American Indian Law: Home
Getting Started with Your Research
This guide will help you get started with your research on legal issues relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives and other peoples indigenous to North America.
Texts/Journals
Texts
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American Indian Constitutional Reform and the Rebuilding of Native Nations by Call Number: KF8221 .A44 2006ISBN: 029279584XPublication Date: 2006 -
American Indian Law Deskbook by
Call Number: KF8205 .A76 2008ISBN: 0870819259Publication Date: 2008-Available online and in print. Current edition on shelf, older in offsite storage -
American Indian Law in a Nutshell by Call Number: Study Guide Collection & Gen KF8205 .C36 2020ISBN: 9781640209138Publication Date: 2020 -
American Indian Tribal Law by Call Number: KIE110 .F57 2020ISBN: 9781543813647Publication Date: 2020 -
Felix S. Cohen's Federal Indian Law by Call Number: KF8205 .C6 2005ISBN: 0327164441Publication Date: 2005-01-01Also available via Lexis -
Reading American Indian Law by Call Number: KF8205 .R43 2020ISBN: 9781108488532Publication Date: 2020
Subject Specific Journals
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American Indian Law Review (Online Access)Also available on Westlaw & Nexis
Symposia
SYMPOSIA ON FEDERAL INDIAN LAW
Several law journals sponsor regular conferences and symposia on topics in Indian law and publish the proceedings. A few of the journals are:
Arizona Law Review
Arizona State Law Journal
Federal Lawyer
Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy
South Dakota Law Review
Tulsa Law Review
University of Detroit Mercy Law Review
The proceedings are easy to find using LegalTrac/Legal Resource Index:
[e-Resource] [Westlaw]
Detailed Subject Index to the University of Washington Indian Law Symposia & Conferences
Subject Headings
Use these Library of Congress Subject Headings to identify additional works on these topics:
- Federally recognized Indian tribes
- Indian courts -- United States
- Indians of North America -- Politics and government
- Indians of North America -- Government relations
- Indians of North America -- Law and legislation
- Indians of North America -- Legal status, laws, etc.
- Self-determination, National -- United States
Examples using name of a specific tribe (tip: try using this format for other tribes as well):
- Navajo courts
- Navajo Indians -- Law and legislation.
- Navajo Indians -- Legal status, laws, etc.
- Navajo law
- Navajo Nation
Treaties
Treaties
The United States government has entered into a wide array of treaties and agreements with various Native American Tribes and finding all of these materials can be complicated. The following sources collect primary documents and other information pertaining to these agreements\
Treaty Indexes & Lists
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A chronological list of treaties and agreements made by Indian tribes with the United StatesCreated by the Institute for the Development of Indian Law. Lists treaties and agreements up to 1973.Online via LLMC
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Kappler Revisited: An Index and Bibliographic Guide to American Indian Treaties,Charles D. Bernholz. Epoch Books, 2003. Located in the Harvard Law School Library Reference Room.
Treaties in the Statutes at Large
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United States Statutes at LargeMost treaties made between Indian tribes and the United States from 1778-1845 are here in volume 7. Other treaties appear throughout volumes 1-16. A few were never published in the Statutes at Large. Available in print and electronically.
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HeinOnline Statutes at Large Library, Indian TreatiesStart in this index, or browse by volume, starting with Volume 7.
Collected Treaties
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Native American People Treaties Ratified & Unratified (Lexis Plus)Native American Peoples Treaties contains the full-text of all treaties, ratified and unratified, 1787-1883
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Indian Affairs: Law and Treaties (Print)Edited by Charles J. Kappler. U.S. G.P.O. 1904. Sometimes referred to as the "Kappler Report." Volume 2 of the "Kappler Report" compiled the treaties that were published in the Statutes at Large, numbering 366 of the 375 instruments recognized by the Department of State. (See v. 2 Treaties and v. 1-2: 57th Congress, 1st session. Senate. Document 452).
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Indian Affairs: Law and Treaties (Oklahoma State)Free version of Kappler's Indian Affairs collection.
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Early Recognized Treaties with American Indian NationsFree resource from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Nine early treaties, from 1722 - 1805 that did not appear in the Statutes at Large and thus do not appear in the Kappler Report. Seven of these were between American Indian tribes and the British, pre-dating the U.S., but recognized by the Department of State. The remaining two treaties were published in the first volume of American State Papers: Indian Affairs, but not in the Statutes at Large.
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Documents of American Indian Diplomacy (Print, 2 Volume Set) by Call Number: KF8202 1999ISBN: 0806131187Publication Date: 1999Includes hundreds of treaties and agreements made by Indian nations--with, among others, the Continental Congress; England, Spain, and other foreign countries; the Republic of Texas and the Confederate States; railroad companies seeking rights-of-way across Indian land; and other Indian nations.
Statutes
Pending Legislation
Tribal Court Clearinghouse. Pending Federal Legislation.
United States Senate. Committee on Indian Affairs. Legislative Update.
Federal Law: Statutes
Title 25 of the United States Code
Contains most, but not all, U.S. laws about Indians.
Kappler Report (requires Westlaw password)
Several volumes contain the early statutes:
- v. 1. Laws. Compiled to Dec. 1, 1902 [HeinOnline]
- v. 3. Laws. Compiled to Dec. 1, 1913 [HeinOnline]
- v. 4. Laws. Compiled to March 4, 1927 [HeinOnline]
- v. 5. Laws. Compiled from Dec. 22, 1927, to June 29, 1938 [HeinOnline]
- v. 6. Laws. Compiled from Feb. 4, 1939 to Jan. 13, 1971, Part 1 [HeinOnline]
- v. 7. Laws, Proclamations, [etc.]. Compiled from Feb.4, 1939 to Jan. 13, 1971, Parts II-V [HeinOnline]
Free online Kappler access: Oklahoma State University.
Administrative Law
Regulations
Most regulations relating to Indians are codified in Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
Administrative Decisions
Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA)
Decisions 1970 - [IBIA Archive] [Westlaw]
Opinions of the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior Relating to Indian Affairs, 1917-1974.
[LexisNexis] [University of Oklahoma Law Center]
United States. Indian Claims Commission Decisions v.1 (1948) - v.43 (1978) [LLMC] [Oklahoma State University]
Executive Documents
Cases
Federal Cases
LII Supreme Court Collection. Topic: Native Americans.
Selected cases.
Landmark Indian Law Cases. William S. Hein & Co., 2002. Also availabe on HeinOnline.
Tribal Law
Tribal Justice Systems
Tribal Court Clearinghouse makes the VersusLaw opinions database publicly available for simple keyword searching or for browsing by topic.
Indian Law Reporter: Covers federal and state cases as well as tribal decisions.
The Harvard Law School Library has case reporters for several tribes.
To find the decisions of a specific tribal court, do an Author search on HOLLIS, using the name of the tribe.
Tribal Law Gateway
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Tribal Law GatewayThe National Indian Law Library (NILL) serves both the Native American Rights Fund and the public. The Tribal Law Gateway is a portal to the laws of federally-recognized tribes, Alaska Native villages, and pueblos in the United States. It directs researchers to the hundreds of codes and constitutions held by NILL and to other tribal law documents both in the NILL collection and elsewhere.
Tribal Codes, Constitutions, & Charters
American Indian Constitutions and Legal Materials
The Law Library of Congress has digitizes a number of tribal constitutions and other legal materials. They are all arranged by geographic region.
Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project
A project of the University of Oklahoma and the and the National Indian Law Library of the Native American Rights Fund.
Indian Reorganization Act Era Constitutions and Charters
Constitutions, corporate charters, and bylaws created in the 1930’s and 1940’s by about 370 tribes, communities, and villages.
PRINT SOURCES
The Harvard Law School Library has many tribal codes in print and on microform
A Bibliography of the Constitutions and Laws of the American Indians. Harvard University Press, 1947.
Indian Tribal Codes: A Microfiche Collection. [Seattle]: Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington School of Law, 1981.
To find the code of a specific tribe, do an Author search on HOLLIS using the name of the tribe.
Research Guides, Links
Research Guides
Selected Related Resources
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment [E-Resource]
United States. Dept. of the Interior. Indian Division.
Records of the Indian Division, Office of the Secretary of the Interior [microform]: Special Files, 1848-1907.
Selected Links
- American Indian Policy Center
- FindLaw: Indian and Native Peoples Law
- Indian Country Today
- Indian Law Resource Center
- Internet Archive. Bureau of Indian Affairs (Unofficial archive of Bureau of Indian Affairs web site)
- Papers on American Indian Law (General surveys of federal Indian law principles, by American Indian law practitioners)
National Indian Law Library Blog
Getting Help
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Databases & Websites
Databases
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Indigenous Peoples: North America (Gale)