Pritzker Legal Research Center: American Indian Law Resources: Past research topics

What information is on this page?

This page gathers information on topics that students have researched for the final paper in past semesters of American Indian Law. Please note that these sources are meant as starting points and relying only on what is listed here will not be sufficient.

CERCLA on tribal lands

Search for Superfund Sites Where You Live
Cleanups in My Community
map (has tribal areas layer) or table creating tool
JACKPILE-PAGUATE URANIUM MINE
example EPA webpage for superfund site on tribal land, found using Cleanups in My Community tool
Federalregister.gov
Best for finding current notices, proposed rules, and final rules as well as links to find comments in regulations.gov and for the last 10-15 years. For older regulations and for better search capabilities, search the Federal Register on Westlaw.
regulations.gov
allows you to read comments on Federal Register notices. Links to an example.
Consultation and Coordination with Tribes
EPA policy and links to region-specific sites and policies. Includes policy specific to treaty rights.
Tribal Consultation Opportunities database
can limit by "Superfund." Can also search archive and use term "superfund"
Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America
Good starting point for articles. Provides citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents organized around many aspects of native North American culture, history, and life, including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. [note: try a general search like "Superfund" or a name of a particular site.]
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture, & Law (Hein)
A gigantic collection of primary and secondary sources on American Indian law ranging from the treaties of the Kappler Report to legislative histories of federal legislation and Indian tribal codes. Hein will let you search across the whole collection. [Note: a search for seemed fruitful. Use the search filters to get rid of CFR Title 25 and US Code results. Good stuff in GAO reports and Serials (think law review articles)]
Environmental Law in Indian Country
From Westlaw: "This title covers National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, and the Wilderness Act, with Indian and tribal cases illustrating NEPA doctrine."

American Indian Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Defend the Sacred by Michael D. McNally
Call Number: e-book available through link from library catalog, use NetID to login
ISBN: 9780691201511
Publication Date: 2020-04-14
"The remarkable story of the innovative legal strategies Native Americans have used to protect their religious rights."

Kristen A. Carpenter, Living the Sacred: Indigenous Peoples and Religious Freedom, 134 Harv. L. Rev. 2103 (2021).
A review of Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom Beyond the First Amendment by Michael D. McNally.
Journal of Law and Religion symposium on Defend the Sacred book
Scroll until you see the book review symposium. Full text of all articles available on Westlaw
Standing Rock v. Army Corp (District Court)
check out filings and citing references
Standing Rock v. Army Corp (Circuit Court)
check out citing references and filings

Tribal Colleges and Universities

Capturing Education by Paul Boyer
Call Number: Request from the Main Library
ISBN: 9781934594148
Publication Date: 2015-12-15
"Capturing Education examines the founding of the first tribally controlled American Indian colleges in the late 1960s and early 1970s and follows their subsequent growth and development, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Based on oral histories recorded over a twenty-year period, it documents the motivations of the movement's founders and the challenges they faced while establishing colleges on isolated and impoverished Indian reservations."

Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America
Good starting point for articles. Provides citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents organized around many aspects of native North American culture, history, and life, including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. [NOTE: includes access to "Tribal College Journal."]
ERIC
Department of Education's database of articles and research. Can filter by "higher education" and "postsecondary" to get around things about younger students.
Chronicle of Higher Education
Use the link on this page to reliably access The Chronicle without a paywall. If the links below do not work, access it via this link, and try searching The Chronicle's page by the title in quotes

The Cost of Connection by Katherine Mangan
Tribal Colleges Will Continue Online, Despite Challenges by Taylor Swaak
Why Tribal Colleges Struggle to Get Reliable Internet Service by Katherine Mangan and Jacquelyn Elias (includes a map of areas in the country without broadband access)

Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls; Reauthorization of Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022
Includes VAWA 2022. Check out legislative history tab
Office on Violence Against Women- Department of Justice
Provides very little information, but could be helpful to get the names of programs and grants to research information elsewhere
Office on Violence Against Women grants awarded by program
Could find the organizations that got the grants to find out more about the work they do

Remember that you can limit your Google search results by date, something that may be helpful to eliminate things about prior fights to get VAWA reauthorized. From your search result page, click tools, and limit to the past year or a custom date range.

Senate Indian Affairs Committee Holds Hearing on Violence Against Women Act
transcript
Adam Goodrum, Meeting the McGirt Moment: The Five Tribes, Sovereignty & Criminal Jurisdiction in Oklahoma's New Indian Country, 46 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 201 (2021).
94 Percent of Native Women in Seattle Survey Say They’ve Been Raped or Coerced Into Sex
Reporting on a survey of native women that shows the extent of the problem in urban areas, as opposed to on reservations.
Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls
A detailed report from the Urban Indian Health Institute on the extent of the problem as well as the lack of data on the problem which leads to an undercounting of native women affected by violence.
Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo
A Canadian Broadcasting Company podcast about a young girl who was taken by child welfare workers in Saskatchewan in the 1970's. She disappeared and her siblings believed she was killed violently.
New Mexico Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force Report
December 2020 report outlining the problem as well as suggested solutions.
Native women : protecting, shielding, and safeguarding our sisters, mothers, and daughters : hearing before the Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, July 14, 2011.
Includes testimony from Cherokee leaders
Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons
Department of Justice

risk of abortion clinics on tribal lands

Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49 (1978)
case identified as having possible parallels
Mother Jones: ‘We’ve been under these genocidal policies for 500 years’
Republished in Indianz.
StrongHearts Native Helpline: Native women denied sovereignty over their own bodies
Republished in Indianz. "Impacts of the Roe v. Wade Decision on Native American and Alaska Native Women Sexual Violence Victim-Survivors"
Tribal Nations and Abortion Access: A Path Forward Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Forthcoming
Highly recommended by Matthew Fletcher in Turtle Talk.
Updates and Articles, NARF Supreme Court Project
possible avenue for support for idea that current Court offers risks to tribes
Law360: Native American Law
Law360 reports on legal news from a lawyer's perspective. You'll often find copies of filings attached to stories. There is a newsletter that you can subscribe to via email.

Crime and criminal jurisdiction

Tribal Law and Order Act page - Department of Justice
Includes reports. Note that mandatory reporting does not identify particular tribe. See 2019 report as example.
Adam Goodrum, Meeting the McGirt Moment: The Five Tribes, Sovereignty & Criminal Jurisdiction in Oklahoma's New Indian Country, 46 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 201 (2021).

ProQuest Statistical Insight This link opens in a new window
Provides fast and easy access to statistical information produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. PQSI brings together a massive collection of statistical data in a single easy-to-use search interface, with additional features such as descriptive abstracts, detailed indexing, full-text PDFs of source documents, tables, and downloadable spreadsheets containing table data.

FBI: Indian Country Crime
Tribal Pardons: A Comparative Survey
An article examining whether different native nations have a pardon or expungement process and whether collateral consequences attach to convictions.
Federal agents and tribal police working together strengthen law enforcement for Mille Lacs Band community
Briefs and argument in McGirt v. OK
Includes all amicus briefs and a link to the oral argument recording.
This Land podcast
Season one of this podcast tracked Sharp v. Murphy, the case that was very nearly decided before the SCOTUS took up and decided McGirt instead. Based on the same jurisdictional issues. The final episode about the Supreme Court's McGirt opinion is of special interest. (note: season 2 is on ICWA)

Native American mascots

How Native American Team Names Distort Your Psychology
Politico interview with Stephanie Fryberg
Stephanie Fryberg
Includes link to the professor's CV
Stolen Identities: The Impact of Racist Stereotypes on Indigenous People - Senate Hearing, 112th Congress

Team Spirits by C. Richard King (Editor); Charles Fruehling Springwood (Editor); Vine Deloria Jr. (Foreword by)
Call Number: Request from the Main Library
ISBN: 0803277989
Publication Date: 2001-02-01
Mascot Nation by Andrew C. Billings; Jason Edward Black
Call Number: e-book available through link from library catalog, use NetID to login
ISBN: 9780252050848
Publication Date: 2018-10-08
"Their original research, meanwhile, surveys sports fans themselves on their thoughts when a specific mascot faces censure. The result is a book that merges critical-cultural analysis with qualitative data to offer an innovative approach to understanding the camps and fault lines on each side of the issue, the stakes in mascot debates, whether common ground can exist and, if so, how we might find it."

Justin P. Grose, Time to Bury the Tomahawk Chop: An Attempt to Reconcile the Differing Viewpoints of Native Americans and Sports Fans, 35 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 695 (2010).
Pro Football, Inc. v. Harjo, 565 F.3d 880 (D.C. Cir. 2009)
Case seeking to cancel the trademark registration for the Washington, D.C. NFL football team.

Hopi constitution and Bureau of Indian Affairs

Report to the Hopi Kikmongwis and Other Traditional Hopi Leaders on Docket 196 and the Continuing Threat to Hopi Land and Sovereignty (1979).
A lengthy report on the interaction between the Hopi and the U.S. Government especially in regards to self-government and mining.
Justin B. Richland, Hopi Tradition as Jurisdiction: On the Potentializing Limits of Hopi Sovereignty, 36 Law & social inquiry 201 (2011)
Considers time around the drafting of the 1936 constitution.
Hecht, Robert A. “Oliver LaFarge, John Collier, and the Hopi Constitution of 1936.” 26 Journal of Arizona History 145 (1985).
Hopi constitution and bylaws with every amendment
Amendment F 12/7/1993 p. 41 of PDF as "so long as it is required by law" to the "to employ lawyers" provision.
1936 Hopi Constitution

Gaming and sports betting

How Sports Betting Upended the Economies of Native American Tribes
New York Times. 2/10/2023
Seminole Gambling Deal Wants It 'Both Ways,' DC Circ. Told
Law360
West Flagler Associates, Ltd., et al v. Debra Haaland, et al
Law360 coverage of the case. Use Bloomberg to obtain court records or track docket.
Yavapai Prescott Tribe Sues Ariz. Over Sports Betting Law
Law360
Haley Maynard, What Are the Odds? The Potential for Tribal Control of Sports Gambling after Murphy v. NCAA, 44 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 141 (2019).
EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE: Tribes seek sustainable growth opportunities with sports betting, but challenges remain
Tribal Business Network
Even in defeat, California sports betting proposals reflect power of tribal sovereignty, gaming expert says
Tribal Business News
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture, & Law (Hein)
A gigantic collection of primary and secondary sources on American Indian law ranging from the treaties of the Kappler Report to legislative histories of federal legislation and Indian tribal codes. Hein will let you search across the whole collection.
Tribal Control at Issue for Lone Sports Betting Holdout in the Midwest
Pew Trusts Stateline blog. May 2023. Discussing Minnesota.
National Indian Gaming Commission
Nevada Gaming Commission Regulations
available from Westlaw

Tribal fishing rights and environmental standards

Environmental Protection in Indian Land (EPA)
Clean and Safe Water in Indian Country (EPA)
Consultation and Coordination with Tribes
EPA policy and links to region-specific sites and policies. Includes policy specific to treaty rights.
Tribal Assumption of Federal Laws - Treatment as a State (TAS)
Courtney Cole, "For Indian Purposes:" Exploring the Role of Water as a Cultural Resource in Securing a Right to Groundwater for the Agua Caliente Indians, 3 AM. INDIAN L.J. 409 (2015).

California Maritime Archaeology by L. Mark Raab; Jim Cassidy; Andrew Yatsko; William J. Howard; Brian Fagan (Foreword by)
Call Number: Request from the Main Library
ISBN: 9780759113169
Publication Date: 2009-08-16
The Sea Is My Country by Joshua L. Reid
Call Number: Request from the Main Library
ISBN: 9780300209907
Publication Date: 2015-05-26
The first full-scale history of the Makah people of the Pacific Northwest, whose culture and identity are closely bound to the sea.

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission coordinates management policy and provides fisheries technical services for the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla, and Nez Perce tribes.
CRITFC’s mission is “to ensure a unified voice in the overall management of the fishery resources, and as managers, to protect reserved treaty rights through the exercise of the inherent sovereign powers of the tribes.”
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) is a natural resources management support service organization for 20 treaty Indian tribes in western Washington.
The NWIFC was created following the 1974 U.S. v. Washington ruling (Boldt Decision) that re-affirmed the tribes’ treaty-reserved fishing rights. The ruling recognized the tribes as natural resources co-managers with the State of Washington with an equal share of the harvestable number of salmon returning annually.
Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Commission
Formed in 1984, GLIFWC is an agency of eleven Ojibwe nations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, who retain off-reservation treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather in treaty-ceded lands.
GLIFWC assists its member bands in implementing off-reservation treaty seasons and in the protection of treaty rights and natural resources. GLIFWC provides natural resource management expertise, conservation enforcement, legal and policy analysis, and public information services.
Washington v. U.S.
SCOTUS blog coverage of 2018 case involving treaty rights and fishing.

Cultural Property and IP law

UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property
R. Hokulei Lindsey, Reclaiming Hawai'i: Toward the Protection of Native Hawaiian Cultural and Intellectual Property, 1 Indigenous Peoples' J. L. CULTURE & Resistance 110 (2004).
Brian Zark, Use of Native American Tribal Names as Marks, 3 AM. INDIAN L.J. 537 (2015).
Law360: Native American Law
Law360 reports on legal news from a lawyer's perspective. You'll often find copies of filings attached to stories. There is a newsletter that you can subscribe to via email.

Wisconsin Oneida language preservation

Hauptman, Laurence M. 1981. “The Iroquois and the New Deal.” In An Iroquois Book, xviii, 256.
Discussing 1930's attempts to study the language
Recovery and preservation of Native American languages : field hearing before the Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Ninth Congress, second session, August 31, 2006, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
S. 1948 and S. 2299: Hearing before the Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, 113th Congress, Second Session.(2014)
S. 1948, the Native Language Immersion Student Achievement Act. S. 2299, a Bill to Reauthorize the Native American Language
Program of the 1974 Native American Programs Act.

Wild rice and sulfate in the Great Lakes

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture, & Law (Hein)
A gigantic collection of primary and secondary sources on American Indian law ranging from the treaties of the Kappler Report to legislative histories of federal legislation and Indian tribal codes. Hein will let you search across the whole collection.
Vennum, Thomas. 1988. Wild Rice and the Ojibway People. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.
NU Search results
searched library catalog for ["wild rice" and ojibwe]
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Cloie M. Chapman, Fighting on Behalf of the Salish Sea, 8 AM. INDIAN L.J. 127 (2019).
Hannah White, Indigenous Peoples, the International Trend toward Legal Personhood for Nature, and the United States, 43 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 129 (2018).

Manoomin vs Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR)

'Rights of nature’ lawsuits hit a sweet spot
August 2021 story from Indian Country Today summarizing the initial filing and the connection to the UN climate report
UN 6th Climate Change Report
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Int'l Law Entry for Environment and Indigenous Peoples
Law360 coverage of case

NAGPRA

Amy E.; O'Brien, Jean M., Editors Den Ouden. Recognition, Sovereignty Struggles, and Indigenous Rights in the United States: A Sourcebook (2013)
Arguing that NAGPRA does not fulfil its promise because it uses the colonizers' definitions
Julia A. Cryne, NAGPRA Revisited: A Twenty-Year Review of Repatriation Efforts, 34 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 99 (2009).
William H. Manz, Editor. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act: A Legislative History of Public Law No. 101-601 (2012).
Volume 4 of this legislative history contains hearings and reports after the year 2000.
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA): Legal and Legislative Developments
2005 CRS report
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA): Oversight Hearing before the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, First Session
2009
I (2011) Finding our way home : achieving the policy goals of NAGPRA : hearing before the Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, June 16, 2011.
Native American Issues: Federal Agency Efforts and Challenges Repatriating Cultural Items
2022 GAO report

Hein has some cases as well. Consider looking up NAGPRA in US Code, citing references for articles and cases as well. Consider researching in literature for museum professionals for different viewpoint. Consider international law.

NAGPRA databases
Department of the Interior data collected from museums and federal agencies on their holdings. Also published in the Federal Register
Illilnois Human Remains Protection Act
Public Act 103-0446. Among other measures, this Illinois expedites the repatriation process and allows the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to establish burial sites for human remains that are closed to the public.

sovereignty and sales of alcohol and marijuana

Nebraska newspaper search results
Westlaw. Searched for adv: "liquor control commission" AND "pine ridge reservation"
Activists mark year since official halt to liquor sales in Whiteclay
From Indianz. Example of reporting from indigenous perspective. Consider other outlets in "News" area of this research guide.
Turtle Talk posts tagged "whiteclay"
NYTs: Reverse Federal Liquor Regulation Allowing Booze Near Indian Reservations
NYT editorial from former US Senator arguing for the reestablishment of a "buffer zone" around the Pine Ridge Reservation.
NE Liquor Commission hearing agendas and results
No search available

Affirmative duty to manage water rights of the Navajo

SCOTUS Blog coverage of Arizona v. Navajo Nation
Provides chronology and full text of amicus briefs
Law360 coverage of AZ v. Navajo Nation
Katherine Ott Verburg. Colorado River Documents, 2008 (2010).
Volume four of a collection of historical documents relating to water control efforts on the Colorado River
Rebecca Glenn, Unrealized Federal Indian Water Rights on the Colorado River: An Opportunity for Equity and Conservation, 25 U. DENV. WATER L. REV. 287 (2022).
Hein's Water Rights and Resources database
The Clean Water Act and tribal jurisdiction
Chapter from Environmental Law in Indian Country.
Gregor Allen MacGregor, When the Navajo Generating Station Closes, Where Does the Water Go?, 31 Colo. Nat. Resources, Energy & Envtl L. Rev. 289 (2020)
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: publications tagged "water rights"
to browse or filter by date. 110 titles as of 3/21/23

Banishment

Restatement § 16. Constitutional Rights of Persons under Tribal Jurisdiction
case citations for Restatement § 16
25 U.S.C. § 1303
check notes of decisions and citing references for "banishment." Consider adding keywords related to "permanent" or "temporary" to narrow the search.
Rob Roy Smith, Enhancing Tribal Sovereignty by Protecting Indian Civil Rights: A Win-Win for Indian Tribes and Tribal Members, AM. INDIAN L.J. 41 (2012).
See discussion of cases starting on p. 44
Patrice H. Kunesh, Banishment as Cultural Justice in Contemporary Tribal Legal Systems, 37 N.M. L. REV. 85 (2007).
Morgan Medders, How the Ninth Circuit Severed the Indian Civil Rights Act from Federal Habeas Corpus Precedent under the Guise of Tribal Sovereignty, 42 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 423 (2017).
examining 2017 9th Circuit Tavares case
Sheng, E.E. The moral permissibility of banishment. Law and Philosophy (2022).

Indigeneity in the Courtroom by Jennifer A. Hamilton
Call Number: N,KAA KDZ495 .H36
ISBN: 9780415979047
Publication Date: 2008-11-04
includes chapter "Banishment: Indigenous Justice and Indigenous Difference in Washington v. Roberts and Guthrie"

David E. Wilkins, Exiling One's Kin: Banishment and Disenrollment in Indian Country, 17 W. LEGAL Hist. 235 (2004).

Indian Health Care Improvement Act

Education

Wisconsin Act 31
requires that all public school districts and pre-service education program provide instruction on the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin’s eleven federally-recognized American Indian nations and tribal communities.
Indian Education for All Act (Montana)
Constitution and Law require every Montanan, whether Indian or non-Indian, be encouraged to learn about the distinct and unique heritage of American Indians in a culturally responsive manner (Constitution of Montana Article X, Section 1, MCA 20-1-501)
Little War on the Prairie (teaching history)
A century of trauma at U.S. boarding schools for Native American children
Discussing the history of boarding schools and recent attempts at reconciliation (requires free registration to National Geographic's website. Limited to 3 articles per month)
Illinois Public Act 103-0422
Mandates teaching of Native American history in Illinois K-12 classrooms and includes the Native American experience in the study of genocide.

Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)

ICWA Information
A website maintained by the Native American Rights Fund to gather information, case updates, and news about ICWA.
Why Conservatives are Attacking a Law Meant to Protect Native American Families
overview of political battle over ICWA
8th Circuit opinion in Ogala Sioux Tribe v. Fleming reversing DCT opinion finding state violated ICWA
This Land podcast (season 2)
Season 2 of the popular podcast discussed the Brakeen case as well as history and larger issues surrounding ICWA.
Saginaw Chippewa tribe honors children who died after U.S. forced them into boarding school
Discussing the Mt. Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School
SCOTUS Blog coverage of Brackeen v. Haaland
"Dawnland" PBS special on ICWA