October 6, 1999

AMERICAN INDIANS TO REARGUE 1823 LAW ON LAND RIGHTS

LAWRENCE -- The reargument of an 1823 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the taking of Indian land by the United States will be the capstone event of the third annual Tribal Law and Governance Conference at the University of Kansas School of Law Oct. 8 and 9 in the Burge Union.

Johnson vs. M'Intosh, which held that the United States obtained title to Indian lands by virtue of "discovery," will be reargued before a panel of sitting American Indian tribal court judges, said Robert B. Porter, associate professor of law at KU, director of KU's Tribal Law and Government Center, and chief justice of the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri Supreme Court.

Arguments will be presented at 2 p.m. Oct. 9 by Lindsay Robertson, law professor at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, and Lew Millenbach, an assistant attorney general of New York. G. William Rice, law professor at the University of Tulsa and a tribal court justice for the Sax and Fox court of Oklahoma, will preside over the American Indian Nations Supreme Court.

Four paper presentations and a panel discussion on the Osage tribal government will be featured during the conference.

The conference is sponsored by the the Tribal Law and Government Center at the KU School of Law and the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy. Preregistration is required. KU and Haskell Indian Nations University faculty and students may attend without charge, except for the cost of lunch on both days. Registration fees are $150 for the full conference.

Papers will be presented by

• James Youngblood "sákéj" Henderson, professor of Native American studies at the University of Saskatchewan;
• David Wilkins, associate professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota
• Pat Sekaquaptewa, associate director of the Tribal Law and Policy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley;
• Ken Bellmard, attorney general of the Otoe-Missouria tribe.

Panelists discussing "The Future of Osage Governance" will include

• Geoffrey Standing Bear, former legislative counsel of the Osage Nation
• Dina Silliman, counsel for the Osage Tribe in the Fletcher case
• Alex Tallchief Skibine, professor of law at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City
• Joe Trumbly, council member of the Osage Tribe. For more information, call (785) 864-3925 or e-mail tribalaw@law.wpo.ukans.edu. A Web site is available at http://www.law.ukans.edu/tribal.

Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, (785) 864-8853 or mjdunlap@ukans.edu.