Native Americans Studies Digital Law Library

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Start with: - (dead link) Library of Congress - Guide to Law Online

Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project
"This Project is a cooperative effort among the University of Oklahoma Law Center, the National Indian Law Library (NILL), and Native American tribes providing access to the Constitutions, Tribal Codes, and other legal documents."
This important resource includes: Codes ; Cohen's Handbook ; Constitutions ; Indian Land Titles ; Treaties ; Tribes.

Continue on with:
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

Center for Columbia River History

  • Columbia Basin Native Fisheries
    "...takes you the documents that provide the foundation for Indian fishing rights such as treaties and court cases in both the U.S. and Canada."
    • Boldt Decision (1974)
      Allocated 50 percent of the annual catch to treaty tribes.

Handbook of Federal Indian Law
By Felix S. Cohen, Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1945.
Online version of the classic text - from the Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project.

Indian Affairs: Law and Treaties, Volume II (Treaties)
Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler, 1904
"...an historically significant, seven volume compilation of U.S. treaties, laws and executive orders pertaining to Native American Indian tribes. The volumes cover U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans from 1778-1883 (Volume II) and U.S. laws and executive orders concerning Native Americans from 1871-1970 (Volumes I, III-VII). The work was first published in 1903-04 by the U.S. Government Printing Office. Enhanced by the editors' use of margin notations and a comprehensive index, the information contained in Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties is in high demand by Native peoples, researchers, journalists, attorneys, legislators, teachers and others of both Native and non-Native origins...Volumes I, III and IV will be digitized and available later this year [2000]."
Digital edition by Oklahoma State University

Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894
U.S. Congressional Documents - United States Serial Set, Number 4015
"...contains the second part of the two-part Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896-1897. (Part one is printed in United States Serial Set Number 4014.) Part two, which was also printed as House Document No. 736 of the U.S. Serial Set, 56th Congress, 1st Session, features sixty-seven maps and two tables compiled by Charles C. Royce, with an introductory essay by Cyrus Thomas."
From A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation, Library of Congress

Indigenous Peoples' Law and Legal Issues
From NativeWeb

Legal Foundation for Hawaiian Independence
An extensive collection of legal documents including Constitutions of the Kingdom of Hawai`i

National Congress of American Indians

  • Current Issues Impacting Tribal Governments - (dead link)

National Park Service - ParkNet

Native American Legal Materials Microfiche Collection
"...an historical collection of laws, treaties, and law-related materials pertaining to Native Americans."
Washburn University School of Law

Office of Tribal Justice

Seminal Supreme Court Cases Regarding Federal Indian Law
"Below are links to the text of many of the Supreme Court decisions which have shaped and influenced Indian Law. These cases are listed in chronological order."
- Wisconsin Judicare's Indian Law Office

Tribal Court Clearinghouse
"...strives to (1) provide extensive information and resources concerning tribal courts and other issues related to the enhancement of justice in Indian country directly on the Clearinghouse; (2) provide descriptive links to additional resources which will facilitate tribal court utilization of technological innovations and the vast information available on the Internet..."
By the Tribal Law and Policy Institute

Tribal Law Journal
- University of New Mexico School of Law

Tribal Water Quality Standards
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Individual Documents
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
"Do the Cherokees constitute a foreign state in the sense of the constitution?"

Dawes Act or General Allotment Act of 1887

Newlands Resolution: To Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States
Joint Resolution, July 17, 1898

United State Public Law 103-150: The "Apology Resolution"
"To acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the January 17, 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and to offer an apology to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii."

Letter to President Clinton on the imprisonment of Pu`uhonua Kanahele of Hawai`i
International Indian Treaty Council

Constitutions

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR)
"The Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla people make up the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Since time immemorial, we have lived on the Columbia River Plateau. Specifically, our homeland is the area now known as northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington."

University of Oklahoma Law Center - Native American Legal Resources
Maintained by Marilyn K. Nicely

Treaties
The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy

Midwest Treaty Network
An alliance of Indian and non-Indian groups supporting Native American sovereignty

Treaties with the Continental Congress
Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789
Compiled by the Library of Congress

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR)
"The Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla people make up the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Since time immemorial, we have lived on the Columbia River Plateau. Specifically, our homeland is the area now known as northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington."

Treaty With the Ottawa, Etc., March 28, 1836

Treaty With the Chippewa, October 4, 1842