Traditional, National, and International Law and Indigenous Communities

Edited by Marianne O. Nielsen and Karen Jarratt-Snider

SERIES: Indigenous Justice

The University of Arizona Press

This volume of the Indigenous Justice series explores the global effects of marginalizing Indigenous law. The essays in this book argue that European-based law has been used to force Indigenous peoples to assimilate, has politically disenfranchised Indigenous communities, and has destroyed traditional Indigenous social institutions. European-based law not only has been used as a tool to infringe upon Indigenous human rights, it also has been used throughout global history to justify environmental injustices, treaty breaking, and massacres. The research in this volume focuses on the resurgence of traditional law, tribal–state relations in the United States, laws that have impacted Native American women, laws that have failed to protect Indigenous sacred sites, the effect of international conventions on domestic laws, and the role of community justice organizations in operationalizing international law.

While all of these issues are rooted in colonization, Indigenous peoples are using their own solutions to demonstrate the resilience, persistence, and innovation of their communities. With chapters focusing on the use and misuse of law as it pertains to Indigenous peoples in North America, Latin America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, this book offers a wide scope of global injustice. Despite proof of oppressive legal practices concerning Indigenous peoples worldwide, this book also provides hope for amelioration of colonial consequences.

This book supports the ongoing relevance and resurgence of Indigenous traditional law, and Indigenous rights to make and use such laws and their institutions as an exercise of their sovereignty, against the ineffectiveness, lack of cultural awareness, and unfairness of ‘European-based’ legal systems. It is an excellent and necessary resource for law students, legal professionals, Indigenous advocates and allies that want to break the colonialist chain of Western legal exercise that disrespects Indigenous sovereignty by ignoring their laws and justice systems.'—Ayla do Vale Alves, Rights of Indigenous Peoples Interest Group Newsletter

‘This timely collection of essays, expertly edited by Nielsen and Jarratt-Snider, captures the profundity, maddening ambiguities, and tremendous opportunities in wielding the law-whether Indigenous or Western derived- on behalf of Native peoples.’—David Wilkins, University of Richmond

Marianne O. Nielsen is a professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University and the co-editor of Crime and Social Justice in Indian Country.

Karen Jarratt-Snider is an associate professor and chair of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University and the co-editor of Crime and Social Justice in Indian Country.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Marianne O. Nielsen and Karen Jarratt-Snider
PART I. TRADITIONAL LAW
1. Revisioning Traditional Indigenous Justice in Light of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
James W. Zion and the Honorable Robert Yazzie
2. Traditional American Indian Justice
the honorable Raymond D. Austin
PART II. NATIONAL LAW
3. Restoring Congruity: Indigenous Lives and Religious Freedom in the United States and Canada
Chris Jocks
4. Respect for the Indian Child Welfare Act and Its Reflection on Tribal Sovereignty
Kurt D. Siedschlaw
5. Protecting Native American Women: Grassroots Efforts to Address Domestic Violence and VAWA 2013
Mary Jo Tippeconnic Fox
PART III. INTERNATIONAL LAW
6. International and Comparative Perspectives on the Recognition and Promotion of Indigenous Justice
Leonardo J. Alvarado
7. How Indigenous Justice Programs Contribute to Indigenous Community Capacity-Building and Achieving Human Rights
Marianne O. Nielsen
Conclusion
Karen Jarratt-Snider and Marianne O. Nielsen
Contributors
Index

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