Legal Studies Latest News as of 12/6/24

3)  Publish
4)  Natamst 102

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In the summer of 2025, Peking University (PKU) will launch a new Academic Explorers in China Program, in collaboration with partner universities in the U.S., as part of their China Deep Dive: Global Young Leaders Program.

Participants will attend lectures on the PKU campus and participate in guided excursions in and around Beijing. Students from PKU will also join the program, fostering a mutual understanding of cultures and values. This initiative aims to encourage participants to form lifelong friendships that will support them as they transition into future leadership roles.

As a partner university, UC Berkeley has been invited to recommend 6-8 undergraduate students to participate in the program. 

The application deadline is Monday, December 23, 2024. 

Late and incomplete applications will NOT be considered. PKU will announce the results in mid-January to all the partner universities.

We are The Harper Review, a review of politics and culture run by University of Chicago students that takes inspiration from publications such as Compact, The Hedgehog Review, The New Criterion, The Point, The Drift, The New Statesman, Dissent, First Things, County Highway and classics like The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper’s Magazine. 

We are now looking for essays and shorter “letters” for our winter issue.

We’re interested in essays that:

• Thoughtfully explore cultural and political phenomena.

• Don’t rely on academic jargon or vogue.

• Are written for a general audience without talking down or dumbing down.

• Are 1,500–2,500 words—we’re happy to look at longer or marginally shorter pieces, but we want to give writers space to fully flesh out their ideas.

• Argue something we may not hear from the talking heads.

• Connect life on the ground to big ideas and vice versa. 

• Take those that disagree seriously. 

Note: we don’t want academic papers—ideas from class papers can inspire our essays, but we are a general-audience magazine, not an academic journal.

We’re also looking for shorter “letters” (4–5 paragraphs or 400–600 words) responding to the statement “The ivory tower should endure.” Argue in favor, against, or that the statement itself is flawed—we want to hear it all. 

If you’re looking for inspiration for the letters prompt, you can check out our contributing editor Francesco P. Rahe’s essay on the merits of learning in wartime from our Fall issue.

Want to get more of a sense of our magazine? Here are a few highlights from the archive: New York University Ph.D. student Nicolas McKelvie reflects on New York City’s campaign against lanternflies. Longtime activist and educator Bill Ayers talks about children’s natural nose for lies Magazine cofounder and USA Today editor Surya Gowda argues that the new media paradigm manufactures dissent

If any of this sounds like your jam, shoot us a draft or a pitch and a writing sample at harperreview@gmail.com. If you are interested in subscribing to our weekly email newsletter or reading pieces we’ve published in the past, please visit our websiteWe will be accepting drafts for our Winter issue until January 5th—we hope to hear from you!

Sincerely,

The editors of The Harper Review

NATAMST 102  CRITICAL NATIVE AMERICAN LEGAL

AND POLICY STUDIES, SPRING 2025

Provisional Course Outline (December, 2024)

Course Description  How are Tribal governments and Native American communities living in "Indian Country" shaped by U.S. federal laws and policies, and how do they use these laws and policies (and sometimes resist them) to address the needs of Native people?  Topics include the significance of treaties and the basic legal tenets of tribal sovereignty, and ongoing tribal struggles to expand tribal sovereignty.  The Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota is examined as a case study of tribal struggles for environmental justice, tribal sovereignty, and tribal control over tribal territory.  The role of the fossil fuel (coal and oil) in underwriting--not undermining--is examined through the case of the Navajo  Finally, the course takes up key court cases regarding the freedom of Native Americans to practice traditional religions without state interference, and with reasonable accommodations on public (federal and state) lands.

Basis of Grade:  Four 5-page essays.

CLASS SESSIONS

PART I:  TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY AND TREATIES

Class 1:  How Indigenous Peoples and the Supreme Court Read Treaties

Reading:  Vine Deloria, Jr. (Dakota), "Domestic Dependent Nations

Class 2:  A Brief History of Federal Indian Policy and Law

Reading:  Steven Pevar, "A History of Federal Indian Policy

Class 3:  The Birth of the Modern Tribal Sovereignty Movement in the 1970s

Reading:  Deloria, The Occupation of the BIA" & "The Confrontation at Wounded Knee"at Wounded Knee"

Film: "Wounded Knee  

Class 4:  Sovereignty and Treaties

Reading:  John Dougherty, "Talk the Language of the Wider World" [about fishing rights in Oregon and Washington]

Class 5:  Sovereignty without Treaties

Reading:  Larisa K. Miller, "The Secret Treaties with California Indians"

Reading:  Walt Lara (Yurok) and Kishan Lara-Cooper (Yurok/Hupa/Karuk, "Fish Wars on the Klamath River"  [about the struggle for fishing rights in northwestern California]

Class 6:  Civil Rights within Tribes, or, Does the U.S. Constitution Apply to Indian Tribes (No):  Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez (1978)

Reading:  Francine R. Skenandore (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin/Prairie Band Potawatomi),

Class 7  Tribal Authority over Non-Indians (Criminal):  Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe (1978)

Reading:  Robert Williams, "Rehnquist' Language of Racism in Oliphant"  

Class 8:  "Plenary Power":  Congress Can Limit and Expand Tribal Sovereignty

Reading:  Roert Williams (Lumbee), "The Rise of the Plenary Power Doctrine

Reading:  "Fort Peck Tribes Expand Criminal Jurisdiction over Non-Indians

Class 9:  Indian Reservations and Tribal Sovereignty in Oklahoma:  McGirt v. Oklahoma (U.S. Sup. Court, 2020)  

Reading: Robert Miller (Eastern Shawnee and Torrey Dolan (Choctaw), "The Indian Law Bombshell"

THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE

Class 10  The Threat of DAPL and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's Court Case

Reading 14:  Nick Estes (Lakota) & Jaskiran Dhillon, "Introduction:  The Black Snake, #NoDAPL, and the Rise of a People's Movement"

Reading:   Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota)  Reading will be provided in class.

Class 11

Film:  "Awake:  A Dream from Standing Rock"

Class 12:  DAPL, Treaties, and Tribal Sovereignty

Reading:  Elizabeth Ellis (Peoria), "Centering Sovereignty

Class 13:  DAPL, Treaties, and Tribal Sovereignty (cont.)

Reading:  Andrew Curley (Diné), "Beyond Environmentalism"

Class 14:  Settler Colonialism and the Infrastructure of of Capitalism

Reading:  Shiri Paternak and Tia Dafnos, "How Does a Settler State Secure the Circuitry of Capital? 

Class 15:  The Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Impact Statement on DAPL

Reading:  Selections from the EIS

Class 16:  Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the current situation)

Reading:  Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, "Call for the Shutdown of DAPL

FOSSIL AND FUEL EXTRACTION AND TRIBAL GOVERNMENT

Classes  17-22

Reading:  Andrew Curley (Diné):  Carbon Sovereignty:  Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation

AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM & SACRED SITES    

Class 23:  A Sacred Site in Northwest California   

Readings:  Walt Lara (Yurok) and Kishan Lara-Cooper (Yurok/Hupa/Karuk), "Across the Lagoon:  The Inspiration behind the Northwest Indian Cemetery Protection Association"

Chris Peters (Pohlik-lah/Karuk) and Chisa Oros (Toeme/Zuni), "Protecting Our Sacred Sites:  Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protection Association (NICPA)"

Class 24: 

Film:  "The Peyote Road"

Class 25:  Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protection Association

Reading:  Walter Echohawk (Pawnee/Yakama), "Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Association:  Taking the Holy Places"

Class 26:  States Attempt to Criminalize the Native American Church

Reading:  Walter Echohawk, "Employment Division v. Smith:  Taking the Religion"

Optional reading:  J.S. Slotkin, selection from The Peyote Religion

Class 27  Employment Division v. Smith and the "Smith Fix"