Story Published:
Apr 9, 2010
Story Updated:
Apr 9, 2010
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Most students of U.S. federal law as it pertains to Indians will likely tell you the same thing – the law generally stinks.
Robert “Tim” Coulter wants to change that.
Coulter, Potawatomi, is founder and executive director of the Indian Law Resource Center. He wrote the first draft of the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 1976 and continued working on it until the U.N. adopted it in 2007. Since then, 143 countries – excluding the U.S and Canada – have ratified it.
In a March 31 presentation at Syracuse University, Coulter offered his thoughts on “Disestablishing the Doctrines of Federal Indian Law.” He noted that Congress, backed by the Supreme Court, claims the authority to take Indian land and money without due process.
“That can’t happen to anyone else in the United States but an Indian nation,” Coulter said, adding that the power of the federal government to hold Indian land in trust has no basis in law.
“They just say [they have] it,” he said, noting that such paternal oversight by the government “happens only involuntarily to children, mental incompetents and Indian nations. The first two cannot manage their own affairs, but Indians can.”
Coulter pointed out that the “unjust legal framework” in the U.S. contributes heavily to the poor business climate pervasive in Indian country and leaves tribes with minimal options for economic development.
“It’s amazing that Indian nations do as well as they do having to live under a system like that.”
But to Coulter, it’s not enough to just complain about the law – you have to offer alternatives. He wants to stimulate thought and debate, input and ideas that will lead to change.
“We can’t just be whiners, we have to be actors. We have to campaign for what is right and ought to be.”
To that end, Coulter has devised what he calls “draft principles of law relating to Indian land and resources.” He characterized his 17 principles as a work in progress and invited other lawyers, tribal government leaders or any interested persons to offer their suggestions.
Coulter’s draft principles offer a framework to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and to clarify the relationship between the federal government and tribal governments. In a nutshell, his principles, which he drafted in both legalese and ordinary language, include the following:
- Native nations have complete ownership of their aboriginal lands – not some limited or partial right.
- Discovery did not give the discovering country any ownership of Native lands or resources.
- Congress cannot take Native lands and resources without fair compensation and without following a genuine legal process.
- Congress does not have plenary power over Native peoples and their property – it only has the powers given to it by the Constitution.
- Self-determination: Native nations have the inherent right to form, maintain and change their own governments.
- Congress cannot terminate an Indian nation.
- Native lands and resources, whether in trust or otherwise, cannot be taxed by any government.
- The United States has a duty to protect Native nations from fraud, abuse and other wrongs.
As far as putting these principles into effect, Coulter admitted having no specific strategy for doing so; some of his ideas would likely take an act of Congress or a decision by the Supreme Court. But others could take effect more easily.
“Lawyers doing their ordinary work can use these and perhaps they’ll gain currency in the courts,” Coulter said. “Some could be adopted by the courts or by federal administrators in the Department of the Interior or the Department of Justice.”
In a nod to Syracuse and Central New York, Coulter noted that the whole concept of living under the rule of law was devised by the region’s indigenous people. The Haudenosaunee (also called “Iroquois” or “Six Nations”) revere a prophetic figure called the Peacemaker, who gathered their ancestors together on the shores of Onondaga Lake centuries ago to halt decades of warfare between them and create the world’s first democratic government.
This Great Law of Peace bound the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca nations (and later the Tuscarora) into a powerful and prosperous confederacy that dominated what is now upstate New York until they were overrun by non-Indian settlers after the American Revolution.
“The Haudenosaunee essentially invented the rule of law – the idea that a community should live according to rules and laws, rather than violence or under the will of a tyrant or autocrat,” Coulter said.
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anonymous said on Wednesday, Apr 21 at 11:34 PM
Hmm: "Congress cannot take Native lands and resources without fair compensation and without following a genuine legal process." This means Congress can take Native landsa and resources by following a genuine legal process. What kind of a reform is that?
41717019Indian lawyer said on Tuesday, Apr 20 at 12:09 AM
Coulter is a self-aggrandizing, isolated old man with visions of grandeur. He does not walk his talk; hence, most of his clients fired him like the Western Shoshone and the Dann sisters.
41577719Windows 7 inventor said on Friday, Apr 16 at 5:44 PM
No Coulter didn’t write the first draft of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He wrote with many others a ‘Declaration of Principles for the Defense of the Indigenous Nations and Peoples of the Western Hemisphere’, which was revolutionary at the time. However it focused on ‘principles’ and contained very little on human rights. This was and remained the position of the U.S. government, that Indigenous peoples could be ‘governed’ by ‘principles’ and did not need the protections of international law, i.e. human rights. However Coulter did invent Windows 7 and along with Al Gore, he did invent the internet.
41416097Candace Colbert Odom said on Friday, Apr 16 at 1:20 PM
Judge Black and Dixon was the Judges over my divorce in 1987 from my ex-husband and even though I started the company my husband and I owned Garretts Dandy Homes Inc. and owned it for over 15 years which I started while in college at OU. the Judge did not give me any of the properties we owned! I was on the Corporation Commission papers of the Haunted House owned by myself and Jim Brewer and Rick Garrett but he disregarded the papers because Jim Brewer told him if he gave me the Haunted House he would just buy another building and start another Haunted House down the street. This is on the court records and my attorney can verify it. I knew Judge Black was in his pocket when I saw him and Jim Brewer laughing about it in the elevator after the court hearing!!! Judge Dixon and Judge Elliott was also involved... I think if people would look into these matters they would realize how corrupt Oklahoma Court systems really are...
41398542Candace Colbert Odom said on Friday, Apr 16 at 1:05 PM
I am also, a member of a Federally Recognized Tribe. After I have gone to court to obtain the custody of my grandchild after the death of my daughter, I realize that the Oklahoma Juvenile Court System is corrupt!!! My ex-husband got custody of my daughters baby after she died of an asthma attack and he lied to the Probate Courts saying he was not a convicted felon. He also, stated that my daughter owned no property when his own house was in her name and she had just purchased a 2nd house a week before she lapsed into coma. I took them to court and Judge Brian Upp would not hear the case. (He stated that his docket was messed up?) I first went to my tribal court but they said it was not their jurisdiction. I am full-blood Native American and have not been able to see or even talk with my grandbaby since my oldest daughter died almost 6 years ago... This is outrageous because my dad built the house she was living in and on the Ok Property Tax wedsite it listed her on the title of prop
41397317NACA said on Thursday, Apr 15 at 2:55 PM
Indian Nations are many within these here u.s. and they're all sovereign and have their own laws ,language ,culture and their way of life . with this they have their own right to determine who is their members. and with their patrilineal descent , they can never be terminated and . the u.s. made treaties ,many , and these can never be changed ,but they were abrogated with out the consent of the ichiefs and without a true translator approved by the chief and headmen and all are in violation of these treaties. no treaty issue belongs in any court of the u.s. , it must be dealt with by the pres. of u.s. as a nation to nation matter this is what all natural indian nations need to do to address these issues. they have their own laws and we have our own . hecetu yelo
41331014Help for help said on Thursday, Apr 15 at 9:46 AM
Help, you use the word "cry" so I am assuming that is a slam. Current law can be summed up by the "Indian Self-Determination Act," which loosely acknowledged the paternalistic and overbearing self-assummed authority of the US over tribes. Pre-Columbus there were thousands of tribes, now only some 568 (plus or minus a few) who are Federally Recognized. Each tribe is it's own entitity or government who has culture and rules to follow. Like Arapaho said, he is Araphaho and not something else, or someone else. The game between the US and tribes has been skewed and Coulter is on the right track in a game where tribes cannot win. It's would even be correct to say he were outside of the stadium, but he is right on and the lack of the US and Canada in the UN Declaration, shows just how correct he is. Load up the boats, or get ready to cut huge checks to buy what has already be stolen and consumed.
41307084Help.... said on Thursday, Apr 15 at 1:46 AM
Is it possible to change Indian Law after instituting it for so long? The Natives of this land have been wrongfully violated in many ways by white colonizers, including those things against other tribes and one another. To have Congress accept revision to this law, will require formal acknowledgment of past atrocities by this government, which will in turn have rippling affects in all areas of local municipal government. Also how do you generalize "Indian Law" in terms of specific "rules and laws" for all natives, when each 500 or so tribes cry to express their own self-determination direction? Once again Coulter is way out in left field.
41292482White Antelope said on Wednesday, Apr 14 at 6:12 PM
This is the most racist country in human history. The system is designed to destroy "The People". Im Northern Arapaho, I am not an american.
41271747sikak iskwew said on Wednesday, Apr 14 at 4:46 PM
And anyway, there is a marked difference between engaging in armed conflict to protect your community and advocate for a way of life and law that benefits all and brings stability between factions and going out of your way to to enslave, colonize and steal other Nations' lands and livelihood. When European actors created the Treaty of Westphalia, which for the first time delineated Nation-States and brought peace to a war-torn Europe, the conflict is never referred to as "genocide". So why the double-standard when it comes to Indigenous Nations? The truth is, that the Haudenosaunee never engaged in race-based (or even tribe-based) genocide as an ideology the way whites did, and do.
41265939sikak iskwew said on Wednesday, Apr 14 at 4:38 PM
Wovokanarchy, do you know this as a fact or are you repeating the white (dogmatic) history? There has been an active smear campaign to discredit the Haudenousaunee Confederacy; they are a jarring incongruency to the settler's (hardly reliable or credible) claims that ndgns people were all warlike savages.
41265277Wovokanarchy said on Wednesday, Apr 14 at 4:06 PM
Coulter states, "“The Haudenosaunee essentially invented the rule of law – the idea that a community should live according to rules and laws, rather than violence or under the will of a tyrant or autocrat." Really? Anyone with a good understanding of Indigenous history will know that the Haudenosaunee were one of the only Indigenous Nations in North America to commit genocide against other Indians on a scale very similar to the Europeans. The Huron were virtually exterminated by the Iroquois during the English and French campaign to colonize North America.
41262802Crazytalk said on Wednesday, Apr 14 at 3:40 PM
Well written Advocate. I hope to live that long too and to see Mt. Rushmore resurfaced!
41260739Advocate again.. said on Wednesday, Apr 14 at 11:42 AM
Also, the Treaties for the lands here in the Dakotas were broken again and again and ultimately for the discovery of gold in 1874 near present-day Deadwood. The haughtiness I earlier described is the carving of Mt. Rushmore, the Shrine of Democracy. It is also the Shrine of Hypocrisy and that title was begrudgingly confirmed by the Supreme Court when it wrote it was the most "ripe and rank" example of treaty violations and outright theft, but only offered compensation at acreage prices at the time it was stolen at around $12 million for it all. It did nothing to return the land and sold what the Constitution's treaties said couldn't be sold. Too many people cite due process and rule of law and ignore the path taken to the contemporary purported ownership status. Again, I wish you the best and I hope I live long enough to see the US and Canada take ownership for the destructive path they have taken.
41242297Advocate for the same here in SD... said on Wednesday, Apr 14 at 11:26 AM
I applaud the effort of Mr. Coulter and truly wish his and his associates' plans come to fruition. The underlying paternalistic/belittling doctrines of Indian Law will be difficult for the US and Canada to undo. There is a sense of haughtiness that will make it difficult for "them" (I hate to be general or stereotypical) not laugh at or accept this. "We stole it fair and square, just look at Congressional and Supreme Court records," "they" currently say attempting to add a sense of honor and due process. It's hard for anyone non-L/D/Nakota out here in South Dakota whose families came after the Allotment Act in 1880's and 1890's to believe they don't have "lawful" claim. If "they" admit to the true history it means loading up on the boat back to their family's oppressed country(ies) of origin. Or a new Cobell where the US and Canadian governments are to compensate tribes for land and resources stolen/privatized outside of trust lands. Good luck and I hope I am alive at the end.
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