining that “the law was clear that the trust responsibility of the federal government in relation to Indian tribes in the area of health services was explicitly mandated by the Indian Health Care Improvement Act . . . and the law then in existence.” Id. at 1340. On appeal, the Eighth Circuit affirmed that the specific agency responsibilities towards the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe in cleaning up waste dumps was “buttressed by the existence of the general trust relationship between these agencies [the BIA and IHS] and the Tribe.” Blue Legs, 867 F.2d at 1100. The Eighth Circuit explained that “[t]he existence of a trust duty between the United States and an Indian or Indian tribe can be inferred from the provisions of a statute, treaty or other agreement, ‘reinforced by the undisputed existence of a general trust relationship between the United States and the Indian people.'” Id. (quoting Mitchell, 463 U.S. at 225).
We posted the complaint here.
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