Federal Indian Law I (Law Students or AIS students) or AIS 584-Development of Federal Indian Law & Policy (required for AIS students and other graduate students), or permission of instructor.

 The course emphasis will be American Indian tribal governments, tribal courts, tribal peacemaking, tribal laws, and American Indian customary law, with a special focus on Navajo common law as a case study model. The instructor for the course is a retired Associate Justice of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court

Required Texts: Ray Austin, Navajo Courts and Navajo Common Law, A Tradition of Tribal Self-Governance (University of Minnesota Press, 2009), Marianne O. Nielsen and James W. Zion, Navajo Nation Peacemaking (University of Arizona Press, 2005), and copied materials to be purchased. Recommended Text (not required): Getches, Wilkinson, Williams & Fletcher, Federal Indian Law: Cases and Materials (6th ed.) (students will read some cases from this text for in-class presentations).

This will be a traditional law school course, with lecture, discussion, speakers, and in-class presentations.

No written assignments.

In-class projects: 1) Students will prepare arguments for in-class presentation on a case of major importance to Indian country; and 2) Students will be assigned a role which will be used to solve a problem in a peacemaking session.

Final take home exam

Final examination and in-class presentations.