Select Reading
Articles written about the case prior to the decision:
Casteel, C. (2019, December 15). U.S. Supreme Court accepts new Oklahoma case about Indian reservations. Oklahoman.
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Contemporary Legal Issues Facing Native Americans – Federal Bar Association. (2017, January 10).
Harris, Cynthia R. (2017, September 18). Emerging Environmental Issues in Native Communities. Environmental Law Institute.
Issues | Indian Law Resource Center.
NoiseCat, J. B. (2015, August 31). 13 Issues Facing Native People Beyond Mascots And Casinos. HuffPost.
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You may set up a Google Alert if your issue is unfolding.
Savanna’s Act Addresses Alarming Number Of Missing Or Killed Native Women: Live Updates: Protests For Racial Justice : NPR. (2020, September 28). In All Things Considered.
Walker, M. (2020, September 29). Pandemic Highlights Deep-Rooted Problems in Indian Health Service. The New York Times.
Reference
Sharp v. Murphy Wikipedia. It is ok to use Wikipedia to identify a case name or section of law.
SCOTUSblog a blog of Supreme Court cases. I often check it for background on cases before the court. It provided me with the docket number for Sharp v. Murphy.
"Native American Rights." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019.
- WexLegal dictionary from Cornell Legal Information Institute. We have Black's Law Dictionary in Reference (print). Ballentine's is in Nexis Uni but I find some of the definitions unclear.
American Indian Law in a Nutshell by
This guide provides a reliable resource on American Indian law. Its authoritative text covers the essentials of this complex body of law, with attention to the governmental policies underlying it. The work emphasizes both the historical development of Federal Indian Law and recent matters such as the evolution of Indian gaming, issues arising under the Indian Child Welfare Act, and the present enforcement of treaty rights. It addresses the policy and law applicable to Alaska Natives, but does not deal with Native Hawai'ians.
Call Number: General Stacks KF8205 .C36 2015ISBN: 9781628100082Publication Date: 2014
The Encyclopedia of Native American Legal Tradition by
Integrating American Indian law and Native American political and legal traditions, this encyclopedia includes detailed descriptions of nearly two dozen Native American Nations' legal and political systems such as the Iroquois, Cherokee, Choctaw, Navajo, Cheyenne, Creek, Chickasaw, Comanche, Sioux, Pueblo, Mandan, Wyandot, Powhatan, Mikmaq, and Yakima. Although not an Indian law casebook, this work does contain outlines of many major Indian law cases, congressional acts, and treaties. It also contains profiles of individuals important to the evolution of Indian law. This work will be of interest to scholars in several fields, including law, Native American studies, American history, political science, anthropology, and sociology.
Call Number: Reference Stacks KF8204 .E53 1998ISBN: 0313301670Publication Date: 1998
Felix S. Cohen's Federal Indian Law by Call Number: Reference Stacks KF8205 .C6 2005ISBN: 0327164441Publication Date: 2005
Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781414490984Publication Date: 2012
Secondary Sources
Finding Books & Articles using the Library Search
Sample Search:
- Indians of North America AND (voting OR suffrage)
- ("Native American" OR "American Indian" ) AND ("crime reports" OR "crime reporting")
- "domestic violence" AND ("Native American" OR "American Indian")
Worldcat -- use the subject headings to find more recent books; we can borrow them via Interlibrary Loan
- Library Search: Advanced SearchChange the "Any Field" drop-down to Title to search by title. Under "Tweak my results" in the right menu, limit to "Library Catalog" to find books and videos available in the library.
Finding News & Law Review articles using Nexis Uni
Search 1: Law Review articles
("american indians" or "native americans") w/p (voting or disenfranc* or suffrage)
Search 2: News
("american indians" or "native americans") w/p (voting or disenfranc* or suffrage)
- Nexis Uni (LexisNexis)Contents: Full-text local, national, and international newspaper articles and legal resources.
Need search tips? See our guides for tips on Legal Searching and News Searching.
Finding scholarly articles and news using EBSCO Research Library
Sample search:
- EBSCO Research LibrarySearch across all of our EBSCO subscriptions for full-text articles and abstracts in almost every discipline.
Native American News
You can limit by ethnic group: Native People
- Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest)Collects full-text articles from the ethnic, minority, and native press, including top scholarly journals on ethnicities and ethnic studies. Contents include African American, Arab, Middle Eastern, Asian American, European, Jewish, and Native American publications.
Contents: Full-text articles from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journal. 1990-present; plus historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals from 1959-1989.
Primary Sources
Select Sources for Finding Cases
- Supreme Court of the United StatesTry searching Case Documents. 17-1107
- Significant Indian CasesFrom the Department of Justice
- Advanced Search: CasesChose the Legal Tab > Cases > US Cases. Click on the All Fields drop-down to search by party name, docket number, core terms, head notes, etc.
- Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER)PACER is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information online from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator. Note: Need to create an account to use/ Most cases can be found in NexisUni; Use this for cases that are not yet decided and still in docket form. See Cathy for assistance.
Find a case: United States v. Sandoval County, 797 F. Supp. 2d 1249 No. 88-CV-1457-BRB-DJS
After accessing the case, use Shepards to find cases that cite to this case. Click on cited cases and codes to access full text of related primary source documents.
Read the opinion. Who is listed as counsel? What is the jurisdiction? What are the background facts?
Search method 1: Get a Doc Assistance (under the search box) You can search by citation, party name, or by Docket Number
Search method 2: If you know the legal citation (797 F. Supp. 2d 1249) you can just use the main page search box.
Search method 3: Click on All Nexis Uni > cases and codes > can search by jurisdiction (ex. Tribal, District, Appellate Courts
Search example: summary("native american" or "american indian") and summary("voting rights")
United States Code (via GovInfo)
- 25 U.S.C. IndiansUnited States laws governing Native Americans
Administrative Law (Code of Federal Regulations)
- Bureau of Indian Affairs (US Dept. of the Interior)The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) mission is to: "… enhance the quality of life, to promote economic opportunity, and to carry out the responsibility to protect and improve the trust assets of American Indians, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives."
- Bureau of Indian EducationBIE’s mission is to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with a tribe’s needs for cultural and economic well-being, in keeping with the wide diversity of Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages as distinct cultural and governmental entities
- Indian Health Services (Dept. of Health & Human Services)The Federal Health Program for American Indians and Alaska Natives
- Executive orders relating to Indian reservations, 1855-1922.Washington: Govt. Print. Off.
Treaties
- Native American People Treaties, Ratified and UnratifiedDepartment of Interior. From 1787 through 1883.
- American Indian TreatiesNational Archives
- American Memory: Century of LawmakingIncludes: Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894. Library of Congress.
Tribal Law
- Tribal Law from Nexis UniType Tribal in the search box & choose All Tribal Courts from the drop-down.
Also try: All Nexis Uni > Cases and Codes > Tribal
Government Documents
- GovInfoPortal to documents from the Government Publishing Office (budget, bills, hearings, Constitution, US Code, etc.). Formerly: FDsys, GPO Access
- Indian Country Crime -- FBIThe FBI is responsible for investigating the most serious crimes in Indian Country— such as murder, child sexual and physical abuse, violent assaults, drug trafficking, public corruption, financial crimes, and Indian gaming violations. Nationwide, the FBI has investigative responsibilities for some 200 federally recognized Indian reservations.
Books by Subject
- Indians of North America--Legal status, laws, etc.
- Indians of North America -- Law and legislation
- Indians of North America -- Treaties
- Federally recognized Indian tribes
- Indian courts -- United States
- Indians of North America -- Politics and government
- Indians of North America -- Government relations
- Self-determination, National -- United States
Website
- National Indian Law Library From the Native American Rights Fund, this site provides free access to Indian law. The Tribal Law Gateway provides access to constitutions, codes and ordinances. see also: the Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project
- American Indian Law Center
- American Indian Law Alliance
- Border Crossing Rights under the Jay Treaty, a publication of the American Indian Law Alliance (on the Pine Tree Legal Assistance site)
- Futures without Violence Facts on Violence Against Native American / Alaska Native women
- Indian Law Resource Center
- Institute for Native Justice specializes in serving American Indian and Alaska Native programs and projects which provide direct services to victims of domestic and sexual violence.
- Lannan Audio and Video Archives Lannan, an organization that supports artists and writers as well as Native activists in rural indigenous communities, has an Audio/Video tab on its hompage that contains a 15 year archive of events.
- National Tribal Justice Resource Center
- National Institute of Justice: Tribal Crime and Justice
- Tribal Court Clearinghouse
- American Indian Law (Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute)
- Native American Law Research Guide (Georgetown Law Library). Some of the websites, above, were found on this guide.
- American Indian Law. Library Guide by Heather Pierce of Harvard Law School Library.
- Urban Indian Health Institute Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) is leading the way in research and data for urban American Indian and Alaska Native communities
- CDC: Tribal Health
- Prison Policy Initiative (from the HuffPo article)
- Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice (from the HuffPo article)
- Native Lives Matter (report), Lakota People's Law Project (from the HuffPo article)
- ACLU: American Indian Rights
- Labriola National American Indian Data CenterInternational in scope, the Labriola National American Indian Data Center brings together the current and historical work of Indigenous authors across a multitude of disciplines. With an emphasis on language, government, education, tribal history, biography, religion and customs, the Labriola Center features thousands of books, journals, Native Nation newspapers and primary source materials, such as photographs, oral histories and manuscript collections
- Indigenous Law Web Archive (Library of Congress)A collection of constitutions, codes, executive orders, and court forms and information of sovereign Indigenous governments and courts of 578 federally recognized nations, communities, and tribes in the United States, as well as some Indigenous legal information from Canada.
Manage Your Research: Google Docs Template
Copy and paste this template into your own Google Doc or MS Word page.
TEMPLATE
FINISHED EXAMPLE (gerrymandering) MS Word. Fall 2020
