Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples

“It is rare for an administration to veto a bill for reasons wholly unrelated to the merits of the bill,” said Kevin Washburn, a law professor at University of California Berkeley Law and former assistant secretary of Indian affairs for the Department of the Interior. Washburn added that while denying land return to a tribe is a political act, Trump’s move is “highly unusual.”

The Navajo Nation Supreme Court took its courtroom beyond the Navajo Nation in October and into one of the most influential law schools in the country, where the justices heard oral arguments before a packed auditorium at UC Berkeley Law.

The issue of federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe has been batted around Congress for more than thirty years. But the political opportunity it represented in the last election could be what pushed it over the finish line, said Kevin Washburn, former assistant secretary of Indian Affairs at the Interior Department and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. “It comes up every four years because North Carolina is a battleground state and the Lumbee represent tens of thousands of people,” Washburn said.

“Tribes are sovereign nations, and after decades of disrespect for their laws, one can understand why they might wish to have their own laws respected,” said Kevin Washburn, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law.

The Navajo Nation Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a live case at Berkeley Law, showcasing Indigenous law in action.