Citizen Potawatomi Nation

Commentary: Tribes Lead Efforts to Implement UN Declaration

Kirsten Matoy Carlson
by Robert T. Coulter*

Photo for Robert T. Coulter
Robert T. Coulter is Executive Director of the Indian Law Resource Center. He is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and has more than 30 years of experience in the field of Indian law.

It has been just a year since President Obama announced the Administration’s support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and promised action to implement at least some of those rights.  Across the country, tribal governments are seizing the Declaration and using it creatively to protect their lands and resources, and especially their rights to cultural and sacred sites.

For example, the Navajo Nation has used the Declaration in its efforts to protect the San Francisco Peaks, and the Seneca Nation has pointed out Article 37 (“Indigenous peoples have the right to the recognition, observance and enforcement of treaties”) in its efforts to resolve a 60-year occupation of Seneca territory by the New York State Thruway that violates the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua. Continue reading →

Angela Riley Elevated to Chief Justice of Citizen Potawatomi Nation Supreme Court

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Congrats, Chief Justice Riley!

From Potawatomi.org:

Meeting in Shawnee, Oklahoma for their 12th annual Family Reunion Festival, Citizen Potawatomi Nation members have retained Linda Capps for a new four-year term as the Nation’s Vice Chairman. CPN voters also filled four seats in the tribe’s 16-member legislature and filled out the ranks of the CPN’s judiciary.

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CPN voters retained CPN member Angela Riley, [UCLA law prof and Director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center], as a Supreme Court Justice and elevated her to the post of Chief Justice. She replaces G. William Rice, who has held the post since the mid-1980s. Robert Coulter, Robert Coffey, and James White were also retained on the Supreme Court.

Judge Phil Lujan, who helped establish the Citizen Potawatomi Nation court system in the mid-1980s and who has been a CPN District judge since the days of the Court of Indian Offenses, won retention as the Nation’s Chief District Court Judge.

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Section 1983 Claim against Tribal Police Dismissed

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials in Ouart v. Fleming (W.D. Okla.):

Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment

Co-Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss

Plaintiff’s Response

DCT Order Granting Motion

Angela Riley to Join UCLA Law & American Indian Studies

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Angela Riley, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and one of its appellate justices, and a tenured law professor at Southwestern Law School, will join the UCLA Law School faculty as a tenured professor. Professor Riley also will be Director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center.

This is outstanding news for Indian Country and American Indian studies!

Supreme Court Denies Cert in Rocky Barrett Tax Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the order list — the docket no. is 09-32, and the notice is on page 3.

Barrett v. United States Cert Petition Materials

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The petition stage briefing is complete in Barrett v. United States (09-32).

Barrett v. US Cert Petition

CPN Amicus Brief

SOLICITOR ANSWER BRIEF

Barrett Reply Brief

The conference for this petition is October 9, 2009.

Lower court materials are here.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Files Amicus Brief in Barrett v. United States

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here — CPN Amicus Brief

Other materials are here. And here is the Supreme Court docket.

Citizen Potawatomi Chair Files Cert Petition in Tax Dispute

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the cert petition in Barrett v. U.S. (docket no. 09-32) — Barrett v. US Cert Petition

Questions presented:

1. Whether an Indian tribe can use Indians Claims Commission Act funds, appropriated by Congress and distributed to the tribe with a specific exemption from federal income tax, to pay federal income tax exempted salaries to elected officials the tribe is required to have under its tribal constitution.

2. Whether the imposition of a penalty by the Internal Revenue Service against the tribal chairman for sovereign legislative actions of the tribe improperly infringes on the tribe’s sovereign powers.

Lower court materials are available here.

Barrett v. United States Briefing in CA10

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the briefs in Barrett v. United States, to be heard by the Tenth Circuit:

barrett-appellant-brief

usa-appellee-brief

Lower court materials, including the opinion, are here in an earlier post.

Tribal Amicus Brief Supporting Kickapoo v. Texas Cert Petition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Several tribes — Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Coquille Indian Tribe, Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians, Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe, Spokane Tribe of Indians, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe — filed a joint amicus brief supporting the Kickapoo Tribe’s cert petition over the Secretarial procedures for establishing Class III gaming compacts, a rule struck down by the Fifth Circuit a few months ago. Here is the Tribal Amicus Brief. Here is the link to the Kickapoo cert petition. The State’s cert opposition is due later this month.

It is significant, of course, that the United States did not file a cert petition.