Law 6236 American Indian law

Federal Indian Law
Spring 2006
Professor Rosen
University of Minnesota Law School

SYLLABUS

Course Overview

Welcome to Federal Indian Law! The casebook is Getches, Wilkinson & Williams, Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law (5th ed.) (West 2005), as well as any supplement that may be available. You also may wish to purchase a useful nutshell (William C. Canby, Jr., American Indian Law (4th ed.) (2004)), though this is optional.

Attendance is mandatory, and class participation is of central importance to the success of this class. I will call on random students each day. If you happen to be unprepared any particular class, please tell me in advance of class; otherwise, you’re fair game.

The final will be a 3.5 hour, in-class exam. Computers are permitted, as are all inanimate supplementary materials that you may wish to bring. I reserve up to 15% of the final grade for class participation.

Communications

A TWEN site has been established for this course, which you should check every day (or so) for updates, supplemental materials, and so forth. In fact, in addition to the announcements I make in Assignment, the TWEN site will be the other official source of information for this course.

My office is located in Room 414. My telephone number is (612) 624-7527 and my e-mail address is mrosen@umn.edu. Office hours will be 3:00 to 4:00 on Mondays. Please sign up to reserve a time electronically on TWEN. If you do not sign up, there is no guarantee we’ll be able to meet.

Assignments

Below please find the assignment for the first six weeks (or so) of the semester. I’ll provide a complete syllabus as the semester proceeds, after we have a better sense of how long it takes us to get through the material. I would not be surprised if we proceed through the material at a slightly slower pace than the assignments indicate. I plan to tailor the length of assignments so that we’re able to cover the material in a sufficiently in-depth manner.

Assigned Materials (for first half of the semester)

I. Introduction: Indians and Indian Law; The European Doctrine of Discovery and American Indian Rights A. January 17 (Assignment 1)
1. CB 1-52 (CB=Casebook)
B. January 23 (Assignment 2)
1. CB 52-72

II. The Federal-Tribal Treaty Relationship: The Formative Years (1789-1871)
A. January 24 (Assignment 3)
1. CB 72-110
B. January 30 (Assignment 4)
1. CB 110 (notes from Cherokee Nation) -128
C. January 31 (Assignment 5)
1. CB 127-39
2. CB 140-52 (start of next chapter in casebook)

III. A Century of Shifting Policy
A. (First assignment from January 31)
B. February 6 (Assignment 6)
1. CB 153-86
C. February 7 (Assignment 7)
1. CB 186-216
D. February 13 (Assignment 8)
1. CB 216-56

IV. The Federal-Tribal Relationship
A. February 14 (Assignment 9)
1. CB 258-94
B. February 27 (Assignment 10)
1. CB 294-340
C. February 28 (Assignment 11)
1. CB 340-76