Dear Santa, Please Buy Indian Again (2011)

Dear Santa, I've been good again this year and am very excited for Christmas.

Thank you for all of the wonderful Native-made presents you brought my family and me last year. Will you please do the same this year? Since none of this stuff is made at the North Pole you'll have to buy it again from Indian Country -- you know, Buy Indian -- OK?

For my mom, please bring her a purse or scarf made by Dorothy Grant. She will feel so good wearing something so beautiful.

For my dad, please bring him all the Umqua Indian Foods beef jerky he can eat. He’s easy to please.

For my oldest brother, please bring him a Louie Gong print Psycho Killer Whale Linocut Print. It will look cool in his college dorm room.

For my older sister, please bring her a Litefoot action figurine, with flat-billed lid, high tops and beat-box accessories. She has a major crush on him. If he is out of stock, please bring her a Litefoot gift set.

For me and all of my brothers and sisters, please bring them something from Native Threads, Nakota Designs, HYDZ Gear, or Haida Shoes. All of that Native-made gear is awesome.

For me and my cousins, please bring us Gyasi Ross' new book, "Don't Know Much About Indians."

For the singers and drummers in my family, please bring them a JBear Rawhide hand drum.

For my great aunties, please bring them something authentic from the Quileute Nation. They are huge Twilight fans and would love anything made by Quileute People.

For my mom, aunties and grandmas, please bring them Sister Sky indigenous bath and beauty products. I know they’ll love the stuff's smell and feel.

For my uncles and grandpas, please bring them Tanka Gift Baskets. They’ll love the buffalo snacks.

For everyone, please put Tanka Bars in our stockings. Another great stocking stuffer: Star Nayea’s Christmas Dream CD. Life’s Beautiful Journey holiday cards by Linley Logan would also be a nice touch.

Finally, for my tribe’s and all tribes’ leaders, please give them the tools to build vibrant small Indian business sectors and inter-tribal economies so Indian Country will prosper for generations to come, especially when Indian gaming fades away. Unfortunately you must have run short on these tools last Christmas, as Buy Indian still isn’t a reality in Indian Country in 2011. Hopefully that will change in 2012.

Oh, and although I left you homemade chocolate chip cookies last year, I hope you will try the Tanka Bar I left you this year. It should allow you to squeeze down those chimneys a bit easier.

Thank you, Santa!

Jimmy Indian, age 9

Proposed Federal Leasing Rule Could Spur Tribal Renewable Energy Development, Finally

On November 28, the Department of the Interior issued a proposed leasing rule, 25 C.F.R. § 162. According to the DOI, the rule will “remove referral roadblocks to economic development[,] restore greater control to tribal governments[,]streamline the approval process for home ownership, expedite economic development[,] and spur renewable energy development in Indian Country.” Although not as comprehensive as it could be, the proposed regulation change is a significant step in the right direction.

The proposed regulations will streamline the leasing process by imposing timelines on the Department for reviewing leases: up to 30 days for residential leases, and up to 60 days for business leases and wind and solar energy leases.

The proposed regulations will also distinguish between residential, business, and wind and solar energy leases, and establish separate processes for review, as well as permitting the automatic approval of subleases and amendments to existing leases.

Further, the proposed regulations eliminate the requirement for Department approval of “permits” for activities on Indian lands, and defer to the judgment of tribes and individual Indians on land use and rental rates.

The proposed regulations will also establish a new, streamlined process for the development of wind and solar energy projects on Indian lands, by distinguishing between leases based on whether they are for residential, business, or wind and solar energy development.

The proposed rule will not apply to subsurface lands or agricultural leases, nor will it modify the agency’s obligation to comply with federal environmental laws and policies. However, because the proposed regulations require federal approval in fewer instances – the “federal action” triggering the application of federal environmental laws – it is likely that a significant environmental-regulatory burden will be lifted.

The Department of the Interior has drafted a comparison chart of existing and proposed regulations, available here.

Ryan Dreveskracht is an Associate at Galanda Broadman PLLC. His practice focuses on representing businesses and tribal governments in public affairs, energy, gaming, taxation, and general economic development. He can be reached at 206.909.3842 or ryan@galandabroadman.com.

The PACT Act Violates All Tribes’ Sovereignty

Yesterday, Washington, DC U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth – who played an instrumental role in Cobell – struck a blow to the PACT Act, by preliminarily enjoining federal enforcement of the Act. Judge Lamberth's decision is the second federal court ruling that the PACT Act is unconstitutional, in recent months. While the potentially positive implications of the decisions for Indian Country are still being sorted out, the PACT Act remains an imminent threat to the sovereignty of all Tribal governments, and to any notion of tax-free inter-tribal commerce and trade.

The PACT Act of 2010, as federal agencies no doubt still intend to implement it, violates the sovereignty of all Tribal governments – not only those involved in tobacco commerce. Tribal sovereignty, at its core, includes the right of Tribal Governments to be ruled by their own laws and govern their own economies. But the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), by inviting states and state law into Indian Country, has made clear its intent to enforce the Act in a way that will gut Tribes’ inherent right to self govern and chill Indian economic growth.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the PACT Act requires Indian tobacco enterprises to comply with state tobacco laws – even within Indian Country. For two centuries, courts have generally barred states from applying their laws to Tribes and Indian businesses within Indian Country. But federal agency interpretation of the Act threatens to change the tribal-state status quo. It requires no close analysis of the law to see that the federal government is shepherding state tax agencies into Indian Country. Although today’s state-federal attacks focus on tobacco, DOJ is establishing a dangerous precedent; one under which the federal government will pass federal laws allowing states to extract previously unavailable value from Tribal economies and causing DOJ to become the states’ enforcement arm in Indian Country.

DOJ’s interpretation of the PACT Act is inconsistent with the law itself, which on its face prohibits the Act from being used to confer states regulatory authority over Indian Country commerce. As the DOJ and ATF read the law, however, the PACT Act widely opens an unprecedented avenue for states to regulate and tax Tribal and inter-Tribal commerce and trade.

The United States has stated that the Act’s definition of “interstate commerce” includes sales within or between Indian reservations. Legal nuances aside, DOJ’s application of the PACT Act’s “interstate commerce” to inter-Tribal tobacco trade – meaning trade between Tribes situated in different states – is a recipe for Tribal economic disaster. Tribes freely traded between and among themselves long before state governments or taxation existed. To now allow state taxation of inter-Tribal commerce and state regulation of the budding Tribal private sector, under color of federal law and law enforcement, threatens to set Tribal economies back nearly two centuries – to when states destroyed Indian Country’s original economies.

Again, the PACT Act expresses Congress’ clear intent that the law not adversely effect Tribal sovereignty. Indeed a pro-Tribal interpretation clause of the Act requires ambiguities in the new law to be resolved in favor of preserving Tribal sovereignty and immunity from state authority. Incredibly, though, the Executive Branch’s interpretations of the law have taken the very opposite approach, with the Act being construed to favor state regulation and taxation in Indian Country. States have already seized the DOJ’s written interpretation of the PACT Act to regulate and tax – the proverbial power to destroy – Tribal and inter-Tribal economies.

Notwithstanding yesterday's court ruling, all of Indian Country must stand together now, united in vocal opposition to the PACT Act.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda, a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.

Congress Strikes a Blow to Tribal Law and Order Act

According to the 2008 National Crime Victimization Survey, American Indians experience almost twice as much violence as other Americans. Among tribal members age 23 to 34, the rate of violent crime victimization is over 2.5 times the rate for all persons the same age. This is particularly true for Native American women, one-third of whom will be raped in her lifetime, most likely by a non-Indian. The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 ("TLOA") was Congress' official recognition that the federal government's approach to law and order in Indian country had absolutely failed. Indeed, it is federal law and policy alone that is primarily to blame for these statistics.

One way the TLOA sought to remedy the epidemic was to mandate that federal law enforcement cooperate and coordinate with tribal law enforcement. The TLOA sought to immediately increase tribal law enforcement funding levels. Because Indian country crime is local, these consultation and tribal funding mandates were deemed crucial to the effectiveness of the TLOA.

Most recently, on November 14, 2011, Congress released the fiscal year 2012 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Programs Report, striking a major blow to the TLOA. The report indicates funding cuts for tribal justice programs across the board, and did not include a tribal set-aside for discretionary Office of Justice Programs needed to implement the TLOA. The Report also proposes $15 million cuts to both the COPS Tribal Resources Grant Program and the Tribal Youth Program. Funding for tribal assistance within Office of Justice programs was also cut, receiving only $28 million – $62 million short of the approximate $100 million initially proposed in President Obama's FY 2012 budget request.

In order for the TLOA to have any effect, federal agencies must comply with the law and Congress must provide adequate funding. Unfortunately – and in violation of the federal government's trust and treaty obligations – it appears that neither of these obligations are being fulfilled.

Ryan Dreveskracht is an Associate at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. His practice focuses on representing businesses and tribal governments in public affairs, energy, gaming, taxation, and general economic development. He can be reached at 206.909.3842 or ryan@galandabroadman.com.

Small Business Saturday Another Opportunity to Buy Indian

November 26, 2011, "Small Business Saturday" -- AND Native American Heritage Day! -- presents another opportunity for Indian Country to buy Indian -- to walk the walk.

The 2nd annual Small Business Saturday® is a day dedicated to supporting small businesses on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.

On November 26, we're asking millions of people to Shop Small® at their favorite local stores and help fuel the economy. When we all shop small, it will be huge.

Today, and throughout the holidays, shop small and buy Indian on your reservation or via the Internet.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm.  He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.  He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.

Buy Indian, Buy Local This Black Friday

Indian Country, especially its new middle class, wields formidable purchasing power, spending millions upon millions of dollars annually on goods and services. Yet “[o]n most reservations, there are few retail stores and tribal members must go off reservation and pay state taxes on everything they buy. Nationwide, this amounts to $246 million annually in tax revenues to state governments.” Although the infrastructure needed to support a robust reservation retail sector is largely still lacking in Indian Country, tribal citizens can still buy Indian/local, most notably via the Internet, where all varieties of tribal retail goods and services are available for sale. Indeed, "when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms -- continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community." This is especially true in Indian Country.

To the extent there are retail stores and/or tribally authorized sales taxation on a reservation, "locally-owned businesses generate a premium in enhanced economic impact to the community and our tax base."

Indian Country, starting this Black Friday and throughout this holiday season, buy Indian, buy local; buy early and often. Hopefully if you give Indian, you shall receive Indian.  Either way, make the effort to buy from your tribal community or to buy from the inter-tribal economy via the Internet, rather than buying from non-tribal economies. Yes, we can.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm.  He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.  He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.

Seattle Indian Gaming Lawyer Gabe Galanda to Co-Chair Northwest Gaming Law Summit

Gabe Galanda will co-chair the 9th Annual Northwest Gaming Law Summit in Seattle on December 1-2, 2011. Program topics include: -- The State of Indian Gaming in 2012, by NIGA Chairman Ernie Stevens -- NIGC’s Class III MICS: Necessary or Unlawful? -- Status & the Nationwide Impact of the Rincon Decision -- Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Inter-Local Relations Vis-à-vis Indian Gaming -- State Criminal Jurisdiction in Northwest Indian Casinos -- Federal & State Legalization of Internet Gaming: Are We There Yet? -- Fee-to-Trust Acquisitions for Gaming Purposes

Gabe has co-chaired the event since 2005.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm.  He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.  He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.

Tribal Media Outlets Post Gabe Galanda's "Attack on the Tribal Middle Class, Part III"

The Indian Country Today Media Network has published Part Three of Gabe Galanda's three-part series, "Attack on the Tribal Middle Class." The column was reposted by pechanga.net and Indianz.com.

Make no mistake, tribal sovereignty, and the vast economic benefit it brings to Indian and non-Indian America, is under siege. Non-tribal governments are once again speaking the language of assimilation and termination in an attempt to impede or extract value from any tribal economic endeavor that they perceive does not benefit the non-tribal middle class or private sector. Instead of brute physical force, they now deploy the power to tax, legislate, litigate and otherwise exploit sovereignty-based revenue from everything Indian Country and its tribal middle class have worked so hard to rebuild over the last 200 years.

Indian Country must now recognize this growing state and federal attack for what it is – an attack on Indian sovereignty. Then, only by taking preemptive legal and political steps to expose, confront and countervail those insurgent non-tribal forces that threaten American Indian economies, will we deter the termination of the new tribal middle class.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm.  He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.  He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.

Part II of Seattle Native American Lawyer Gabe Galanda's Tribal Middle Class Series Published by Indian Country Today

The Indian Country Today Media Network has published Part Two of Gabe Galanda's three-part series, "Attack on the Tribal Middle Class."

Informed by federal “Indian self-determination” policy, in the 1970s Congress began enacting a slew of programs and laws committed to involving Indians in the development and implementation of reservation programs and services. As a result, the economic development of Indian Country finally commenced in earnest. The “distinct legal and economic market opportunities” derived from the “sovereign status of tribes,” as described by Drs. Joseph Kalt and Stephen Cornell, has since played the largest role in evolving the American Indian middle class discussed in Part I, into a reservation-based middle class—into a distinctly tribal middle class.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm.  He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.  He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.

Anthony Broadman Publishes First Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals "Roundup" in Indian Country Today

Anthony Broadman has published the inaugural Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Weekly Roundup via the Indian Country Today Media Network. The roundup will inform Indian country about litigation in the West that affects tribal interests. Anthony Broadman is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm.  His practice focuses on company-critical business litigation and representing tribal governments. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or anthony@galandabroadman.com, or or via galandabroadman.com.