Indian Law Resource Center

The Indian Law Resource Center has multiple job positions open! Please visit the Employment section of our website for further information and how to apply: https://indianlaw.org/about/careers. 

The National Partners Working Group on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and the MMIW Family Advisors have organized a National Week of Action (May 1-May 7, 2023) as a call to action in honor of missing and murdered Indigenous women. This week-long campaign provides a space for inspiring public healing and compelling accountability for this injustice and honors those who have gone missing or have been murdered. It is essential on the broadest level to acknowledge the historic and ongoing, current human suffering and death that global colonization has brought to Indigenous women.

A Parallel Event – NGO CSW Forum

UN Commission on the Status of Women 67th Session

A panel of indigenous women from Brazil, Guatemala, and the United States will discuss how violations of indigenous peoples’ land rights and right of self-government expose their women and girls to racial discrimination, gender-based violence, and other human rights violations and how living in rural communities intensifies these problems.

Helena, Montana, Oct. 11, 2022 – Today, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced the Indian Law Resource Center as one of the top awardees of its Racial Equity 2030 Challenge. The Challenge is awarding $80 million to five projects to help build and scale actionable ideas for transformative change in the systems and institutions that uphold racial inequities. The Center’s Indigenous Lands Initiative will receive $20 million to expand and strengthen indigenous land ownership rights in Mexico and Central and South America. 

Mining company challenging State of Montana decision to require comprehensive review of mining activity

During the pandemic, some Latin American countries were so focused on dealing with Covid that they got distracted from other menaces like drug dealing. In Peru, a cocaine production boom has sieged indigenous territories and some national parks. CGTN America's Dan Collyns brings a story about Narcos versus drug dealers in Peru.

July 28, 2022 -- The United Nations General Assembly made an historic, groundbreaking move, declaring that everyone on this planet has the right to a healthy environment. 

A body of experts (CERD) will review U.S. compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Indian Law Resource Center and several indigenous women’s organizations submitted an alternative report, Violence Against Indigenous Women in the United States, including the Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women, and Lack of Safe and Adequate Housing for Indigenous Survivors, to help CERD gain a fuller picture of the serious human rights situation of indigenous women in the United States.

President Biden proclaimed May 5, 2022, as Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day calling on all Americans and asking “all levels of government to support Tribal governments and Tribal communities’ efforts to increase awareness of the issue of missing or murdered Indigenous persons through appropriate programs and activities” and to “commit to working with tribal Nations and communities to achieve j

As part of the 2022 National Week of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, our webinar will discuss the international legal frameworks applicable to MMIW and other forms of violence committed against Indigenous women. We will also discuss the work that Native women, Tribes, and organizations are engaging in and offer information about how you can get involved in these efforts.

Indigenous women will discuss how climate change may increase and fuel violence against them, and the strategies they are pursuing to restore safety in their communities.

The Center is accepting proposals from strategic communications/public affairs firms that can help us create and implement a robust communications strategy to raise awareness and the profile of our Indigenous land rights case against the government of Guatemala that is now before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.  The selected Firm will help create clear, jargon-free, and moving messages (in English and Spanish) about the case and about Indigenous lands and will help create powerful written and graphic materials secure earned media, and develop public affairs tactics to reach audien

November 16, 2021 - This week, President Biden fulfilled his campaign promise to revive — after a four-year absence — the annual White House Tribal Nations Summit established during the Obama Administration.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, highlighting a critical issue for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN), and Native Hawaiian women who experience domestic violence at significantly higher rates than other women.

The Indian Law Resource Center was named as a finalist in the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Indian Law Resource Center and the nine other finalists were each awarded a grant of $1 million to further develop their proposals as they compete for three grants of $20 million and two grants of $10 million to be awarded next year.

The Center and COIAB (Coordination of Indigenous Organizations in the Brazilian Amazon) sent a letter to President Biden this week, alerting the administration to the increase in human rights violations against indigenous peoples in Brazil and urging the United States to prioritize the protection of indigenous peoples and the Amazon rainforest in U.S. foreign policy. The United States is in a unique position to demonstrate its commitment to fighting climate change and protecting indigenous rights through its actions and policies dealing with the government of Brazil.

Take Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls!

Join us in a National Week of Action (April 29-May 5, 2021) to call the nation and the world to action in honor of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). Take action by participating in these virtual events and organizing additional actions in your communities on or around May 5th.

Thursday, April 29, 2021

An Interview with Armstrong A. Wiggins published in IdeAs Journal

https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/11159

Zortman Exploration Could Worsen Contamination of Tribes’ Water, Land

Media Contact 
Andrew Werk, Jr., President, Fort Belknap Indian Community
406-390-2650 (mobile) | 406-353-8305 (office)
andy.werk@ftbelknap.org

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Carrie Dann.  She was a great champion of Western Shoshone land rights and the rights of all indigenous peoples.  Her inspiration and vision will live on for generations.

On October 10, 2020, two bills were signed into law to help address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women in the United States.  The bills, which were presented to the President on September 30, 2020, follow years of advocacy by indigenous women, tribes, and Native organizations calling for firm action to combat this human rights issue. 

October 1st marks the first day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which offers a critical opportunity to continue to shed light on the issue of domestic violence.

The U.S. Supreme Court held that land in eastern Oklahoma that had been reserved for the Creek Nation in the 1800s remains a reservation today

The Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and the Indian Law Resource Center (the Center) denounce the violation of the human rights of indigenous peoples in isolation and recent contact within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

On April 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear the oral arguments in ten cases by telephone conference on May 4,5,6,11,12, and 13.  The Justices and counsel will participate on the call, and live audio feed is expected to be provided to the news media. The Court previously postponed the hearings in these cases due to the coronavirus.  The specific argument dates will be assigned at a future date.