Blogs

By Jacquelyn Francisco Published April 9, 2026. Tribal and Indigenous legal research requires something traditional legal training does not always emphasize: treating Indigenous Nations as sovereign governments with their own lawmaking authority, judicial systems, and legal traditions. [1] A

STEPPING OUT & STEPPING UP: THE LAND-GRANT TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION PROJECT Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zone & Stepping Up to Our Responsibilities

As members of the local legal community, we are committed to recognizing and addressing the systemic injustices that exist for many of those we serve. We are dedicated, as always -- even during the pandemic -- to providing open and equal access to justice for all. Helping remove the structural bar

Some thoughts on Land Acknowledgements. Things to do, and things not to do.

Pima County Public Library has issued a formal statement acknowledging the Native peoples on whose lands the Library operates.

November is National Native American Heritage Month – a time to recognize and celebrate the indigenous populations of America. National Native American Heritage Month was first celebrated in …

By Kirstin Nelson (Follow us on LinkedIn) When I started my job at the National Agricultural Library, I had yet to think much about land grant universities. I attended one (University of Nebra…

This blog post is a discussion of the history of the movement and passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

By Mikayla Redden (Follow us on LinkedIn) Last summer I posted a critique of the Library of Congress classification system’s treatment of materials about Indigenous peoples in We are Not Histo…

In Arizona v. Navajo Nation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Indigenous tribe in their quest to assert their water rights.

This post describes the events reported in the Law Library's new acquistion, Alleged Frauds Agains Certain Indian Soldiers.

What water the United States owes the Navajo Nation under the 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo formed the crux of the argument in Arizona v. Navajo Nation. The treaty, known by the Navajo people as the Naal Tsoos Sani, or the Old Paper, established the Navajo Reservation as a “permanent home” for the N

This post remembers Native American Heritage Month, and discusses activist negotiator Hank Adams, Assiniboine-Sioux, and the impacts of his work.

Over the past year, a wave of higher education institutions and state governments have worked to reduce the cost of college for Indigenous students. These tuition relief efforts come at a critical tim

A digitization program allows tribes to decide who can access oral histories.

Amira Dehmani, a 2022 Liljenquist Family Fellow at the Library of Congress, explores the role of the Cherokee Nation in the Civil War.

November is both National Native American Heritage Month and National Adoption Month . Tomorrow, November 9, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case that has implications related to both, Brackeen v. Haaland , which concerns the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), 25 U.S.C. §§ 1

By Joan Policastri Finding tribal law is hard. Professor Elizabeth Reese’s talk to IALL annual course attendees outlined the difficulties, the reasons those exist, and proposed ways in which she fe…

Last month, the University of WI Law School hosted a weeklong legal boot camp culminating the National Tribal Trial College’s Certificate in Tribal Court Legal Advocacy.  This free, 6-month, skill-building course empowers laypersons to practice …

By Summer Blaze Aubrey, Esq. LL.M. (Cherokee/Blackfeet) & Patricia Handlin, Esq. Enbridge, Inc. is a Canadian company that moves oil from the Western Canadian oil tar sands through a pipeline from Alberta, Canada across Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin on the shores of … Continue reading →

Adopted September 6, 2019 Introduction/Executive Summary Skirts not required, but always admired 3 The term “Indigenous feminism” originated in demands from Indigenous women, femmes, and LGBTQ2+ relatives to address the … Continue reading Indigenous Feminism Does Not Discriminate

At times, U.S. governments have denied First Amendment rights to Native Americans. Indian religious beliefs have sometimes posed dilemmas for the application of such freedoms.

The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the United Nations adopted in 2007, addresses both individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples and their relationship to land and natural resources.

“My young men are to lay aside their weapons; they are to take up the work of women; they will plow the field and raise the crops; for them I see a future, but my women, they to whom we owe everything, what is there for them to do? I see nothing! You are a woman; have pity on my women when everything is taken from them.”

November is Native American Heritage Month, which is a time to celebrate the diverse cultures of the indigenous peoples on the United States and for all of us to learn more about these cultures. As…