Tribal Civil Rights Lawyer Ryan Dreveskracht Publishes Indian Voting Rights Article

Ryan Dreveskracht has published an important Indian voting rights law review article, "Enfranchising Native Americans After Shelby County v. Holder: Congress's Duty to Act," in the National Lawyers Guild Review.

Ryan argues that Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act "is both an appropriate and necessary measure to prevent ongoing voting discrimination targeting Native American citizens, and concludes that "Congress not only has the power to compel preapproval of state voting legislation that is applicable to Indian Country, but it has an obligation to do so."

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.

Gabe Galanda Stumps Against Interior's Land Buy Back; Serves as Professor in Residence

This week, Gabe Galanda visited the University of Arizona College of Law in Tucson for a speech at the 2nd Annual Tribal Lands Conference, and a Professorship in Residence at the Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program. Gabe's speech at the Conference, which was themed "The Cobell Settlement Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations," was titled: "The Perils of Indian Law Buy Back." He explained that "while Interior’s plan disclaims any facilitation of forced sales under 25 U.S.C. 2204(a), the $1.55 Billion in 'buy back' monies will catalyze controversial intra-tribal forced sales."

Gabe further explained how any such forced sale could violate various federal laws, including the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the United States' trust fiduciary duty at common law, as well as international human rights law, including Articles 1 and 10 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Article 11 of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. His slides are available here, and his prior published commentaries are here.

During his Professorship in Residence, Gabe engaged indigenous law students during a program moderated by Dean Marc Miller, in the development series called "A Conversation With...," which features prominent law school alumni. He also delivered a lecture to Professor Ray Austin's class titled, "Tribal Economic Development: Looking Through the Prism of Indian Taxation & Sovereign Immunity."

In his lecture, Gabe explained very recent developments in federal Indian law regarding the powers of tribal taxation, sovereign immunity and territorial authority. His slides are available here.

Gabriel “Gabe” Galanda is the Managing Partner of Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. Gabe can be reached at 206.300.7801 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.

Law360 Quotes Gabe Galanda Re: Big Lagoon "Curveball"

Leading law blog, Law360, quoted Gabe Galanda at length regarding the Ninth Circuit's unprecedented decision in Big Lagoon, in "Tribal Casinos Face New Threats After 9th Circ. Curveball" (subscription required).

"The decision will allow states and anti-tribal groups to somehow collaterally attack other tribal projects that they find undesirable, many years — if not decades — after the fact," said Gabriel S. Galanda of
 Galanda Broadman PLLC....

"This decision will certainly further chill tribal lending for any new tribal economic development effort as well," Galanda said....

"This decision makes it even harder for tribal governments to greenfield Indian casinos, and that was already a near-impossible proposition due to the Supreme Court's recent anti-tribal decisions in Carcieri and Patchak," Galanda said.

Gabriel “Gabe” Galanda is the Managing Partner of Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. Gabe can be reached at 206.300.7801 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.

We Are Hiring An Associate

Job announcement here.

Disenrollment At Nooksack Via 1-800 Number, With "No Questions Asked"

Instructions for Nooksack disenrollment hearings: 1. Call a 1-800 number 2. "DO NOT call in late" 3. "Ensure that you use a landline" 4. Wait on hold "for 10 minutes to 2 hours" 5. Enjoy the "music" 6. State your full name and number for the record 7. Present your case in less than 10 minutes 8. "No questions will be entertained" 9. Await the "Tribal Council's decision in the mail"

Read, and believe, it for yourself, here.

Gabe Galanda To Stump On Perils Of Interior's Buy Back Program

On January 27, 2013, Gabe Galanda will warn about "The Perils of Indian Law 'Buy Back'" at the 2nd Annual Tribal Lands Conference at the University of Arizona College of Law in Tucson. Gabe has been a vocal critical of the program insofar as it might lead to individual Indian landowners' lands being taken forcibly or without just compensation. Gabe's nationally published commentaries since 2012 are here, here, here, here, and here, and his comments to McLatchy DC's News Bureau are here.

Indian landowners with commercially or otherwise desirable trust land interests, beware. Indeed, as Gabe worried and warned in 2012:

Above all, how will the United States protect against any improper federal-tribal governmental allotted land consolidation – meaning one in which tribal members do not want to lose their family’s land forever? Or in which tribal members have their own plans to overcome fractionation challenges and utilize their family’s land for cultural or economic purposes? Or, on the flipside, one in which impoverished tribal members will sell their land interests for less than fair market value merely in order to survive? What about the situation where the tribe with “a controlling level of interest” seeks 100% ownership of the land for some unjust reason? Indeed, as noted by the Village Earth blog, Interior’s proposal “does not address the concerns of many individual land owners who feel that programs like this take advantage of people’s desperation, forever divesting them of their lands for a small one-time payment, and transferring them to the control of Tribal Governments who may not use them for the benefit of their people as a whole.”

Gabriel “Gabe” Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. Gabe can be reached at 206.300.7801 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.

We Are Proud Partners of the ACLU

In 2013, we were honored to collaborate with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in defense of tribal sovereignty before the Washington State Supreme Court in State v. Clark, and in defense of indigenous prisoners' religious freedoms from California to Geneva, Switzerland. We look forward to again locking arms with the ACLU, in defense of what is right.

Dear Gabriel,

Just a quick thanks for all you did during 2013 to support the ACLU's mission.

I always tell people that our organization has a very special group of supporters. And, once again, you proved it. We ended the year with a dramatic and urgently needed show of financial support.

And thanks to you, we are able to begin the new year picking up on the energy and momentum you helped create over the last 12 months. With your ongoing help, we will keep driving freedom forward.

You're the best,

Anthony D. Romero Executive Director, ACLU

Tribal Disenrollment Defense Lawyers

We are proud to represent the Nooksack 306 and the Grand Ronde descendants of Chief Tumulth, as well as other American Indian citizens facing disenrollment. We do not prosecute disenrollment actions; we defend against them. Our sworn duty is to ensure that fundamental human rights and guaranteed civil rights are honored during any disenrollment actions. Too frequently, they are not.

Our work on behalf of the Nooksack 306 is featured here on Turtle Talk, and our work for the Chief Tumulth descendants can be found here.

Galanda Broadman is an American Indian owned firm dedicated to advancing tribal legal rights and Indian business interests. The firm represents tribal governments, businesses and members in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in the areas of Indian Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, taxation, commerce, personal injury, and human/civil rights.

There is no more critical a legal situation to an American Indian than a disenrollment action. Legal counsel is almost certainly required. If you facing disenrollment, call the firm's Managing Partner Gabe Galanda to see if we can help.

Good Tidings We Bring To You

Pictured: Tribal lawyers Anthony Broadman, Ryan Dreveskracht, Joe Sexton, Scott Wheat (Choctaw), Gabe Galanda (Round Valley)

Gabe Galanda Publishes on Legal History of Washington Tribal-State Relations

Gabe Galanda has published an article, "Galanda Washington Tribal-State Relations Bar Bulletin," in this month's King County Bar Bulletin, which is themed, "polarity." Dedicating the piece "to those Washington Indians who fought the fish wars and to the tribal lawyers who won the Boldt Decision," he recaps modern Indian legal history in Washington and concludes with criticism that the Washington Supreme Court's three most recent Indian law decisions are regressive.

Polarity accurately describes the historic legal relationship between the State of Washington and those Tribal Governments indigenous to our state. Tribal sovereignty, i.e., “the right of reservation Indians to make their own laws and be ruled by them,” has always been antipodal to state sovereignty as a matter of Anglo-American jurisprudence. So much so, that by the late 1800s nascent states were deemed the Tribes’ “deadliest enemies” by none other than the U.S. Supreme Court. And over the ensuing century, tribal and state governments waged a zero-sum battle over who would regulate Indian Country.

But today, in what is the era of Indian self-determination as a matter of both federal policy and tribal behavior, tribal/state opposition is waning. As noted by leading Indian law scholar, Professor Matthew T. Fletcher:

States and tribes are beginning to smooth over the rough edges of federal Indian law — jurisdictional confusion, historical animosity between states and Indian tribes, competition between sovereigns for tax revenue, economic development opportunities, and regulatory authority — through cooperative agreements. In effect, a new political relationship is springing up all over the nation between states, local units of government, and Indian tribes.

Washington tribal/state relations and the new political relationship between our state’s sovereigns are indeed evolving. Still, based on the Washington Supreme Court’s three most recent three Indian law decisions, more progress is required to achieve tribal/state congruity throughout official state policy. In particular, the increasingly cooperative relationship between the Tribes and State must be better appreciated when the Court next evaluates regulatory power or adjudicatory jurisdiction in Washington Indian Country.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. Gabe can be reached at 206.300.7801 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.