American Indian Law

Catalog description

This course will examine American Indian law, with emphasis on contemporary Indian Country issues such as constitutional challenges to federal laws, treaty application, civil and criminal jurisdiction, child welfare, gaming, and cultural and religious protection. It will review foundational legal principles governing the unique relationship between Native Nations and the United States. The course will then shift to specific challenges facing Indian Country today, how federal laws and Supreme Court decisions help or further those challenges, and the solutions pursued to address them. The focus is on current law and current challenges. Topics include treaty rights; the tribal right of self-government under federal law, including the civil and criminal jurisdiction authority of tribes; the status and importance of tribal lands; tribal sovereign immunity; the Indian Child Welfare Act; the management of tribal natural resources, including water; religious and cultural resource protection; and environmental law and tribes.