Navajo Case Centers On Important Precedent

Justice and history came to Harvard this weekend as the Navajo Supreme Court sat in a special session at the Harvard Law School (HLS) to hear the case of the Navajo Nation v. Russell Means.

At issue in the case is whether the Navajo Nation has criminal jurisdiction over Means, an American Indian who is Sioux but who has lived for a decade on a Navajo reservation with his half-Navajo wife.

The event, which capped a weekend of activities at HLS aimed at informing the Harvard community about American Indian law, represents the first time a tribal court has sat in session at the University, said HLS Dean Robert C. Clark in a press release.

The Navajo tribal court is the largest tribal court system in the United States, with 17 justices handling over 90,000 cases annually in seven districts that span the 27,000-square-mile Navajo reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

As the Memorial Church bells signaled 10 a.m. Saturday the three justices--Navajo Nation Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Yazzie and Associate Justices Raymond D. Austin and Irene M. Toledo--took their seats at the front of the Ames Courtroom.

Means is charged by the Navajo with one count of "threatening" and two counts of "battery" from a 1997 incident between Means and his in-laws. An Oglala Sioux actor, Means is the first national director of the American Indian Movement, an Indian rights group that led a two-month-long standoff at Wounded Knee, S.D. in 1973.

Means has also appeared in "Last of the Mohicans" and was the voice of Pocahontas' father in Pocahontas.

Through his attorney John Trebon, Means argued that the Navajo Nation does not maintain jurisdiction over him because of a 1990 Supreme Court ruling that held that a "tribe's inherent powers extend only to members of that tribe."

Congress later negated that ruling when they amended the Indian Civil Rights Act. Under the revised act, a tribe's criminal jurisdiction covers all Native Americans.

Trebon argued that Means is the victim of racial discrimination because the Navajo Nation only has authority over him because he is an American Indian. Trebon pointed out that Means cannot vote or hold public office in the Navajo Nation, asking, "Why should he be subject to Navajo law?"

The Navajo Nation's chief prosecutor, Donovan D. Brown, said Means consented to Navajo law by living on the Navajo reservation.

Yazzie conveyed the seriousness of the issue as he indicated that crime on Indian reservations has increased in recent years, bucking a national trend.

The Navajo Nation case comes at a critical juncture for the tribe, which uses its court to address legal issues while respecting the Navajo way--a unique combination of traditional tribal dispute-resolution and Anglo-American judicial methods.

The justices did not make a ruling at the hearing. A decision will be made after the justices return to their jurisdiction in Arizona.

"Until then, we thank you for your good work," said Yazzie to the lawyers as he adjourned the case. "The court stands in recess."

According to materials distributed at the hearing, it is likely Navajo Nation v. Russell Means is "one of the most important in Indian Law in recent times" and as "very likely" to be heard by the Supreme Court.

Afterwards the justices entertained questions from the audience. One man who stood said that he was "glad to see so many brown faces in the audience."

Yazzie succinctly summed the goal of the Navajo Nation legal process, "to put the pieces back together. [And to answer the question of] how do we restore good back to person, family and community?"