Ryan Dreveskracht will teach a seminar for the Washington State Association for Justice on November 10 at 8:30 AM, titled, "Navigating the Federal Court System Like a Pro."
BIA Pulls A Fast One With New Secretarial Election Rule
The Bureau of Indian Affairs recently announced its final rule regarding Secretarial elections for federally recognized tribes. The final rule purports to clarify how tribes may remove IRA constitutional provisions requiring Secretarial elections for constitutional amendments.
The BIA claims that its new rule furthers tribal self-governance and self-determination. That may be true, at least absent tribal chicanery. The BIA also claims that this rule protects urban Indian voting rights. But in reality, the rule does no such thing.
Galanda Broadman Launches New Website
We are excited to announce the launch of our new website, www.galandabroadman.com, which integrates our blogs, Facebook posts and Tweets regarding legal developments in Indian Country. In particular, our new site is now compatible with your cell phone or tablet.
Will SCOTUS Double Down Against Tribal Courts In Dollar General?
By Jared Miller
Last week, U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch remarked on the success of a pilot program allowing select tribes to prosecute non-Indians for domestic violence under the reauthorized Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
“[Y]ou demonstrated that with greater control over your own lands and closer partnership with the federal government, justice can and will be done,” Lynch said of the Tulalip and Pascua Yaqui tribes for their efforts during the test period. The comments are remarkable for at least two reasons.
Recognize. Disenrolled Indians Acknowledged As Their Own Tribes
By Bree Black Horse
It could happen. In fact, the Federal Government is currently considering whether a band of disenrolled California Pomo Indians should be recognized as their own tribe. Other tribes should be worried about the threat that disenrolling tribes may cause the inter-tribal status quo.
Marijuana Tribes: Beware of the DEA's Trojan Horse
In 2013, I published "Federal Task Force: Indian Country's Trojan Horse," explaining:
Beware of the federal task force. . . . [T]he federal task force is a Trojan Horse when it enters Indian country. That is because hiding within the federal task force are state and local cops.
his dynamic is especially prevalent with federal drug task forces. In fact, the first federal task force comprised in pertinent part by state and local cops, were DEA-led drug task forces. As the DEA explains
Tribes Could Lose Big If Nebraska Prevails in “Diminishment” Case
By Jared Miller
When the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Nebraska v. Parker earlier this month, it created the real possibility of a new kind of land-grab in Indian country.
Nebraska is a reservation “diminishment” case in which the State of Nebraska has invited the Court to rework the three-factor Solem test, such that contemporary demographics play a much larger role in determining whether land is Indian country.
Federal Court Grants Tribe’s Injunction Against Fracking Rule
By Amber Penn-Roco
On March 26, 2015, the Bureau of Land Management issued a final rule concerning hydraulic fracturing on federal and Indian lands, which was in turn challenged by the States of Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah, as well as the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
Natives Turn Local "Deadliest Enemies" Into Change Agents
Towns, cities and counties, as tribal communities' closest neighbors, have historically played a major role in the "deadliest enemies"-dynamic of tribal-state relations. At the municipal level Indians have been murdered, imprisoned, excluded, discriminated, and taxed over the last few hundred years. Those human rights violations have persisted in modern times, especially in rural America. So naturally Natives have wanted little to nothing to do with local government.
That reality is now changing, dramatically. In the staunch spirit of Indian self-determination and with the fervency of the Idle No More movement, Natives are aggressively grabbing, and leveraging, local government platforms to affect social change for Indian people.
Only Lawyers Can Spark the Federal Indian "Human Rights Era"
By Jared Miller
Since President Barack Obama announced the United States’ endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration) in 2010, some legal scholars and tribal lawyers have slowly begun weaving the Declaration into articles, books, and legal briefs.
That’s not good enough, according to Walter Echo-Hawk, an attorney, author, activist, law professor, and tribal judge.
