Supreme Court Miniseries: Tribal Rights in the 21st Century
DE Talk | Building Foundational Relationships in Native American & Tribal Communities
Proof in Trial: Appellate Edition: Stand Up for California et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior et al.
Tribal Tax Exemption Under McGirt Gains Preliminary Victory
McGirt Uncertainty Extends to Federal Environmental Regulations in Indian Country
Revisiting McGirt: New Legal Developments Challenge Oklahoma’s Landmark Ruling
The Immediate and Lasting Impacts of McGirt: A Novel Ruling for Oklahoma
A Way Forward: Energy Industry Ready to Fuel Canada's Recovery
After years of concerns raised by Indian law practitioners and tribal leaders alike, the rules under which the Secretary of the Department of the Interior accepts lands in trust for federally recognized Indian tribes have...more
Recent proposed regulations seek to streamline and reduce costs for tribal land into trust applications and clarify parameters for negotiation and approval of tribal-state gaming compacts. The administrative process by...more
On December 5, 2022, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) published proposed revisions to 25 C.F.R. Part 151—the regulations governing the United States’ discretionary acquisition of land in trust for the...more
On Sept. 3, the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, Division of Energy and Mineral Development (DEMD) issued a solicitation for grant proposals for technical assistance funding to identify, evaluate or assess...more
With storage pressure and pandemic-reduced demand driving oil prices into freefall, lessees of federal and Indian lands may consider turning to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) procedures...more
On January 2, 2020, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) issued a proposed rule to create a new 25 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 82 that would establish procedures for a non-federally recognized Alaska Native entity to...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld the approval of a utility-scale wind facility in California, rejecting claims that the Bureau of Indian Affairs violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the...more
Opportunities for economic growth in Indian country — including the development of retail space, hotels and resorts, energy projects, data farms, and more traditional farming activities, to name a few — are tied to several...more
Secretary Zinke welcomed 2018 with a proposal to reorganize the Department of the Interior’s regions by watersheds and ecosystems. Reported as his largest priority, Secretary Zinke advocates that the 13 reorganized regions,...more
At this point in year one of the Obama Administration, tribes were enjoying the progress made at the first ever White House Tribal Nations Conference where 566 federally recognized tribes were invited to engage directly with...more
When Congress returned after the December break, it needed to reach a spending agreement on government funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2018. Since October 2017, the government had been funded through a series of...more
Court: Bureau of Indian Affairs Failed to Act in Timely Manner on Tribal Funding Proposal - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on April 4, 2017, ruled that the Navajo Nation is entitled to...more
On March 29, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted summary judgment in favor of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”) in a lawsuit involving the grant of a lease to Tule Wind, LLC for...more
President Obama nominated Merrick Garland on March 16, 2016, to be an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Garland now serves as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Despite...more
Indian country may be close to another victory against state and local taxes. On Feb. 8, 2016, a California district court issued an order that signals it is likely to invalidate Riverside County's imposition of a possessory...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on Jan. 12, 2016, announced a new policy to improve the implementation of the Buy Indian Act of 1910 (Act). The policy, announced in a memorandum by Acting...more
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico has preliminarily approved a final settlement for the parties in Ramah Navajo Chapter et al. v. Jewell, a class action against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)...more
After decades of interpreting the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) to preclude the federal government’s acquisition of land in trust for tribes in Alaska, on May 1, 2014, the Bureau of Indian Affairs...more
The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs allowed the 45-day review period to lapse without issuing a decision, thereby approving a compact between the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and Gov. Deval Patrick for a $500 million casino in...more
On July 15, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a state may impose a generally applicable personal-property tax on property owned by non-Indians but leased to an Indian tribe and used for...more