The district court for the District of South Dakota issued an order granting an award for around $600K in attorney fees to the plaintiffs in a voting rights case in Indian Country. Here are the materials:
Rosebud Sioux Tribe
United States v. Killeaney — Sixth Amendment and the Dual Sovereignty Doctrine — A Circuit Split involving Tribal Law Enforcement & Tribal Courts?
The District Court for the District of South Dakota recently declined to suppress evidence obtained in a criminal investigation at the Rosebud. This case has the potential to go to the Supreme Court (a circuit split already exists and another could arise) and could be a significant problem for tribal criminal law enforcement.
The defendant allegedly committed a crime on tribal lands, initially investigated by the tribal police and prosecuted in tribal court. The defendant made statements to police while being represented by a tribal public defender, who was not a lawyer or a law school graduate (however, the director of the tribal public defender office is a lawyer). The US would like to use those statements in the federal prosecution of the same offense. The question is when the defendant’s Miranda and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches. If the CA8 reverses this decision and holds that they attach at the tribal court level, then there will be two circuit splits.
Antoine v. Winner School District (S.D.) Consent Decree
Here’s the ACLU website on this incredible and ugly case, involving Indian students at a school bordering the Rosebud. Here is the Indian.com coverage of the judge’s approval of the settlement.
Here are the relevant materials from the settlement in the Antoine v. Winner School District:
S.D. Students Protest “Fighting Sioux”
From Indianz:
South Dakota students protest ‘Fighting Sioux’
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Indian students at the University of South Dakota protested the “Fighting Sioux” logo and nickname of the University of North Dakota.
Holding signs that read “There is no honor in racism” and “American Indians are people not mascots,” the students protested outside of a game against UND. They said the “Sioux” name was offensive. “I believe what they’re doing is disrespectful to our people,” Sinte Nupa Gilbert, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, told The Volante Online. The students want USD to refuse to play games with UND until the “Sioux” name and logo are eliminated. UND signed a settlement that calls for elimination of the name within three years unless tribal approval is obtained.
Get the Story:
American Indian students protest UND nickname (The Volante Online 11/14)
Turtle Talk 