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Abstract:
In 2005, the Supreme Court used the equitable defenses of laches, acquiescence and impossibility to dismiss the Oneida Indian Nation's request to remove its land from city tax roles. Later cases have extended the use of these defenses into other New York land claims. This article traces the historical origins of these three defenses, the origins of equity in England and the United States and provides some suggestions to Indian law practitioners bringing either land claims or treaty rights cases.

Indian, tribe, land claim, equity, laches

Abstract:
Tribal land claims are facing a new challenge from an old area of law. Courts have been paying special attention to the law of equity and how it can defeat tribal land claims. Specifically, the equitable defenses of laches, acquiescence, and impossibility were used by the Supreme Court to hand defeat to the Oneida Indian Nation on a tax issue. Since then, lower courts in the Second Circuit have used this precedent to deny Indian land claims. But are these three defenses based on precedent themselves? Rarely. Instead, they have been combined to create a new defense, what I will call the "new laches." This new defense, so far used successfully in Indian land cases in New York state and unsuccessfully elsewhere, has been so broadly construed by the Second Circuit that, if this view is adopted nationwide, it could apply to any treaty-based claim brought by Indians or Indian tribes.

federal Indian law, laches, land claims, sovereign immunity

Abstract:
This research paper, prepared for the 2009 Federal Bar Association Annual Indian Law Conference, offers a comprehensive overview of the law of tribal official immunity in federal courts. Federal courts apply the Ex parte Young doctrine to tribal officials. Tribal officials tend to be immune from suit in federal court unless a plaintiff alleges a violation of federal law and there is an independent federal court cause of action. Tribal officials are immune if the plaintiff alleges a violation of tribal law, or otherwise merely seek to reach the tribal coffers.

tribal official immunity, Ex parte Young, official immunity

Abstract:
This article was prepared for presentation at the American Indian Identity Conference held at Michigan State University, October 16-17, 2008. After classifying a year of Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) cases in state courts, it became apparent that California had both the highest number of ICWA cases and that most of these cases were because of noncompliance with the notice provision of ICWA. In addition, it became clear that the majority of California cases involved parents claiming Cherokee affiliation. This article concludes there could be many reasons for this, including an informal exercise of the Existing Indian Family doctrine at the social worker level.

Indian Child Welfare Act, Cherokee Nation, Family Law