Indian Reorganization Act (IRA)

Members Only? Designing Citizenship Requirements for Indian Nations

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Indian nations' constitutional reform efforts encounter some of their most paralyzing conflicts over criteria for membership. Three years ago, I initiated a Tribal Legal Development Clinic at UCLA, whose purpose has been to assist Indian nations in building their legal infrastructures. This Clinic has provided free consulting and drafting services to Indian nations seeking to establish or modify tribal constitutions, codes, or justice systems. As the Clinic embarked on several constitution drafting and revision projects, controversies over membership -- or citizenship as we preferred to call it -- readily and regularly went from negotiable differences among tribal participants to heated stalemate or irresolvable conundrum...

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Goldberg, Carole. "Members Only? Designing Citizenship Requirements for Indian Nations." University of Kansas Law Review. Volume 50. 2001, 2002. Paper. (http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/ukalr50&div=21&g_sen..., accessed October 30, 2013)

Race and American Indian Tribal Nationhood

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This article bridges the gap between the perception and reality of American Indian tribal nation citizenship. The United States and federal Indian law encouraged, and in many instances mandated, Indian nations to adopt race-based tribal citizenship criteria. Even in the rare circumstance where an Indian nation chose for itself whether or not to adopt a race-based citizenship rule, the nation invariably did, with the belief and expectationthat Indian nations had no choice. In fact, Indian nations do have a choice.

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Fletcher, Matthew L.M. "Race and American Indian Tribal Nationhood." Wyoming Law Review. Volume 11, Number 2. 2011. Paper. (https://scholarship.law.uwyo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1253&context=wlr, accessed June 7, 2023)

Understanding the history of tribal enrollment

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Year

It's difficult to talk about tribal enrollment without talking about Indian identity. The two issues have become snarled in the twentieth century as the United States government has inserted itself more and more into the internal affairs of Indian nations.

Ask who is Indian, and you will get divergent responses depending on who's answering. The U.S. Census Bureau, state governments, various federal government programs and agencies, and tribal governments all have different definitions. The criteria vary from a specific amount of blood quantum and descendency to residency and self-identification...

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Livesay, Nora. "Understanding the history of tribal enrollment." The American Indian Policy Center Newsletter. The American Indian Policy Center. St. Paul, Minnesota. Fall 1996. Paper. (http://nayapdx.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/naya-101.pdf, accessed October 28, 2013)

Northern Cheyenne Tribe: Traditional Law and Constitutional Reform

Year

This profile by Sheldon C. Spotted Elk examines the U.S. government's infringement on the Northern Cheyenne's political sovereignty. Most significantly, it examines the relationship between the oral history of the Northern Cheyenne and its impact on traditional tribal governance and law. Following the Northern Cheyenne's adoption of a modern constitution, many members fought to continue living under a traditional constitution. Ultimately, the Northern Cheyenne adopted a written, IRA-compatible constitution while maintaining an oral constitution. The delicate balance allows the Northern Cheyenne to address modern issues while also keeping the fundamental traditional and customary law of the tribe alive.

Native Nations
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Spotted Elk, Sheldon C. "Northern Cheyenne Tribe: Traditional Law and Constitutional Reform." Tribal Law Journal. Volume 12: 2011/ 2012. UNM School of Law. Albuquerque, New Mexico. 2012. Article. (http://lawschool.unm.edu/tlj/volumes/vol12/Northern-Cheyenne.pdf, accessed September 23, 2013)

Tribal Economic Development: Nuts & Bolts

Year

Tribal economic development is a product of the need for Indian tribes to generate revenue in order to pay for the provision of governmental services. Unlike the federal government or states, Indian tribes – in general – have no viable tax base from which to generate revenues sufficient to provide for tribal constituents...

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Fletcher, Matthew L.M. "Tribal Economic Development: Nuts & Bolts." Indigenous Law & Policy Center Working Paper Series. Michigan State University College of Law. October 25, 2006. Paper. (http://www.law.msu.edu/indigenous/papers/2006-03.pdf, accessed August 26, 2013)

Tribal Constitutions and Native Sovereignty

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More than 565 Indigenous tribal governments exercise extensive sovereign and political powers within the United States today. Only about 230 of the native communities that created these governments, however, have chosen to adopt written constitutions to define and control the political powers of their governments. Many observers would no doubt ask how a government can function without a written constitution to guide its formation and operation, and how the rights of citizens can be defined and protected without a written constitution. This essay addresses these questions and many more concerning American Indian and Alaska Native tribal constitutions. It is clear that constitutionalism is nothing new to Indigenous peoples in North America. This fact is demonstrated by the Iroquois Confederacy of the Haudenosaunee people who have governed themselves under an unwritten constitution for many hundreds of years, by the Cherokee Nation who apparently created the first written tribal constitution in 1827, by the many dozens of tribal governments who adopted written constitutions from 1837-1930, and by the hundreds of Indigenous governments who adopted constitutions under the federal Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. This essay examines these facts and more, and addresses whether modern day tribal constitutions adequately serve the needs of native communities and help these communities and their political entities to exercise and protect their sovereignty...

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Miller, Robert J. "Tribal Constitutions and Native Sovereignty." Lewis & Clark Law School. Portland, Oregon. Social Science Research Network. April 4, 2011. Paper. (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers2.cfm?abstract_id=1802890, accessed November 26, 2012)

Legal Pluralism and Tribal Constitutions

Year

What do pigs roaming the streets of New York City during the first half of the nineteenth century and tribal constitutions have in common? The most obvious (and often the most correct) answer is, undoubtedly, “absolutely nothing.” However, tribal advocates, particularly those concerned with the role of a constitution within a tribal community, may wish to reconsider their answer and might turn their attention to New York’s early nineteenth century pigs in order to better understand the legal and political contexts in which they, and the tribal nations they serve, operate...

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Richotte, Jr., Keith. "Legal Pluralism and Tribal Constitutions." William Mitchell Law Review. Volume 36, Issue 2: pgs. 447- 502. William Mitchell College of Law. January 18, 2010. Paper. (http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context..., accessed March 9, 2016)