Indigenous Rights Movements & the Law

Film deals with the work of the Native American Rights Fund in its efforts to protect the rights of American Indians in cases involving treaty rights, ownership of natural resources on tribal lands, and trust relationships with the Federal Government. AV 2962 From the Ford Foundation records, Audiovisual materials Series 1, Ford Foundation Films Finding Aid: FA750 Color, Sound, English language Originally 16mm film on VHS Duration: 60 minutes

The Tribal Court Clearinghouse - Complete Text of Indian Civil Rights Act

When we think of the system of government in the United States, many of us typically think of the federal and the state governments. But tribal governments are also significant systems of law that have been integral to the formation of democracy in the U.S.

Fall 2006 issue of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Challenges to institutionalized racism have been largely framed in terms of equitable access to, and redistribution of, the wealth and power accumulated and con

Many Native American tribes have received official recognition from the US government and have been granted economic, political, social, and cultural rights.

Over the last two decades, the environmental justice movement has evolved into a recognized social movement within the United States that merges civil rights with environmental protection.

Below you will find tips and historical information on legal protections for Native Americans and other native peoples. Choose a link to get started.Protecting the

Published in History: Reviews of New Books (Vol. 3, No. 8, 1975)

By Meredith Capps In an “on-demand” session offered to AALL 2021 Virtual Meeting attendees, Darla W. Jackson moderated a discussion regarding current efforts to publish Native American tribal law o…

The DA says eight people who avoided jail completed more than 320 hours of community service.

Native peoples in the U.S. are often citizens of both the United States and of autonomous Native nations. That makes Native environmental justice issues more complex.

A leading United Nations human rights body has issued a report blasting the United States for its systematic abrogation of its treaties with Native Americans, stealing of reservation land, and the loss of billions of dollars of Native American money, among other things. It demanded that the United States grant American Indians and Native Hawai’ians the same basic protections under U.S. law that it grants to nonindigenous Americans.

A novel lawsuit is taking advantage of a local ‘rights of nature’ measure passed in November in effort to protect wetlands

Violence is on the rise at a North Dakota reservation. And tribal officers are often powerless to stop it.

Despite a legal obligation of the United States to provide health care to Native Americans, this group faces significant inequity in health care compared to other U.S. populations.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A lawsuit that accuses the federal government of failing to adequately provide for students on a small, isolated reservation in Arizona is set to go to trial in...

José Francisco Cali Tzay (Maya Kaqchikel), a longtime defender of Indigenous rights, completed his term on the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on January 19, 2020. The CERD is the Treaty Monitoring Body for the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and one of nine International Human Rights Treaties within the UN system. The ICERD is legally-binding for the 175 countries (State parties) which have ratified it to date.

Elizabeth Reese, Stanford Law School’s first Native American professor, discusses the intentional marginalization of tribal legal structures.

The U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, along with dozens of Native American tribes and cultural groups, sued the federal government on Monday to stop the sale of the National Archives building in the city of Seattle.

On October 4, 2021, the Canadian government informed the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Michigan that Canada would formally invoke Article IX of the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty in response to the state of Michigan’s revocation on November 13, 2020, of the 1953 easement it issued for the Line 5 pipeline.Michigan revoked … Continue reading “United States: Canadian Government Invokes 1977 Pipeline Treaty in Ongoing Line 5 Pipeline Dispute”

We maintain government-to-government relationships with Indian tribes, and facilitate support for tribal people and tribal governments. We promote safe and quality living environments, strong communities, self sufficient and individual rights, while enhancing protection of the lives, prosperity and well being of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

The Department of Justice has selected an additional 12 federally recognized Tribes to participate in the expansion of the Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information (TAP), a program that provides tribal governments with means to access, enter and exchange data with national crime information systems, including those maintained by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division and the states.

Native American genealogy in Federal records depends primarily upon the use of records created by the Office of Indian Affairs (later renamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs). These records relate to tribes officially recognized by the United States, including the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminoles) and other Native American nations involved in treaties or guardianship relationships with the Federal Government.

A blog post about how to research Native American settlement acts.

Links to high quality Internet sites on Native American people