Environmental Law

"From the Sonora to the Arctic, North America's indigenous peoples have been dispossessed of nearly all their original territory, with the residue held undera a colonial "trust" authority by the U.S. and Canada. Ironically, the presumably useless fragments of geography set aside to keep Native Americans out of sight and mind have turned out to be some of the most resource-rich on the planet. Native Americans should thus be among the most affluent sectors of the population, but instead, they are the absolute poorest.

"Do Glaciers Listen? explores the conflicting depictions of glaciers to show how natural and cultural histories are objectively entangled in the Mount Saint Elias ranges. This rugged area, where Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory now meet, underwent significant geophysical change in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which coincided with dramatic social upheaval resulting from European exploration and increased travel and trade among Aboriginal peoples.

"In the late nineteenth century, to the alarm of government conservationists, the North American plains bison population collapsed. Yet large herds of other big game animals still roamed the Northwest Territories, and Aboriginal people depended on them for food and clothing.

"The James Bay Cree lived in relative isolation until 1970, when Northern Quebec was swept up in the political and cultural changes of the Quiet Revolution. The ensuing years have brought immense change for the Cree, who now live with the consequences of Quebec’s massive development of hydroelectricity, timber, and mineral resources in the North.

"More than 300 million people in over 70 countries make up the world's indigenous populations. Yet despite ever-growing pressures on their lands, environment and way of life through outside factors such as climate change and globalization, their rights in these and other respects are still not fully recognized in international law.

"A collaborative effort from attorney general offices faced daily with legal questions involving state and tribal relations, the American Indian Law Deskbook, Fourth Edition is an up-to-date, comprehensive treatise on Indian law. The Deskbook provides readers with the necessary historical and legal framework to understand the complexities faced by states, Indian tribes, and the federal government in Indian country.

Included are:

"The first in-depth, interdisciplinary study of Native water rights issues in Canada.
Economic developments in irrigation, agriculture, and hydroelectric power generation in western Canada at the turn of the last century challenged the way Native peoples had traditionally managed the watershed environment. Facing rapidly expanding provincial and federal power as well as private industries, Native peoples saw opportunities to protect their self-governing rights and explore reserve-based economy.

"At the dawn of the third millennium, dramatic challenges face human civilization everywhere. Relations between human beings and their environment are in peril, with mounting threats to both biological diversity of life on earth and cultural diversity of human communities. The peoples of the Circumpolar Arctic are at the forefront of these challenges and lead the way in seeking meaningful responses. In Biocultural Diversity and Indigenous Ways of Knowing, author Karim-Aly Kassam positions the Arctic and sub-Arctic as a homeland rather than simply a frontier for resource exploitation.

"This guide provides a reliable resource on American Indian law. Its authoritative text covers the essentials of this complex body of law, with attention to the governmental policies underlying it. The work emphasizes both the historical development of Federal Indian Law and recent matters such as the evolution of Indian gaming, issues arising under the Indian Child Welfare Act, and the present enforcement of treaty rights. It addresses the policy and law applicable to Alaska Natives, but does not deal with Native Hawai'ians." - Provided by publisher

"When the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug’s traditional territory was threatened by mining exploration in 2006, they followed their traditional duty to protect the land and asked the mining exploration company, Platinex, to leave. Platinex left – and then sued the remote First Nation for $10 billion. The ensuing legal dispute lasted two years and eventually resulted in the jailing of community leaders.