Episodes
Friday Oct 03, 2014
Leid Stories - 10/03/14
Friday Oct 03, 2014
Friday Oct 03, 2014
First Nations And The Nation: Sovereignty and U.S. Land and Treaty Law
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last Friday officially signed off on a record $554-million settlement with the Navajo Nation that brought to an end a slew of lawsuits over the government’s alleged mismanagement of the Navajo Nation’s land-use funds and its natural resources for decades.
Apart from avoiding huge litigation costs on both sides, the settlement justice for past wrongs, Holder said. The Navajo and other First Nations have several other lawsuits in litigation and pending.
The settlement raises a seldom-explored issue: What is the nature of the relationship between First Nations and the U.S. government? More than anything, it’s based on land.
Professor Charles Wilkinson, professor of law at the University of Colorado-Boulder whose 14 books include the standard law texts on public land law and on Indian law, discusses this complex relationship within the framework of treaties, sovereignty, conflicting world views and justice.