Tribes as Rich Nations

This article critiques the contemporary doctrine of Indian tribal self-determination thirty years after its inception in President Richard M. Nixon\u27s famed 1970 Indian Message to Congress. The first part focuses on the three most prominent strategies for tribal self-determination: 1) tribal strategy that seeks to morph their inherent and reserved sovereign powers into tribal regulatory powers that are effective throughout Indian Country; 2) tribal strategy that seeks to develop and assert economic sovereignty over their lands, resources, and commercial relationships as a means of revitalizing Indian Country; and 3) tribal strategy that seeks to reassert traditional cultural and religious beliefs and practices as a means to regenerate their societies within Indian Country. Next the article compares two rival perspectives on the future of tribal self-determination: 1) the standard model of tribal self-determination within Indian Country, which holds promise only for that relatively small minority of tribes who view wealth creation as the central feature of the self-determination effort and are willing to fundamentally reshape their traditional institutions and beliefs to realize that goal; and 2) the transcendental model of tribal self-determination within Indian Country, which may hold greater promise for those tribes who value cultural renewal and social revitalization as the central feature of their tribal self-determination effort

Current Activities of the Indian Law Support Center

This article describes the background and range of services available at the Indian Law Support Center (ILSC) to Legal Services attorneys

Development\u27s Victim or Its Beneficiary?: The Impact of Oil and Gas Development on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation

This article assesses whether oil and gas development on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, given the critical geographic, legal, and socio-cultural differences which set it apart from the rest of North Dakota, will bring with it potentially devastating and unmanageable impacts that may overwhelm the tribal people of that reservation. The article seeks to fill an analytic gap in the existing oil and gas scholarship that has not, in the author\u27s estimation, given sufficient regard to development\u27s unique rights and impacts in Indian Country

The Fate of Native American Diversity in America\u27s Law Schools

I contend that America’s law schools, through their adoption of an appropriately modified version of this community development model, will be better positioned to promote their public service and social justice missions. My goal is to demonstrate two points: first, this available diversity initiative, known popularly as Native American diversity, has succeeded in facilitating the community building efforts of eligible minority communities throughout Indian Country; and second, this diversity initiative has also reinvigorated the social justice and public service missions of those law schools that have chosen to embrace it. My article is divided into three parts. Part I describes the birth of both Native American diversity and the Indian self-determination movement during the late 1960s. In Part II, I assess whether the community development model of Native American diversity can serve to reinvigorate the social justice and public service missions of America’s law schools. In Part III, I offer my proposed synthesis of the emerging community based lawyering model and the Native American lawyering model as the practical basis for the reform of the social justice and public service missions of America’s law schools. I conclude my article with a brief assessment of the future role of Native American diversity as a practical means for revitalizing the commitment and practice of social justice within America’s law school. (Introduction

Keeping the American Indian Rancher on the Land: A Socio-Legal Analysis of the Rise and the Demise of American Indian Ranching on the Northern Great Plains

This article evaluates the phenomenon of Indian ranching from its rise in the late nineteenth century to its potential demise in the early years of the twenty-first century. The article examines the many intertwined factors -- political, economic, cultural, ecological, and spiritual -- that account for Indian ranching\u27s rise, as well as its impending demise. The article asserts that Indian ranching could well have become the Indian-civilizing strategy that helped bridge the vast socioeconomic gulf that existed, and still exists, between the Indian and non-Indian peoples of the northern Great Plains. The article concludes that Indian ranching\u27s impending demise can today be avoided if the federal government and Indian leadership could work together in crafting an effective legislatively driven settlement of two major pending Indian law suits, which could go some distance toward restoring Indian ranching to economic and social viability on the northern Great Plains