Model Tribal Secured Transactions Act

The conference proceedings for "Sovereignty symposium 2007 : making medicine" (2007) provide a wealth of information on the Model Tribal Secured Transactions Act. The Act itself is provided, along with analysis, sample tribal codes/regulations and sample tribal compacts (or intergovernmental agreements). Much of the information is reprinted with permission from the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and can be accessed at the NCCUSL's web site.

For more information, go to the National Indian Law Library's online catalog at http://nillcat.narf.org/ Then type "security law" into the Subject Terms field.

Search our site more efficiently

This month we launched a new search engine for our web site, donated to NARF by ISYS Search Software. The search interface is still under development, but still offers great improvements over our previous search engine.

Now you can search parts of the NARF web site in addition to the entire site, with a powerful search engine that lets you select search screens, search terms within proximity of each other, and preview highlighted results. Especially helpful to web site users is the ability to isolate large segments of our site, such as the tribal law collection or the ICWA web guide to conduct research. From any NARF page, click on "Search". http://document.narf.org/

Note that the Library's collection of materials must still be searched using the catalog at http://nillcat.narf.org/

As we continue to customize ISYS to fit our web site, we welcome suggestions for improvement or general comments. Send Emails to dselden@narf.org

Federal Indian Law and Tribal Law Research Guides Updated 9/07

The Library has updated two important Guides to doing Indian law research

• Basic Indian Law Research Tips -- Part I: Federal Indian Law
• Basic Indian Law Research Tips: Part II: Tribal Law

Indian law is a growing area of law, as many of the more than 560 federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native Villages exercise their sovereignty and self-governance, as well as develop their economies. Many western states have significant populations of American Indians, and trust lands cover more than fifty-five million acres in the United States. A sign of the growing importance of Indian law is that the New Mexico, South Dakota and Washington State Bar Associations have decided to add a question on Indian law on their state bar exams. This article, set out in two parts, and originally published in the Colorado Lawyer, attempts to provide some practical tips for the Indian law researcher. Part I focuses on federal Indian law research. Although hundreds of pages could be written on researching federal Indian law, this article focuses on providing basic tips related to common questions received by the National Indian Law Library (“ NILL” ) and the best sources of information to answer those questions.

Part II focuses on tribal law research. Tribal law is law developed by the tribes, which applies within their territories and to their members. Tribal law can be a difficult area of law to research, because few primary and secondary resources are published or distributed to the public. Despite the lack of commercial publication, tribal law resources have become more accessible in the past six years, primarily on the Internet. However, locating the right resources often requires patience and tenacity and the skilled researcher should be aware of who to contact for assistance.

New Tribal Law Materials

This week the Library received permission to post the Constitution and Waganakising Odawa Tribal Code of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. Both documents can be found at our online tribal laws web page. From the same web page you can also access an updated copy of the Swinomish Tribal Code. And at the bottom of the web page is a link to Gaming Ordinances of Tribes, posted at the web site of the National Indian Gaming Commission.