Event Title
Legal Frontiers in Toxic Waste: The Special Issues of Toxic Waste in Indian County
Location
University of Richmond School of Law
Start Date
1992 12:00 AM
Description
"Indian Sovereignty: The Role of Indian Tribes Under Federal Law" lecture given by W. Richard West, member of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Founding Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.
"The Hard Trail of Decolonizing and Americanizing the White Man's Indian Jurisprudence: History and its Effect on the Environment in Indian Country" lecture given by Robert A. Williams, Jr., Lumbee Trieb of North Carolina, Professor of Law and Director of Indian Programs at the Univ. of Arizona.
"Indian Stories: The Lives, Reservations, and Values of the People the Law Affects" lecture given by Paula Gunn Allen, member of the Laguna Pueblo and Sioux Tribes, Professor of English at UCLA.
"The Current and Future Existence of Toxic Wastes on Tribal Lands: What Will the Future Hold for the Tribes" lecture given by David Harrison, member of the Osage Tribes of Oklahoma, Executive Director of the National Tribal Council.
Legal Frontiers in Toxic Waste: The Special Issues of Toxic Waste in Indian County
University of Richmond School of Law
"Indian Sovereignty: The Role of Indian Tribes Under Federal Law" lecture given by W. Richard West, member of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Founding Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.
"The Hard Trail of Decolonizing and Americanizing the White Man's Indian Jurisprudence: History and its Effect on the Environment in Indian Country" lecture given by Robert A. Williams, Jr., Lumbee Trieb of North Carolina, Professor of Law and Director of Indian Programs at the Univ. of Arizona.
"Indian Stories: The Lives, Reservations, and Values of the People the Law Affects" lecture given by Paula Gunn Allen, member of the Laguna Pueblo and Sioux Tribes, Professor of English at UCLA.
"The Current and Future Existence of Toxic Wastes on Tribal Lands: What Will the Future Hold for the Tribes" lecture given by David Harrison, member of the Osage Tribes of Oklahoma, Executive Director of the National Tribal Council.
Comments
The Allen Seminar addresses this broad subject by targeting an identifiable group of citizens and their governments presently affected by the full range of toxic waste issues. Both recent federal environmental legislation and Environmental Protection Agency policy recognize Indian tribes as sovereigns clue the status of states in controlling the environment in Indian Country. Faced with how to exercise control over toxic substances on their lands, Indians stand at a crucial crossroad. Over three percent of the land mass of the United States--an area larger than New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont combined--is controlled by over 250 Indian tribes. The majority of tribes have had their homelands limited entirely to reservations which form the cultural, political, and economic basis of the tribe. The land plays an extraordinary role for the Indians, and if the land itself is threatened by toxic waste, as is the case in many regions, then Indian existence is threatened as well. This year's Seminar brings together four outstanding Native American intellectual leaders and scholars to focus on the issues that toxic waste presents in Indian Country. The Indian Nations and their responses to toxic waste problems form a microcosm for the study of legal, political, social and ethical issues facing all Americans in our search for ways to deal with this environmental challenge.