Indigenous Rights Movements & the Law

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pspanNative Americans (American Indians and Alaska Natives) have a long tradition of service in the U.S. military, dating back to the Revolutionary War. In

In recognition of National Indigenous History Month, the Libraries unveiled a mural in the Dana Porter Library lobby by Tehatsistahawi (Tsista) Kennedy.

Today, Statistics Canada is releasing data on students from Canadian colleges and universities (cohorts of 2014 to 2022) by Indigenous identity and racialized group. This release includes information on the number of Canadian new students, enrolled students and graduates by Indigenous identity and racialized group, educational qualification, field of study, age group and gender. Data are available at the national, provincial and territorial levels.

When Stephanie Russo Carroll, a citizen of the Native Village of Kluti-Kaah in Alaska, set out to earn her doctorate in tribal health 15 years ago, she focused her research on tribal cultural and health programs within six tribes. She needed vital statistics data, such as birth and death rates, for each of them. But […]

Native students at University of Arizona are worried after their cultural group leader was fired and replaced with someone they don't trust.

The latest edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is hot off the presses.  Although this 22nd edition retains the same basic approach to legal citation, there are some notable changes, including one that …

pspanNative Americans (American Indians and Alaska Natives) have a long tradition of service in the U.S. military, dating back to the Revolutionary War. In

President Donald Trump is looking to reopen Alcatraz Island, which once housed 19 Hopi men who didn’t want their children going to Indian boarding schools.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren says Donald Trump's push to revitalize coal could bring jobs, revenue and energy security.

Formal letter from all Native organizations reframes cultural center closures as constitutional matter involving tribal sovereignty

Ask Alex Hansen from the Rocky Mountain Veterans Advocacy Project the best way to connect with a veteran in need, and she talks about food.

Ofelia Zepeda is a renowned poet and linguist, and one of the world’s foremost experts on the Tohono O’odham language.

"Drawing its title from the 1863 Federal Act that banished the Dakota people from their homelands, this remarkable debut collection reckons with the present-day repercussions of historical violence. Through an array of brief lyrics, visual forms, chronologies, and sequences, these virtuosic poems trace a path through the labyrinth of distances and absences haunting the American colonial experiment. Removal Acts takes its speaker's fraught methods of accessing the past as both subject and material: family photos, the fragile artifacts of primary documents, and the digital abyss of web browsers and word processors. Alongside studies of two of her Dakota ancestors, Lynch has assembled an intimate record of recovery from bulimia, insisting that self-erasure cannot be separated from the erasures of genocide. In these rigorous, scrutinizing examinations of "removal" in its many forms-as physical displacement, archival absence, Whiteness, and vomit-Lynch has crafted a harrowing portrait of the entwined relationship between the personal and historical. The result is a powerful affirmation of resilience and resolute presence in the face of eradication"--

"To be Native American is to live in a world of contradictions. At the same time that the number of people in the U.S. who claim Native identity has exploded -- increasing 85 percent in just ten years -- the number of people formally enrolled in Tribes has not. While the federal government recognizes Tribal sovereignty, being a member of a Tribe requires navigating blood quantum laws and rolls that the federal government created with the intention of wiping out Native people altogether. Over two million Native people are Tribally enrolled, yet there are Native people who will never be. Native people who, for a variety of reasons ranging from displacement to disconnection, cannot be card-carrying members of their Tribe. Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz grapples with these contradictions. Through in-depth interviews, she shares the stories of people caught in the mire of identity formation, trying to define themselves outside of bureaucratic processes. With archival research, she pieces together the history of blood quantum and tribal rolls and federal government intrusion on Native identity-making. Reckoning with her own identity -- her own story of enrollment and the enrollment of her children -- she investigates the cultural, racial, and political dynamics of today's Tribal identity policing. She faces the question that many Native people do: Who is Indian enough?" --

Tribes that rely on the Colorado River — and the complex set of rules that govern it — are worried as the Donald Trump administration takes actions affecting their access to water.

Language is at the heart of Diné identity, carrying with it stories, traditions, and a worldview deeply rooted in the land and history of the Navajo people. As Diné poets, educators, and language advocates work to sustain Diné Bizaad, many are embracing poetry, playwriting, and performance as tools for preservation and revitalization.Aresta Tsosie-Paddock is Naakaii Dine’é and born for Bįįh Bitoodnii. Her cheii is Tł’ízíłání and her nálí is Kinyaa’áanii.

The Tohono O’odham language is at risk of disappearing, with far fewer people speaking it today. To help keep it alive, the Tohono O’odham Nation has opened the O’odham Ňi’okĭ Ki: Language Center, which offers classes and resources for learning the language. There have also been events put on by the community to discuss how to continue the language into the future. Efforts by educators, elders and the community continue to look for solutions to keep O’odham alive.

When forces unite with no care for the Constitution, the rule of law or anything you learned in civics class, you can end up with the entrenched overreach of the Plenary Power Doctrine.

On the heels of removing two diversity-related websites this week, the University of Arizona has deleted the phrase “committed to diversity and inclusion” from its widely used “land acknowledgement” statement.

In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision to return more than 3 million acres of land in Oklahoma to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The case, McGirt v. Oklahoma, has been described as one of the most significant Native American-related rulings in 100 years.The returned acreage in Oklahoma, including part of the city of Tulsa, is now recognized as “Indian Country,” as defined by federal law.

"The groundbreaking Indigenous style guide every writer needs The first published guide to common questions and issues of Indigenous style and process for those who work in words and other media is back in an updated new edition. This trusted resource offers crucial guidance to anyone who works in words or other media on how to work accurately, collaboratively, and ethically on projects involving Indigenous Peoples. Editor Warren Cariou (Mtis) and contributing editors Jordan Abel (Nisga'a), Lorena Fontaine (Cree-Anishinaabe), and Deanna Reder (Cree-U+fffdMtis) continue the conversation started by the late Gregory Younging in his foundational first edition. This second conversation reflects changes in the publishing industry, Indigenous-led best practices, and society at large, including new chapters on author-editor relationships, identity and community affiliation, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer identities, sensitivity reading, emerging issues in the digital world, and more. This guide features: Twenty-two succinct style principles; Advice on culturally appropriate publishing practices, including how to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples, when and how to seek the advice of Elders, and how to respect Indigenous Oral Traditions and Traditional Knowledge; Terminology to use and to avoid; Advice on specific editing issues, such as biased language, capitalization, citation, accurately representing Indigenous languages, and quoting from historical sources and archives; Examples of projects that illustrate best practices."--

5,053 likes, 23 comments - ndngirlsbookclub on March 14, 2025: "Indigenous women who published debut books in 2024-2025 ✨💫 mainly focused on poetry, because poetry is always underrated🤞 Native & indie booksellers we recommend: 🌵 Palabras Bookstore @palabras_bookstore 🪶Green Feather Books @greenfeatherbooks 💧 Birchbark Books @birchbark_books 🌙 Iron Dog Books @irondogbooks 🌹 Black Walnut Books @blackwalnutbooks 🐦 Quiet Quail Books @quietquailbooks 🧚‍♀️ Paperbacks n Frybread @paperbacks_n_frybread 🍓 Massy Books @massybooks 🌺 Native Books HI @nativebookshi 💫 Books & Burrow (KS) @booksandburrow #indigenouslit #nativelit #ndngirlsbookclub For our LA friends: AWP is at the end of the month, which brings writers from all over to one city. This year, it’s in Tovaangar/Los Angeles & many Native writers will be all in one place; we will be raising money for the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, which is restoring land damaged by the recent fires. We are very excited💗✨💫 tickets are at @juniorhighla 🔗".

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 19, 2025Contact: Nizhoni Begay, WPLC Communications, communications@waterprotectorlegal.org, (210) 324-3393Breaking – Verdict in Landmark SLAPP Case Against Greenpeace: Water Protector Legal Collective Continues the Call for Corporate Transparency and Accountability, and Respect for Indigenous SovereigntyMandan, ND – A North Dakota jury has ruled in favor of Energy Transfer, awarding the company hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in its lawsuit against Greenpea

691 likes, 17 comments - lakotalaw on March 12, 2025: "📢 Take action to win justice for Emily Pike. LINK IN BIO 🔗 Lakota Law supports the passage of HB2281, a bill that will create an 🚨 amber alert system specifically for Indigenous youth — ensuring that no Native family suffers a tragedy like this again. ⚖️ Act now. Tell the Arizona state Senate to pass HB2281 into law and name it Emily’s Law. #EmilyPike #JusticeForEmily #MMIW #MMIR #SayHerName #MMIAwareness #ProtectNativeChildren".

4,196 likes, 34 comments - lakotalaw on March 13, 2025: "🚨 They’re banning history. Read it anyway. Books that share truths about Indigenous land and Native history are disappearing from U.S. schools and libraries as part of a nationwide ban on books. One banned book example: “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.” Ask yourself why. 💡 It’s not just about banning a few classics or a single book—it’s about erasing the real histories and controlling the narrative. 🚫 We created the Decolonized Reading List for 2025—a curated selection of 25 nonfiction books that challenge colonial myths and highlight movements of resistance, including Indigenous sovereignty, Black liberation, LGBTQ2S+ rights, abolition, and the fight for reparations. Read them. Share them. Pass them down. 📚 Explore the full Decolonized Reading from the link in our bio. 📢 Amplify your impact. Petition for truthful education in U.S. schools. 🔗 Teach Real History Link in Bio 👉🏾 For the most current information on book bans, follow @americanlibraryassociation #BannedBooks #DecolonizeYourBookshelf #IndigenousHistory #TeachRealHistory".

Tristan Ahtone of Grist magazine and K. Wayne Yang (a.k.a. la paperson) of the University of California San Diego will engage in an expansive dialogue on the...