Experts Debate Indian Law Case Going to US Supreme Court

When the Supreme Court recently granted cert in Carcieri v. Kempthorne – addressing the question of whether Rhode Island’s Narragansett Indians should be permitted to shield some of their land from state and local laws – the RWU Law community took notice.  To read more about his case, click here.

Interest was high, with several student groups coming together to sponsor a screening of “Incident at Oglala” – a compelling 1992 documentary about a confrontation in which two FBI agents were killed during a shootout with a group of Native Americans at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in 1975.

A few days later, Kevin K. Washburn – Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Associate and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School – joined two other experts for a general policy discussion on the restoration of Indian lands in general. It was a serendipitous opportunity: Washburn was already planning a visit to Roger Williams to discuss grand juries!

Professor Washburn is, however, also a nationally-known expert on a range of issues facing American Indians. Casino gambling has been a hot issue in Rhode Island, as it now is in Massachusetts; and Professor Washburn’s service as General Counsel to the National Indian Gaming Commission – the independent body that oversees Indian gaming nationally – made him ideally suited to discuss the Carcieri case and Indian gaming more generally. Further enhancing the program were two lawyers who have been intimately involved in the case – Clare Richards, Special Counsel to Governor Carceri, and Joseph Larisa, Solicitor for the Town of Charlestown. 

A day or two later, 2L Micah Thomas announced that an RWU chapter of the Native American Law Student Association (NALSA) has been added to the Multi-Cultural Law Student Association (MCLSA). The National Native American Law Student Association was founded in 1970 to promote the study of Federal Indian Law, Tribal Law and traditional forms of governance, and to support Native Americans in law school.  Its goals are to reach out to Native communities, encourage Native People to pursue legal education, and educate the Roger Williams legal community about Native issues. Interested students can contact Micah at

I’ll be serving as the group’s faculty advisor and, although it is late in the semester, I am confident that we will be able to fit in a few social and introductory events while laying the groundwork for a very exciting year to come.