Indian Law Bulletins Updated 8/11

The Native American Rights Fund Boulder office is hiring for the open positions of water rights attorney and paralegal. Learn more about the vacancies at https://www.narf.org/contact-us/join-team/
NARF also invites current law clerks and recent law school graduates with a strong background in federal Indian law and public service to apply for a two-year fellowship to focus on voting rights and environmental issues. Blaustein Fellowship deadline is August 13, 2021.

Federal Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/federal/2021.html

• Snoqualmie Indian Tribe v. Washington (Treaty Rights - Hunting)
• Carney v. State of Washington (Private Property; Tribal Sovereign Immunity)
• Sisto v. United States (Federal Tort Claims Act; Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act)

State Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/state/2021.html

• Lavallie v. Jay (Jurisdiction; Personal Injury)

Tribal Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/tribal/2021.html

• Comingdeer v. Cherokee Nation Election Commission (Tribal Elections; Tribal Law)

U.S. Legislation - 117th Congress Bulletin
https://narf.org/nill/bulletins/legislation/117_uslegislation.html

• S.2702 - A bill to protect the voting rights of Native American and Alaska Native voters.
• S.2705/H.R.4995 - A bill to require the Secretary of the Interior to establish Tribal Wildlife Corridors, and for other purposes.

News Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/news/currentnews.html
This week, in brief:

• 'A national disgrace': Years after promised reforms, people keep dying at federal tribal jails
• Colville Tribes sue U.S. government, seeking damages for failure to manage forests that burned in massive 2015 wildfires
• Indigenous-led tech solutions for a better planet
• National Science Foundation awards $10M to alliance of Native American institutions, UC Berkeley, and UArizona to increase Indigenous participation in higher ed
• Morongo authorized by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement Federal Clean Air Act
• Greenville Rancheria health and tribal offices destroyed by Dixie Fire
• Indigenous communities are still fighting for the return of their ancestors
• NDN Collective sends memo re: Link between Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives, climate crisis to Biden administration
• Is travel next in the fight over who profits from Native American culture?

Indian Law Bulletins Updated 8/4

Federal Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/federal/2021.html

• Becker v. Ute Indian Tribe (Tribal Sovereign Immunity; Exhaustion of Tribal Court Remedies)
• Carney v. State of Washington (Trust Land; Tribal Sovereign Immunity; Jurisdiction)
• Western Watersheds Project v. Bureau of Land Management (Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project; Tribal Intervention)

State Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/state/2021.html

• People of the State of Michigan v. Magnant (Tobacco Products Tax Act)

U.S. Legislation - 117th Congress Bulletin
https://narf.org/nill/bulletins/legislation/117_uslegislation.html

• S.2522/H.R.4783 - To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat certain tribal benefits and Alaska Permanent Fund dividends as earned income for purposes of the kiddie tax.
• S.2523/H.R.4784 - To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the rules for tribal economic development bonds.
• S.2524 - A bill to amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to exclude certain payments to aged, blind, or disabled Alaska Natives or descendants of Alaska Natives from being used to determine eligibility or certain programs, and for other purposes.
• S.2577 - A bill to amend the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to clarify the treatment of authentic Alaska Native articles of handicraft containing nonedible migratory bird parts, and for other purposes.
• H.R.4839 - To clarify the rights of Indians and Indian tribes on Indian lands under the National Labor Relations Act.
• H.R.4881 - To direct the Secretary of the Interior to take into trust for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona certain land in Pima County, Arizona, and for other purposes.
• H.R.4913 - To amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to expand the Purchased/Referred Care Delivery Area for the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana to include Brazoria County and Harris County in the State of Texas, and for other purposes.

Law Review & Bar Journal Bulletin (contact us if you need help finding a copy of an article)
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/lawreviews/2021.html

• The execution of Lezmond Mitchell: An analysis of federal Indian law, criminal jurisdiction, and the death penalty as applied to Native Americans.

News Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/news/currentnews.html
This week, in brief:

• Lawsuit filed against state of Montana to require documentation of Indian Education for All
• Battle over Skagit River dam heads to court
• Climate change is endangering sacred land. For these Native women, it threatens 'everything we are.'
• Reviving traditional Apsáalooke water sources
• Lummi Nation reimagines foster care for Indigenous families
• Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians join to protect, preserve Cherokee language, culture
• State Native American panel to investigate Cal State Long Beach actions at Puvungna
• Indian Health Service announces new chief medical officer
• 'We're not stoic': Book traces the history of Native Americans in history

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Indian Law Bulletins Updated 7/28

The Native American Rights Fund Boulder office is hiring for the open positions of water rights attorney and paralegal. Learn more about the vacancies at https://www.narf.org/contact-us/join-team/
NARF also invites current law clerks and recent law school graduates with a strong background in federal Indian law and public service to apply for a two-year fellowship to focus on voting rights and environmental issues. Blaustein Fellowship deadline is August 13, 2021.

Federal Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/federal/2021.html

• Bedford v. Nowlin (Quiet Title Act; Trusts; Land Grants)
• Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe v. Becerra (Trust Relationship; Health Care)
• Williams v. Hansen (Religious Freedom; Free Exercise Clause)

State Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/state/2021.html

• Scudero v. State of Alaska (Fishing Rights)
• The People of the State of South Dakota in the Interest of C.R.W. (Indian Child Welfare Act)
• Charles P., Starlene M. v. Department of Child Safety (Indian Child Welfare Act)
• Haynes v. Lujan (Jurisdiction)

Tribal Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/tribal/2021.html

• In the Matter of the Estate of Howard Berner, Deceased. (Estates; Jurisdiction)

U.S. Legislation - 117th Congress Bulletin
https://narf.org/nill/bulletins/legislation/117_uslegislation.html

• H.R.4614 - To expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and improve forest management activities on National Forest System lands, on public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management, and on Tribal lands to return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested lands, and for other purposes.
• H.R.4637 - To sever United States Government relations with the Creek Nation of Oklahoma until such time as the Creek Nation of Oklahoma restores full Tribal citizenship to the Creek Freedmen disenfranchised in the October 6, 1979, Creek Nation vote and fulfills all its treaty obligations with the Government of the United States, and for other purposes.
• H.R.4656 - To direct the Federal Communications Commission to establish a new Tribal priority window for the 2.5 gigahertz band, and for other purposes.
• H.R.4676 - To provide financial assistance to States and Indian Tribes for the development, implementation, improvement, or expansion of a flex-tech energy program to enhance manufacturing competitiveness, and for other purposes.
• H.R.4715 - To authorize appropriations to the Secretary of the Interior to make payments to certain members of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma in accordance with the recommendation of the United States Court of Federal Claims.
• H.R.4733 - To deem certain voyages transporting passengers between ports or places within the United States in compliance with certain requirements upon calling on a port owned by an Indian Tribe, and for other purposes.

Law Review & Bar Journal Bulletin (contact us if you need help finding a copy of an article)
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/lawreviews/2021.html

• Trust betrayed: The reluctance to recognize judicially enforceable trust obligations under the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA).
• A familiar crossroads: McGirt v. Oklahoma and the future of federal Indian law canon.

News Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/news/currentnews.html
This week, in brief:

• Montana is failing its constitutional promise to teach Native American history
• Interior Department to consult with community leaders on major changes to NAGPRA
• Montana water court decided tribal water rights in first-of-its-kind decision
• WATCH: Harris hosts voting rights conversation with Native American leaders, Secretary Haaland
• Tribal nations are essential to ‘Build Back Better’
• Lawsuit over Oakland community sweat lodge leads to pushback from Native elders group
• The fight over a 5,000-year-old burial site in California
• An Indigenous firefighter explains how to better manage wildfires
• Chef Sean Sherman's new restaurant is an homage to Indigenous food