Tribal Court Jurisdiction and Public Law 280: What Role for Tribal Courts in Alaska

GPS data from Challenging Mini-satellite Payload (CHAMP) is used for its orbit determination for the epoch day of January 1st 2002.  The orbit of CHAMP is computed from the GPS data and ionospheric effects are removed by frequency combination. Further, the orbits of CHAMP for the same epoch day are computed using the satellite tool kit (STK) employing simplified general perturbations (SGP4) and a high precision orbit propagator (HPOP). Furthermore, orbits computed using GPS data are also compared with jet propulsion laboratory’s published CHAMP spacecraft orbit and we have found that root mean square difference in ECEF position X component is below 0.01km other than some spikes at poles. The standard deviation of the difference in ECEF position X coordinate (JPL results – GPS computed results) is 11.7m. Since JPL computed orbits are considered as true orbits of CHAMP with accuracy of centimeter level (https://gipsy-oasis.jpl.nasa.gov/). Therefore this difference can also be referred as observed error in GPS computed orbits. Considering above discussion, we can expect that accuracy of our computed satellite positions (using GPS data) is about 12 metres for other than poles area. However there are some occasional spikes, especially at poles, having maximum errors (about 0.055 km)

Moment of Truth: The Special Relationship of the Federal Government to Alaska Natives and Their Tribes — Update and Issue Analysis

Beyond considering the present state of the statutory relationship between the federal government and Alaska Natives, this analysis focuses on the power of Congress and the Executive Branch to change the relationship. Absent congressional acts which mandate some level of federal responsibility to Natives, the Executive Branch possesses an independent power over Native affairs which can be exercised to expand, reduce, or deny a special relationship as an enforceable federal obligation. Includes an appendix by Stephen Haycox, "Historical Aspects of the Federal Obligation to Alaska Natives."Report prepared pursuant to a planning grant from Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc., to Alaska Federation of Natives.Prologue / I. The Current Trust Relationship / II. ANCSA: Its Role in an Age of Self-Determination / III. The Threat of Termination / IV. Conclusion / Footnotes / Appendix I: "Historical Aspects of the Federal Obligation to Alaska Natives" by Stephen Hayco

Legal Limits on Religious Conversion in India

In contemporary India, government assessments of the legitimacy of conversions tend to rely on two assumptions: first, that people who convert in groups may not have freely chosen conversion, and second, that certain groups are particularly vulnerable to being lured into changing their religion. These assumptions, which pervade the anticonversion laws as well as related court decisions and government committee reports, reinforce social constructions of women and lower castes as inherently naive and susceptible to manipulation. Here, Jenkins contends to carefully scrutinized the assumptions since like protective laws in many other contexts, such laws restrict freedom in highly personal, individual choices

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THREE KINDS: THE WRITING OF INDIAN HISTORY, A Review Essay

Can non-Indians write ”Indian history”? Professor Roy W. Meyer, Director of American Studies at Mankato State University, confronts himself with that vexing question in the prefatory remarks to his survey of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples from pre-European contact times through the 1970‘s. Although Meyer‘s book is a case study of specific Indian societies, a number of themes he emphasizes will be useful for teachers and students who are not specialists in Indian studies