The U.S. Supreme Court rejected two appeals by the Cobell plaintiffs on Monday in the multi-billion-dollar Indian trust fund lawsuit.  The justices refused to review two recent decisions in the case.  The first issue involved the removal of federal District Judge Royce Lamberth by the D.C. Circuit Court.  The Bush administration sought his removal because of his perceived growing bias for the [...]

Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles pled guilty to obstruction of justice last week.  This conviction marks another new low in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal.  Griles is the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in connection with Abramoff.  Griles was the No. 2 official at Interior.  He pleaded guilty to lying to a Senate committee about his relationship with Abramoff, who is now [...]

Many tribes across the country have used their casino earnings to benefit their local communities.  The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa in Michigan recently funded the only drug testing and educational program of its type in the Upper Peninsula. The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, for example, have given away more than [...]

On February 6, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Kansas may not refuse to honor the motor vehicle registrations and title issued by the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.  Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation v. Wagnon, 476 F.3d 818 (10th Cir. 2007).  The federal court held that Kansas infringed on the tribal nation’s sovereignty.

On January 29, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the BIA to approve a request of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe to take into trust status 310 acres that adjoined the tribe’s existing reservation in South Dakota.  South Dakota v. U.S. Department of Interior, 475 F.3d 993 (8th Cir. 2007).  [...]

Attorneys for a white student who was excluded from admission at a Native Hawaiian private school are appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.  In early March, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, by an 8-7 vote, upheld the policy of the Kamehaheha schools to give admission preferences to Native Hawaiians.   Kamehameha was established [...]

In early March, for the second year in a row, the Idaho based Nez Perce Tribe exercised its rights under an 1855 treaty with the United States to hunt buffalo and elk near Yellowstone Park.

On March 10-11, thousands of people gathered to recall the drowning of Celilo Falls, one of the greatest native salmon fishing sites in the world.  Fifty years ago the build up of the reservoir behind the new Dalles Dam inundated the Falls where Indian people had fished and gathered and traded for thousands of years.  [...]

Diabetes is already a major problem in Indian country and it is projected to become even more of a problem in the future. Seventy three million Americans are already classified as diabetics with one million more being diagnosed each year.  Indian tribes in southern Arizona are particularly hard hit and the National Diabets Eduction program [...]

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s casino will soon turn its discarded vegetable oil into biodiesel to operate the Tribe’s maintenance vehicles. The Tribe will thus reuse the 3,000 gallons of waste oil that was generated monthly by the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino.