Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies Symposium 2015

March 4-6, 2015
University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College

“’Contested Legal Realities’: Different Approaches to the Law in Indian Country” is a 3-day symposium that focuses on non-lawyer perspectives of legal issues in Indian Country. The concept for this symposium arose from a discussion within the Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies colloquium. Our aim is to build on that conversation by hosting a day of round-table panels and break-out groups involving critical thinking at the crossroads of the Connecticut River Valley. The symposium is open to students, faculty, staff, community members and the general public.

Indian law is a unique field, which requires a comprehensive understanding of history, textual interpretation and federal Indian policies. A law firm that attempts to represent a tribe, particularly in a suit against state or federal governments, without understanding the relevant history may fail to contextualize the problem at hand. Thinking only within the bounds of federal Indian law, constraints created by the federal government to keep it firmly entrenched as the ultimate arbitrator, has often lead to failure. Attorneys and researchers need to step outside the law, outside the precedents, to develop unique strategies and perspectives on the cases that they represent as well as the critical apparatus to analyze cases within a multidisciplinary framework. Thus, this symposium seeks to gather together Indigenous Studies scholars outside the field of law to consider interdisciplinary approaches to legal issues as well as to invite community-based scholars to consider (and critique) those approaches in light of recent cases and longer histories.  Ultimately, we hope to build dialogues that can empower Native nations, and their representatives, in the protection of their rights and resources.

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

Wednesday, March 4

6:00-9:00 ~  Film screening of “Into America” with Angelo Baca at Elm Hall, Room 212 and 214, Honors College, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Enter through Howard Classroom Wing entrances. (See detailed campus map)

Thursday, March 5

4:00-6:00 ~ Symposium Reception at Alumni House, Amherst College

Friday, March 6

Symposium ~ Pruyne Auditorium in Fayerweather Hall, Amherst College (map)

8:30-9:30 ~ Breakfast

9:30-12:30 ~ Roundtable Panels and Discussion

12:30-2:00 ~ Lunch

2:00-3:30 ~ Breakout discussions: meet in Porter Lounge, Converse Hall, Amherst College

3:30-4:00 ~ Closing Remarks

Invited Roundtable Participants:

Maria Girouard, Penobscot Indian Nation

J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Wesleyan University

Doug Kiel, Williams College

jessie little doe baird, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

Beth Piatote, University of California, Berkeley

Josh Reid, University of Massachusetts, Boston

 

Parking on Wednesday is available (for a small fee) at the UMASS Campus Center Parking Garage and on Thursday and Friday at the Amherst College Alumni House Lot.

For more information please contact a member of the symposium organizing committee:

Kathleen  Brown-Perez brown-perez@honors.umass.edu

Kiara Vigil kvigil@amherst.edu

Christine DeLucia cdelucia@mtholyoke.edu

 

Co-sponsors include the Five Colleges, Inc. and The Jackie Pritzen Fund; Graduate College and Commonwealth Honors College, University of Massachusetts Amherst; the Dean of Faculty and the Departments of American Studies, English, History, SWAGS, and Anthropology/Sociology at Amherst College; the Dean of Faculty and History Department at Mount Holyoke College; the American Studies Department at Smith College; the Culture, Brain, and Development Program at Hampshire College; and Gedakina.