Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Indian Legal Program Brown Bag Session

Bethany Berger
Associate Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law

Monday, October 29th
12:00

Room 114
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law


An abstract of Professor Berger’s article is provided below.

Red: Uses of American Indian Race.

This Article uses history to examine how racial meanings developed and are used in Indian law and policy. Scholarship on the subject has too often either assumed that race works for American Indians in the same way that it does for African Americans, and therefore emphasized uses of blood quantum and segregation as primary evidence of racism, or has emphasized the lack of the hallmarks of white-black racism, such as prohibitions on interracial marriage, to argue that race is not a significant factor. In the Article, I examine the different eras of Indian-white interaction to argue that although racialized perceptions played a role throughout these eras, they generally worked in a very different way than they did with respect to African Americans. North Americans were not primarily concerned with using Indian people as a source of labor, and therefore did not have to theorize Indians as inferior individuals to control that labor. Rather, the primary concern was to obtain tribal resources and use tribes as a flattering foil for American governments. Therefore it was necessary to theorize tribal societies as fatally and racially inferior, while emphasizing the ability of Indian individuals to leave their societies and join non-Indian ones. This theory addresses the odd paradox that the most racially oppressive eras in Indian-white interaction emphasized and encouraged assimilation of Indian individuals. It also speaks directly to an issue that figures prominently in current policy debates and will likely soon reemerge in the Supreme Court, the status of classifications of Indian people under equal protection jurisprudence.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Only a few more days to Register!

Announcing the2nd Annual ASU NALSA Golf Tournament
Sponsored by theNative American Law Students Association
Sandra Day O'Connor College of LawArizona State University

Date: Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

Time: 7:30 AM Shotgun Start

Place: The Foothills Golf Club, Awahtukee (Phx), AZ

Course info: ttp://www.thefoothillsgc.com/

Entry Fee: $100 per player

Fee includes: Lunch, green fees, cart, range balls and 1 raffle ticket

Format: Men, Women, and Coed (Scramble format). Teams consist of 4 players but all golfers are welcomed and entries with less than 4 players will be consolidated into teams of 4.

Contests: Longest drive, closest to the pin, putting contest, raffle, and skins (side bets).

Prizes: Championship and runner up prizes to Men's, Women's, and Co-ed divisions.

Deadline: Entries will be limited to the first paid 100 golfers. Paid entries must be recieved on or before Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 (No exceptions). ASU NALSA will adhere to this strict deadline in order to facilitate scheduling with the golf course.Please see attached sign up form for payment.

For more info, contact: JC at clarkEjerome32@yahoo.com

In addition, NALSA recognizes there could be non-golfers who would like to contribute. There is an opportunity for hole sponsorship. Golf hole sponsorships are $100 per hole or if you'd like to sponsor current NALSA members who play golf, please contact JC at the e-mail address above.

The Ninth Circuit

The Ninth Circuit voted to rehear the SF Peaks Case en banc. Please see http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf and search by date for the October 17, 2007 opinion of the Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Service case.

The Ninth Circuit

The Ninth Circuit voted to rehear the SF Peaks Case en banc. http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/8AFDEB9C52312EB988257377004A3A5F/$file/0615371ebo.pdf?openelement

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Navajo Law Seminar

Navajo Law Seminar
Reflections from Within and Without
November 9, 2007
Navajo Nation Museum
Highway 64 and Loop Road
Window Rock, AZ 86515

In Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice and Sutin Thayer & Browne's 10th Annual Navajo Law Seminar.

Sponsored by: The Navajo Nation Department of Justice, Sutin Thayer & Browne, the University of New Mexico School of Law and the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University College of Law.

AGENDA

8:30 - 8:45 Welcome

8:45 - 10:15 Fundamental Law of the Dine (1.5 Navajo Law or Navajo Ethics) (1.5 state general)
MODERATOR Christine Zuni Cruz
PANELISTS
1. Former Justice Ray Austin (UNM will find transcriber)
2. Herb Yazzie
3. Johnson Dennison

10:30 - 12:00 Navajo Nation Department of Justice: 25 Years of In-House Legal Counsel, Reflections from within and without (1.5 Navajo Law or Navajo Ethics) (1.5 state ethics)
MODERATOR Helen Padilla
PANELISTS
1. Louis Denetsosie
2. Pilar Thomas
3. Brad Downes

12:00 - 1:15 LUNCH

1:00 - 2:30 Dine Membership, Identity, and Self-Determination: 21st Century Challenges for the Navajo Nation (1.5 hours Navajo Law) (1.5 state general)
MODERATOR Kip Bobroff
PANELISTS
1. Paul Spruhan
2. Kevin Gover
3. Yolanda Begay
4. Phil Bluehouse

3:00 - 4:30 - BREAK OUT A & B (1.5 hours of Navajo law) (1.5 state general)
A. Navajo Employment Law
MODERATOR Bidtah Becker
PANELISTS
1. Regina Holyan
2. Lee Bergen
3. David Jordan

B. Navajo Nation Sovereign Immunity
MODERATOR Christina West
PANELISTS
1. Luralene Tapahe
2. Ron Rosier
3. Anne Brown

CLE CREDIT - This program has been submitted to the Navajo Nation Bar Association for a total of 6 hours of CLE Credit, 2 hours of which may be applied to Navajo ethics. NNBA will decide the actual number of credit hours that can be earned at the seminar. This program is pending with with State Bar of New Mexico for a total of 6 hours of general credit, 2 hours of which may be applied to ethics. The semnar will be submitted to the State Bar of Utah for CLE credits. This course may qualify for up to 6 hours, including 3 hours of ethics credit, toward your annual CLE requirement for the State Bar of Arizona. The State Bar of Arizona does not approve or accredit CLE activities for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirement.

Registration: $110 per person on or before October 26, 2007. After October 26, 2007 or at the door $125.

Make Checks payable to: Sutin Thayer & Browne Attn: Navajo Law Seminar PO Box 1945, Albuquerque, NM 87103 Fax: (505) 855-9588

For more information contact: Tara Maestas at (505) 883-3396

Only 22 More Days to Register! NALSA GOLF

Announcing the
2nd Annual ASU NALSA Golf Tournament

Sponsored by the
Native American Law Students Association
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Arizona State University

Date: Saturday, November 3rd, 2007


Time: 7:30 AM Shotgun Start

Place: The Foothills Golf Club, Awahtukee (Phx), AZCourse info: ttp://www.thefoothillsgc.com/

Entry Fee: $100 per player

Fee includes: Lunch, green fees, cart, range balls and 1 raffle ticket

Format: Men, Women, and Coed (Scramble format). Teams consist of 4 players but all golfers are welcomed and entries with less than 4 players will be consolidated into teams of 4.

Contests: Longest drive, closest to the pin, putting contest, raffle, and skins (side bets).

Prizes: Championship and runner up prizes to Men's, Women's, and Co-ed divisions.

Deadline: Entries will be limited to the first paid 100 golfers. Paid entries must be recieved on or before Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 (No exceptions). ASU NALSA will adhere to this strict deadline in order to facilitate scheduling with the golf course.

Please see attached sign up form for payment.For more info, contact: JC at clarkEjerome32@yahoo.com

In addition, NALSA recognizes there could be non-golfers who would like to contribute. There is an opportunity for hole sponsorship. Golf hole sponsorships are $100 per hole or if you'd like to sponsor current NALSA members who play golf, please contact JC at the e-mail address above.

NABA Happy Hour!

THE NATIVE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF ARIZONA (NABA-AZ)
WOULD LIKE TO INVITE YOU TO A HAPPY HOUR!

WHERE: Macayo's – 300 South Ash Avenue, Tempe
WHEN: October 25, 2007
TIME: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Please attend this mixer to learn about the organization and meet the members of NABA-AZ.
Hope to see you there!!

Please RSVP to Jenny Braybrooke at jbraybro@fclaw.com or 602-916-5247 by October 18th

Monday, October 01, 2007

Article by Tsosie


Rebecca Tsosie and Joan McGregor were Guest Editors of the The Symposium issue of The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Professor Tsosie's article "Cultural Challenges to Biotechnology: Native American Genetic Resources and the Concept of Cultural Harm"
Volume 35:3, P. 396, Fall 2007 is featured in the Journal.

Professor Clinton presents at AALS


Professor Robert Clinton will present at the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting in January 2008. The theme of this year's AALS meeting is "Reassessing our Roles as Scholars and Educators in Light of Change." Clinton's presentation is part of the Joint AALS and Conference of Chief Justices Workshop on the Courts: Independence and Accountability. His panel is titled "Concepts of Independence and Accountability."