Biden Administration Restores Protections for Indigenous Sacred Places

By Amber Penn-Roco

On October 7, 2021, immediately prior to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, President Biden signed a proclamation restoring protections to three National Monuments, the Bears Ears National Monument, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Following President Biden’s Proclamation, the Bears Ears National Monument will be restored to 1.36 million acres, and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to 1.87 million acres.

Both of those National Monuments had previously seen drastic reductions in size under the Trump administration, leaving the areas open to exploitation by companies seeking to develop the public lands that were rich in oil, gas, coal, and uranium. The Proclamation also restores protections at Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument that prohibit commercial fishing in the National Monument. 

The Biden administration, in particular, emphasized the importance of the restoration of the Bears Ears National Monument, stating:

Restoring these protections will conserve a multitude of sites that are culturally and spiritually important to Tribal Nations— including petroglyphs, pictographs, cultural sites, dwellings, and areas used for traditional rituals, gatherings, and tribal practices — as well as paleontological objects, landscape features, historic objects, and plant and animal species. Restoring the Monument’s boundaries and conditions restores its integrity, upholds efforts to honor the federal trust responsibility to Tribal Nations, and conserves these lands and waters for future generations.

The Proclamation comes after several years of public outcry following the Trump administration’s reductions. Especially instrumental in the fight to restore these protections were Indigenous peoples, to whom the lands hold great cultural and spiritual significance.

The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, an entity comprised of delegates from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Zuni Tribe and an organization that was responsible for the initial creation of the Bears Ears National Monument, issued a statement in response to the Proclamation, stating:

By taking this action, President Biden will be recognizing the deep and enduring ancestral and cultural connections that Tribes have to this landscape and taking a step toward honoring his commitment to Indigenous People by acknowledging their original place in this country that is now our shared home.

In 2018, I published an article in the National Lawyers Guild Review, “Trump’s Dismantling of the National Monuments: Sacrificing Native American Interests on the Altar of Business”, which provides background on the importance of the Bears Ears National Monument and the Trump administration’s effort to diminish National Monuments throughout the United States. 

Although there is much more work to be done to protect Indigenous sacred places and the environment at large, President Biden’s decision to restore these monuments is a notable step in the right direction. Hopefully, it indicates a momentum shift within the federal government towards honoring the sacred.

Amber’s practice focuses on environmental protection in Indian Country. Her practice also includes tribal sovereignty issues, including economic development and tribal governance matters. 

Gabe Galanda, Ryan Dreveskracht Urge Wash. Supreme Court to Expose Six SPD Insurrectionists

On September 14, 2021, Gabe Galanda and Ryan Dreveskracht filed a Washington State Supreme Court amicus brief for the National Police Accountability Project, urging the identification of the six Seattle Police Department officers who perpetuated the Big Lie and attended the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The officers seek to block the City of Seattle from releasing their identities through a public records request. According to a passage from the amicus brief:

Disclosure in this context benefits both the Government and members of the public because it provides vital protection for the integrity of the criminal legal process. Transparency about officers willing to violate Department policies or run roughshod over constitutional norms and rights protects the integrity of court proceedings in all criminal cases involving those officers. These protections take several forms.  First, transparency about such officers can signal to defendants and their attorneys when to look especially hard at improperly-gotten evidence and, if necessary, argue for suppression during pretrial proceedings. Second, absent any indication that King County would decline to call one of the Doe officers to testify in court ever again, their identities would signal to criminal defense attorneys that these officers should be cross-examined in particular ways when testifying at trial.  And finally, disclosure of the Doe officers’ identities and associated details could help habeas attorneys identify wrongful convictions after the fact.  Each of these functions of transparency provides vital protection to the integrity of the criminal process. Such accountability is especially needed given the pervasive racial bias and disproportionality that exists in Washington State’s criminal “justice” system. 

The case is Jane & John Does 1-6 v. Seattle Police Department et al.

Gabe Galanda and Ryan Dreveskracht are partners at Galanda Broadman, PLLC. They sue local and state governments, officials, and officers for the wrongful death of Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons. Gabe belongs to the Round Valley Indian Confederation, descending from the Nomlaki and Concow Peoples.

Nooksack Tribal Judge Ray Dodge Accused of Harassing Domestic Abuse Victim

By Victoria McKenzie

Law360 (October 1, 2021, 10:44 PM EDT) -- The Ninth Circuit has been asked to decide whether the Nooksack Tribe has jurisdiction over a single mother who said an illegitimate tribal court judge persecuted her after she sought protection for domestic abuse, and then ordered her arrest on nonreservation land as part of a political vendetta.

In a reply brief filed Tuesday, two Nooksack tribal court judges accused 35-year-old Elile Adams of trying to "get even" with them after she was detained in Whatcom County, Washington, allegedly for failing to appear at a tribal criminal proceeding. Wrongful as her desire to "punish" the judges may be, they said, the district court was correct to find that Adams can't seek habeas relief in federal court without first exhausting tribal court remedies.

The district court also found that judicial immunity would apply whether or not the tribe had the jurisdiction to arrest Adams, and dismissed the case.

Adams' attorneys tell a very different story — that of a faction of "holdover" tribal leaders who sacked the chief tribal judge for her support of an election at a time when the tribe was divided over the proposed disenrollment of 300 citizens. The group then replaced her with their own attorney, Raymond D. Dodge, who is nonindigenous, according to the appeal.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced it would not recognize the group of council members, or any of their actions, according to the habeas writ Adams later filed in district court. The agency also invalidated any tribal court orders "based on actions taken by the tribal council after March 24, 2016," the petition states.

Nevertheless, Adams said Judge Dodge used his position to go after her because she and her father opposed the contentious plan to evict some 300 tribe members. Not long after being installed as chief judge, Adams said, Judge Dodge presided over an eviction action against an elder tribe member, whose lawyers he had "disbarred and excluded from court." Adams' father stood up for the elder in court, and in his native Nooksack language, publicly "humiliated" Judge Dodge for his unethical behavior, according to the writ.

The incident would later come back to haunt Adams when she appeared before Judge Dodge in 2017 to request a domestic violence protection order. According to Adams, Judge Dodge used his position to illegally assert jurisdiction over her child and initiate a custody action, threatening to take her daughter away, even though Adams had been awarded full custody in 2015 by a state Superior Court.

Then, Judge Dodge "took the unusual judicial step of personally asking Nooksack Tribal Police Chief Mike Ashby to investigate Ms. Adams for possible custodial interference," according to her appeal.

As part of a harassment campaign, Adams said Judge Dodge personally ordered "no less than twenty purported orders" against her between 2017 and 2019, many of them for contempt of court. As a result, Adams sought "asylum" for herself and her daughter with the neighboring Lummi Nation, and renounced her Nooksack citizenship. She appeared before Judge Dodge in 2019 and pled not guilty to criminal custodial interference, for allegedly violating the custody rights of the child's father — the man from whom Adams sought protection in 2017.

According to Gabriel Galanda of Galanda Broadman, who represents Adams in federal court, the father had not been seen since 2017 and had not made any appearance in court.

Then, while Adams was participating in an annual ritual called the Canoe Journey in 2019 — when all the tribal governments of the Northwest Treaty Tribes are shut down — Judge Dodge allegedly ordered Adams' arrest for failure to appear in court in relation to the criminal custodial action.

"On the morning of July 30, 2019, the Adamses were asleep or relaxing at home when tribal police officers arrived to the Adamses' home and assaulted, battered and falsely detained, arrested and/or imprisoned them," while refusing to identify themselves or present a warrant, the writ said. Her father was beaten, and his glasses broken, according to the petition.

After Adams' release on bail, Galanda filed twin habeas corpus petitions on her behalf in tribal and federal court, he told Law360. Judge Dodge refused to allow Galanda to represent Adams in the criminal custodial case, denying her "constitutional right to counsel," and also refusing to consider her pro se petition.

"They rejected her tribal habeas corpus petition because I signed it," Galanda said. "I then sought a writ of mandamus in front of the tribal court of appeals to compel the clerk to simply accept the habeas petition ... as a valid legal filing." But again, it was rejected.

Galanda finally had Adams refile her habeas petition pro se. "It was accepted for filing," he said, "but they've now sat on the filing since the fall of 2019."

The federal habeas petition named the Nooksack Tribe, several tribal court officers, Judge Dodge, and the pro tem judge who replaced him, Rajeev Majumdar, and invoked a bad-faith exemption to tribal court exhaustion.

Judge Dodge even sued Adams in Whatcom County Superior Court for libel after she told a blogger that "Judge Dodge has made my life a living nightmare," according to the federal habeas writ. He allegedly refused to recuse himself from her criminal case until October 2019.

According to Adams, Judge Dodge ordered her arrest "without due process, legal authority, or jurisdiction." Her case is the very "archetype for the bad-faith exception to exhaustion," she said, because the judge denied her access to counsel, denied her any means of contesting the criminal charges or her detention, and has "offered no legal or factual justification for the criminal sanctions against her."

In response to her Ninth Circuit appeal in 2021, the Nooksack Tribe and its tribal court judges rejected the accusations of bad faith or harassment. On Tuesday, the judges said that Adams "deceptively omitted" the fact that in 2017, the DOI restored its recognition of the tribal government after the tribe carried out a special election, which the DOI determined to be legitimate.

According to the tribe's reply brief, the Washington Supreme Court has repeatedly held that "its criminal jurisdiction is concurrent with tribes concerning offenses occurring on off-reservation trust lands," saying that Adams' protestations "are simply evidence of her disdain for the tribe."

Adams argued that Public Law 280 established Washington's exclusive criminal jurisdiction over off-reservation allotted land.

Galanda said Adams has already suffered "the ultimate consequence" by relinquishing her tribal enrollment. "I can't describe that for you — it doesn't translate," said Galanda, himself a Round Valley tribal citizen. "But imagine yourself as a natural-born American citizen, if that's who you are, fleeing to Canada to escape persecution of a judge."

Counsel for the Nooksack Tribe and for Judge Dodge declined to comment.

Judges Dodge and Majumdar are represented by Rachel B. Saimons and Rob Roy Smith of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.

The Nooksack Tribe is represented by Charles Norman Hurt of the Office of Tribal Attorney.

Adams is represented by Gabriel Galanda of Galanda Broadman PLLC.

The case is Elile Adams v. Raymond Dodge et al., case number 21-35490, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

--Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.

Corin La Pointe-Aitchison Teaches Lewis & Clark Law Student Oral Advocates

This fall Corin La Pointe-Aitchison is co-teaching the Native American Law Student Association (NALSA) Moot Court course at his alma mater, Lewis and Clark Law School, along with co-professor Jessie Young.

Corin will be preparing students to compete in the 30th annual National NALSA Moot Court Competition, which will be held in Boulder, Colorado in spring of 2022. This year’s competition is being hosted by the University of Colorado Law School and its NALSA chapter.

The details of this year’s case will be released to students and coaches in early November.

Corin will contribute his specialty in Indigenous rights litigation to Lewis and Clark’s advocates. His practice focuses on litigation involving Indigenous governments and enterprises, and civil rights.

Pueblo Sovereignty Offers Tesla Loophole Around New Mexico Law

By Joe Sexton

Nanbé Owingeh, also known the Pueblo of Nambé, exercised its inherent sovereignty as a Native Nation to facilitate the opening of a Tesla sales, service, and delivery center near Santa Fe on the Pueblo’s lands, despite—or perhaps because of a—New Mexico law[1] banning the direct sales of motor vehicles by manufacturers. 

As of 2009, direct-to-consumer auto manufacturer sales were banned in nearly every state according to a U.S. Department of Justice analysis of those laws.  At the time, private challenges to those bans were largely unsuccessful. 

But the Department of Justice analysis concluded twelve years ago that state bans on manufacturers directly selling motor vehicles were archaic given the trajectory of auto commerce in the 21st century.  The author of that analysis forecasted that the industry itself would compel change, and states would change their laws along with the industry.  Today, Tesla has direct manufacturer-to-consumer auto sales locations in 24 states.  Yet several states beyond New Mexico maintain laws restricting auto manufacturer sales bans.

In 2019, two New Mexico state legislators introduced legislation, informally dubbed “the Tesla bill,” to do just that—allow “motor vehicle manufacturers to be licensed as motor vehicle dealers under certain conditions.”  The proposed legislation ultimately failed.  Tesla and the Pueblo of Nambé found a way around New Mexico’s laws by effectively moving direct Tesla commerce beyond the state’s reach and onto Pueblo lands. 

While the applicability of state laws and regulations on Indian country lands is complex and often times tied to court interpretations of federal laws pertaining to the status of specific parcels of lands within a tribe’s reservation, Native Nations can often leverage their sovereignty to facilitate economic growth despite state impediments.

Nambé Pueblo’s exciting move is a prime example.

[1] NMSA 57-16-5(V).

Indigenous Health Care Lawyer Corinne Sebren Joins Galanda Broadman

Corinne Sebren has joined Galanda Broadman PLLC as an Associate. Corinne joins the firm full-time after serving the past two years as a part-time Law Clerk. Her practice focuses on Indigenous health law and regulatory analysis, as well as litigation involving tribal governments and civil rights.

“Corinne brings a deep commitment to Indigenous health law and equity to our firm, and at a critical time,” said Gabriel S. Galanda, Managing Lawyer of Galanda Broadman. “We are excited to make her health care expertise and passion for justice available to our tribal clients.” 

Corinne is a 2021 graduate of the University of Washington School of Law where she served as Editor-in-Chief of Washington Law Review and received the Judge Eugene A. Wright Scholar Award. She is a former Legal Fellow of the Yakama Nation Office of Legal Counsel.

Prior to law school, Corinne utilized her Western Washington University degree in Behavioral Neuroscience in her role as the Advocacy Director and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Whatcom County Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She brings extensive non-profit management and healthcare administration experience to the firm in addition to her legal skills.

In her free time, Corinne enjoys bonfires, BBQs, yoga, mountain sports, and spending time in the Cascades with her family and her dog Lunchbox.

Corinne joins a growing bench of Galanda Broadman team members.  Harvard Law School alumnus Matt Slovin also joined the firm as an Associate this past July, and recent Oregon State University-Cascades graduate Emmerson Donnell will start work as a Litigation Assistant next month.

Galanda Broadman is an Indigenous rights law firm with nine lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington and Bend, Oregon. The firm is dedicated to advancing Indigenous Treaty, sovereignty, and human rights.

Gabe Galanda Named Among Best Lawyers in America for Fifteenth Straight Year

Gabe Galanda’s peers have named him to Best Lawyers in America for the fifteenth consecutive year.

Gabe is the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights law firm headquartered in Seattle. He has also been dubbed a Super Lawyer by his peers from 2013 to 2021.

The American Bar Association named Gabe a Difference Maker in 2012. The Washington State Bar Association honored him with the Excellence in Diversity Award in 2014. The University Arizona College of Law awarded him the Professional Achievement Award and Western Washington University named him a Distinguished Alumnus, in 2018.

His practice focuses on complex, multi-party litigation and crisis management, representing Indigenous nations, businesses and citizens.

Gabe is skilled at defending Indigenous nations and business against legal attack by governmental or private parties, as well advocating for the human rights of Indigenous citizens. He advocates against tribal disenrollment and other Indigenous human rights abuse.  He also assists Indigenous clients with transactions and strategy related to various economic diversification initiatives.

Galanda Broadman Litigation Assistant Announcement

Galanda Broadman, PLLC, seeks to add a litigation assistant to its dynamic Indigenous rights practice.

With offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington, and Bend, Oregon, Galanda Broadman is dedicated to advancing Indigenous Treaty and civil rights and business interests.  The firm represents Indigenous governments, businesses, and citizens in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in the areas of Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, taxation, commerce, personal injury, and human/civil rights.

The firm seeks a litigation assistant with solid case management and trial experience for its Seattle office.  The position will largely be remote, although some in-office tasks may be required.  

The following criteria are strongly preferred: demonstrated experience; proven abilities under pressure; attention to detail; solid writing, proofreading and organization; tech savvy; critical, proactive, and creative thinking; strong work ethic; experience scheduling depositions and court hearings with opposing counsel, court reporters and court personnel; sound ethics and morals; and able to communicate clearly and in a professional manner in a fast-paced environment.

Position will also involve office managerial and administrative efforts.

Salary DOE. 

Qualified applicants should submit a cover letter tailored to this announcement, as well as a resume, and list of at least three educational and professional references, to Alice Hall, the firm’s Office Manager, at alice@galandabroadman.com, as soon as possible.

Four Galanda Broadman Indigenous Rights Lawyers Honored By Super Lawyers

Indigenous rights lawyers Gabe Galanda (Round Valley), Anthony Broadman, Ryan Dreveskracht, and Amber Penn-Roco (Chehalis) were each honored by Super Lawyers magazine for 2021.

Gabe and Anthony were named “Super Lawyers” and Ryan and Amber “Rising Stars,” all in the field of Native American Law.

Galanda Broadman, PLLC, was also recently named a “Best Law Firm” by U.S. News - Best Lawyers in the arena of Native American Law and Gaming Law, for the ninth year in a row. 

With eight lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington and Bend, Oregon, the firm is dedicated to advancing and protecting Indigenous rights.

Matt Slovin Joins Galanda Broadman

Matt Slovin has joined Galanda Broadman PLLC as an Associate, focusing on litigation involving Indigenous civil rights and tribal governments and enterprises.

“Matt is among the best and brightest legal minds now wishing to serve Indigenous peoples,” said Gabriel S. Galanda, Managing Lawyer of Galanda Broadman. “We are ecstatic about his future.”

Matt graduated from Harvard Law School in 2019, where he served as co-Executive Articles Editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of Michigan, where he worked as Managing Editor of The Michigan Daily.

Matt joins the firm after clerking for the Hon. Lawrence E. Kahn of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. Prior to clerking, he was an Associate in the American Indian Law & Policy group at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Washington, D.C.

Before law school, Matt was a sports reporter, covering the Detroit Tigers for Major League Baseball’s official website and the Tennessee Volunteers for The Tennessean. He has also written for The New York Times and USA TODAY.

Matt enjoys running, reading non-fiction, playing tennis, and watching college football.