Native American female judges to hear re-argument of landmark Indian law case

LAWRENCE -- A landmark 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving tribal sovereignty and women's rights will be re-argued before a court of Native American female jurors at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, at a University of Kansas School of Law conference.

The 1978 case, Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, will be re-argued during the two-day Tribal Law and Governance Conference, Oct. 10 and 11 in the School of Law's Green Hall. All conference events will be in the moot court, the Snell Courtroom, Room 201 Green Hall.

Stacy Leeds, KU associate professor of law and director of KU's Tribal Law and Government Center, said the Martinez case involved a challenge of a tribal law prohibiting tribal membership for children of women who marry outside the tribe. In contrast, the law implies that children of men who marry outside the tribe are eligible for tribal membership.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that federal courts could not hear the case. "The decision respected tribal sovereignty to pass citizenship laws, and the federal courts would not intervene to resolve the gender discrimination issues," Leeds said.

This marks the first time in the six-year history of the annual tribal law conference at KU that "we have focused on issues particularly relevant to American Indian women," Leeds said.

The attorney who originally argued the case for Julia Martinez before the U.S. Supreme Court, Richard B. Collins, will re-argue for Martinez at the tribal law conference. Collins is a professor and director of the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law at the University of Colorado. Alexander Tallchief Skibine of the University of Utah School of Law will argue for the Santa Clara Pueblo.

Leeds said the Martinez case is considered important because it reflects what has happened in the past 25 years.

"This was clearly a victory for tribal sovereignty, but there have been mixed emotions from a woman's perspective. The case explores whether tribal sovereignty is to be respected or whether civil-rights complaints should be afforded a federal forum," Leeds said.

A mock American Indian Nations Supreme Court, comprising tribal court justices, all of whom are women this year, will hear the case and rule on it. The tribal court judges will include:

 • Angela Riley, associate professor, Southwestern University School of Law Justice, Los Angeles, Calif., and Supreme Court of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation in Oklahoma
 • Bethany Berger, research professor, University of Connecticut School of Law
 • Kristen Carpenter, assistant professor, Suffolk University School of Law
 • Gloria Valencia-Weber, professor, University of New Mexico School of Law
 • Sarah Deer, staff attorney, Tribal Law and Policy Institute in West Hollywood, Calif.

Re-arguments of landmark cases in tribal law have been a focal point of each previous conference. Each re-argument provides Native American legal perspectives, and a written opinion is published in the spring issue of the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy.

Conference presentations on Friday, Oct. 10, include:

 • "Globalization's Promise: The Protection of Traditional Knowledge and the Role of Native Women" at 9:45 a.m. Oct. 10 by Angela Riley, Southwestern University School of Law and Justice, Supreme Court of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation in Oklahoma
 • "Indian Policy and the Imagined Indian Woman" at 11 a.m. Oct. 10 by Bethany Berger, University of Connecticut School of Law
 • "Toward an Indigenous Jurisprudence of Rape" at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 10 by Sarah Deer, Tribal Law and Policy Institute in West Hollywood, Calif.
 • "The Relational Element in Sacred Sites Cases" at 2:45 p.m. Oct. 10 by Kristen Carpenter, Suffolk University School of Law

Presentations on Saturday, Oct. 11, include:

 • "Gender Roles at Santa Clara Pueblo" at 9 a.m. Oct. 11 by Rina Swentzell, Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico
 • "Case Overview and Historical Perspective" at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 11 by Gloria Valencia-Weber, University of New Mexico School of Law.

More information about the conference is available online at www.law.ku.edu/tribal/activit.htm.