Indian Law

Getting Started | Federal Indian Law | Tribal Law | Staying Current
By Subject | Secondary Sources | Web Sites

Getting Started

Finding Materials in the Law Library

Search the Online Catalog by Subject Heading

Indians of North America – Legal Status, laws, etc
Indians of North America – treaties
Indian Country
Indian Courts
Indigenous peoples
Land tenure

Browse the shelves at the following call numbers

Indian Law: KF8202 - KF8228
Indian History / Government Affairs: E70 - E99

Reference Materials

Native American Law - Research Aids - from the National Indian Law Library: A selection of free federal Indian and tribal law general resources on the Internet: http://www.narf.org/nill/resources/rlinks.htm

Reference Books

American Indian Law Deskbook, 3d ed. University Press of Colorado, 2004. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8205.A76 2004

William C. Canby, American Indian Law in a Nutshell, 4th ed. West Group, 2004. Boley Law Library Call Number: Reserve, KF8205.Z9 C36 2004

Encyclopedia of American Indian Civil Rights, 1997. Boley Law Library Call Number: Ref KF8210 .C5 .E53 1997

Encyclopedia of Native American Legal Tradition, Greenwood Press, 1998. Boley Law Library Call Number: Ref KF8204 .E53 1998

Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law. Michie, 1982. Boley Law Library Call Number: Reserve, KF8205 .C6 1982. (1945 version online at: http://thorpe.ou.edu/cohen.html)

Native Americans and the Law, A Dictionary, 2000. Boley Law Library Call Number: Ref KF8203.6 S66 2000

United States Tribal Courts Directory, 2002. Boley Law Library Call Number: Ref  KF8224 .C6 S39 2002

Federal Indian Law - Primary Sources

Fedlaw: Native Americans - http://www.thecre.com/fedlaw/legal22x.htm
Contains links to statutes, cases and regulations pertaining to Federal Indian Law. Be sure to update these citations yourself as it is unclear as to when this site was last updated.

Tribal Court Clearinghouse: Federal Statutes - http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/fed_laws.htm
This site has explanations and the full-text of many important Federal Indian laws. Contains a very good guide to Public Law 280.

Treaties

A Chronological List of Treaties and Agreements made by Indian Tribes with the United States. Washington : Institute for the Development of Indian Law, c1973. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8202 1973
Contains a listing of treaties and agreements. List includes the date of treaty, tribe involved and Statutes at Large citation.

Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler, Government Printing Office, 1904. 7 volumes. (Commonly called Kappler's Indian Treaties). Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8201.9 .U53. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/

Colonial and American Indian Treaties : a collection. Compiled by Arizona State University College of Law, 2004.
Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8202 2004. In CD format.

United States Statutes at Large. Government Printing Office, 1789 -
Volumes 7 and 8 contain the text of treaties between the United States and the Indian Tribes. From volume 9 until the end of treaty making with the Indians in 1871, Indian and non-Indian treaties are listed in a separate section of the statute volumes.

Volume 7 Statutes at Large online at the Library of Congress - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsllink.html

Annotations to Treaties

United States Code Service: Uncodified Laws volume. Annotations to Indian treaties.
Shepard's U.S. Citations - Statutes in United States Statutes at Large (not in United States Code).

Statutes/Laws

Statutes at Large - available online: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsl.html (1789 - 1875 only)

United States Code - Title 25, various sections - available online: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/25/

Case Law

Federal Indian law cases are found in U.S. Reports, Federal Reporter, and Federal Supplement

West's Digest System Topic: Indians
Westlaw Topic for Indians: 209 - for example - to search for all Indian law cases from the past 5 years - a search might look like this: 209k! and da(aft 1998)

Significant Supreme Court decisions on Indian law - from the Wisconsin Judicare and the Indian Law Office: http://www.judicare.org/sct.html

Also Supreme Court Review of Indian Law cases 1997- present from the Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project: http://thorpe.ou.edu/supreme.html

Administrative Regulations

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) online at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html

Federal Register (FR) - online at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html

Tribal State Compact List : found in the Federal Register

Administrative Decisions

Decisions. Indian Claims Commission. Native American Rights Fund, v.1 - v. 43, 1948-1978.
Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8208 .A553
Indian claims against the Federal government, 1946-1978. Indian claims handled by the Court of Claims, 1978 - current.

Decisions of the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, United States. Dept. of the Interior. Interior Board of Indian Appeals, v. 1, 1970 - v. 29, 1995, microfiche. Current decisions found at Dept. of Interior web page: (Note: due to the Cobell litigation BIA web pages are currently unavailable as of June, 2005)

Opinions of the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior Relating to Indian Affairs 1917-1974, 2 volumes, Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8225.A75 U56 1979. Available online from the Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project, University of Oklahoma Law Library: http://thorpe.ou.edu/solicitor.html

Solicitor's Opinions, 1993 - present available online at: http://www.doi.gov/sol/solopin.html

Tribal Law

Tribal Constitutions and Codes

Indian Tribal Codes: a microfiche collection of Indian tribal codes, 1981 & 1988.

Various Tribes publish their codes - found at call number KF8228 generally.

Many organizations are digitizing Tribal Codes and putting them on the Web. The National Indian Law Library is a good place to start for Tribal Codes and Constitutions: http://www.narf.org/nill/triballaw/onlinedocs.htm.  Also see the National Tribal Justice Resource Center: http://www.tribalresourcecenter.org/tribalcourts/codes and the University of Oklahoma's Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project: http://thorpe.ou.edu/codes.html. The Tribal Court Clearinghouse has many model Tribal Codes as well links to other sites: http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/codes.htm.

See individual Tribal web pages for additional information (e.g., Grand Ronde Code and other documents found at http://www.grandronde.org/Legal/Docs/index.html )

Tribal Decisions

Indian Law Reporter, American Indian Lawyer Training Program, 1974-. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8204.2 .I5
Looseleaf reporter providing the text of federal, state and tribal court decisions, and selected administrative decisions from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Includes a current awareness service on new developments in Indian law. Cumulative topical index and table of cases in each volume.

VersusLaw - http://www.versuslaw.com - online database that is free for law students, now includes Tribal Court cases from 17 tribes and growing.

Staying Current

Indian Law Bulletins: A current awareness service of the National Indian Law Library (NILL): http://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/ilb.htm

Also see Indian newspapers and online resources below.

 

Indian Law by Subject

Criminal Jurisdiction in Indian Country

U.S. Department of Justice: Criminal Resource Manual 689 - Jurisdictional Summary:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm00689.htm

Natural Resources and Environmental Law

Native Americans and the Environment : http://cnie.org/NAE/

EPA - American Indian Environmental Office: http://www.epa.gov/indian/

National Tribal Environmental Council: http://www.ntec.org/

Indigenous Environmental Network: http://www.ienearth.org/

Intertribal Timber Council: http://www.itcnet.org/

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission: http://www.critfc.org/

Tribal Environmental Law Virtual Library: http://www.tribalenvironmentallaw.org/

Secondary Sources

National Indian Law Library: http://www.narf.org/nill/resources/rlinks.htm

Selected Treatises

Found in the online L&C catalog with a subject heading search: indians of north america legal status laws etc

Vine Deloria, Jr. & David E. Wilkins. Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations, University of Texas Press, 1999. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8210.C5 D45 1999

Enduring Legacies : Native American Treaties and Contemporary Controversies. Edited by Bruce E. Johansen, Praeger, 2004. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8205 .E53 2004

Frank Pommersheim. Braid of Feathers : American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life, University of California Press, 1995. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8205.P6 1995

Readings in American Indian Law : Recalling the Rhythm of Survival / edited by Jo Carrillo, Temple University Press, 1998. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8204.5.R424 1998

Wilcomb E. Washburn. Red Man's Land/White Man's Law : The Past and Present Status of the American Indian, 2nd ed., University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8205.W38 1995

David E. Wilkins. American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court : The Making of Justice, University of Texas Press, 1997. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8205.W527 1997

Charles F. Wilkinson. American Indians, Time, and the Law : Native Societies in a Modern Constitutional Democracy, Yale University Press, c1987. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8205 .W53 1987

 

Compilations

Documents of United States Indian Policy, 3d ed. Edited by Francis Paul Prucha, University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8205 .D63 2000

Early American Indian Documents : Treaties and Laws, 1607-1789, edited by Alden T. Vaughan, University Publications of America, c1979-. 20 volumes when complete. Boley Law Library Call Number: KF8202 1979

Native American Legal Materials Collection, Law Library Microform Consortium, 1979.
A collection of documents, treaties, periodicals, and treatises on microfiche. Indexed by:
Native Americans: A Legal/Historical Collection (Index shelving in Reference area)
American Indian Legal Materials : a Union List, 1980, KF8201.A1 G37

Washburn, Wilcomb E. The American Indian and the United States: A Documentary History. Random House [1973]. 4 volumes. Boley Law Library Call Number: E93 .W27

Periodicals

American Indian Law Review, University of Oklahoma College of Law, 1973-.

The Arrow's Edge. Lake Oswego, OR : Oregon State Bar, Indian Law Section, 1998-.

Indian Country Today (Weekly Newspaper), Native American Publishing, c1992-.

The NARF Legal Review / Native American Rights Fund, 1983-.

News from Indian Country (Semi- Monthly Newspaper), Indian Country Communications.

Tribal Law Journal, http://tlj.unm.edu/ (online journal from Univ. of NM School of Law).

Periodical Indexes

If you are looking for law review articles, try a using a keyword search in one of the legal periodical indexes such as LegalTrac or the Index to Legal Periodicals (both available from the Law Library web page: http://lawlib.lclark.edu/research/dbs_indexes.php ).

Helpful keywords:

Aboriginal rights
American Indians
Indian law
Indians of North America
Indigenous people
Sovereignty
Native Americans
Native people's land claims
Tribal government

LexisNexis and Westlaw Sources

LexisNexis:

Federal Cases
Interior Board of Indian Appeals: ENVIRN;IBIA
Native American Solicitors Opinions: ENVIRN;DOINA
DOINA contains the decisions of the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior relating to Native American affairs as published in the two volume set Opinions of the Solicitor, Department of the Interior, Native Americans. 1917-1974

WESTLAW:

Federal Cases generally
Federal Native American Law cases: FNAM-CS
Federal Native American Law - Executive Documents: FNAM-EXEC
(contains 407 treaties)
Interior Board of Indian Appeals: FNAM-IBIA
Oklahoma Tribal Court Reports: OKTRIB-CS

Web Sites

University of Oklahoma Law Center - Native American Resources: http://www.law.ou.edu/indian

University of Colorado - Native American Treaties and Information: http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/us/native.htm

Indianz.com - provides "quality news, information, and entertainment from a Native American perspective": http://www.indianz.com

Legal Information Institute (Cornell): http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/indian.html

Native American Rights Fund: http://www.narf.org

National Indian Law Library: http://www.narf.org/nill

Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project: http://thorpe.ou.edu

Tribal Court Clearinghouse: http://www.tribal-institute.org

Tribal Court Opinions at the National Tribal Justice Resource Center: http://www.tribalresourcecenter.org/legal/opfolder/default.asp

The National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA): http://www.naicja.org

WWW Virtual Library-American Indians: http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/indices/NAlegal.html