Considering Individual Religious Freedoms under Tribal Constitutional Law
![handle is hein.journals/kjpp14 and id is 577 raw text is: Considering Individual Religious Freedoms
Under Tribal Constitutional Law
Kristen A. Carpenter*
Environment, culture, religion, and life are very much interrelated.
Indeed, they are often one and the same. Water for example, is the
lifeblood of the people. I recall taking a draft tribal water code for
public input into the five villages .... Protection of the water spirits
was a major concern throughout the reservation. And the water spirits
were varied, depending whether the water source was a river, lake, or
spring. I reported back to the attorneys and they laughed at my
findings. However it was no laughing matter when an elderly Cheyenne
with a rifle kept [a] drilling team from crossing his water spring.
Today is a good day to die, he said as he held his own hunting rifle
before him. I defended him in tribal court the next morning and I cried
with him when he told me how the water spirits sometimes came out and
danced in the spring.I
- Gail Small, Northern Cheyenne
As American Indian nations revitalize their legal systems, there is renewed
interest in tribal law, that is, the law of each of the Indian nations.2 Today, there is a
particular focus on the subject of individual rights under tribal law.3 In tribal
contexts, people are highly interested in the legal institutions and rules that govern
their lives, especially as many tribal communities are experiencing a period of great
political, social, and economic change.4 At the national level, the Supreme Court
repeatedly expresses concern about whether individuals, especially non-Indians, will
be treated fairly in tribal court.5 For scholars, individual rights under tribal law raises a
number of issues including the potential tension between individual rights and the
collective interests and cultures of Indian tribes,6 the relationship between federal and
tribal law as sources of individual rights,7 and the meaning of tribal sovereignty in the
contemporary era.8 For those outside the Indian law field, the question of American
Indians' individual rights in tribal settings seems to inspire reflection on the broader
question of individual rights under law.9
This article attempts to contribute to the discussion about individual rights
under tribal law by examining the specific area of individual religious freedoms. In
particular, it explores, in the religious freedoms context, an emerging scholarly
consensus that the presence of individual rights in tribal settings represents the
561](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/kjpp14&div=34&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Considering Individual Religious Freedoms under Tribal Constitutional Law
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most