Laws of New York and Tribal Courts

            Since the first conflict between the Native Americans and Euro-Americans, they have had conflicting views about what society should be like and how government should be run. It was and still is an ongoing issue. Reading through the New York Federal-State-Tribal Courts and Indian Nations Justice Forum website, information being shared about how courts have dealt with the different laws has proven my opinions of Native American societies. The site is provided by the New York Tribal courts and displays many ideas that are ongoing in trying to figure out what to do about US and Tribal courts. The purpose of this website is to display perspectives of the NY Tribes and their government that are still around today. In the history section of the webpage it is explained that the New York Court of Appeals wants to set up a New York Tribal Courts Committee to study and figure out the possibility of establishing a federal-state law forum of NY. This is to explore how the different justice systems might be able to cooperate to foster mutual understanding and minimize conflict (http://www.nyfedstatetribalcourtsforum.org/history.shtml). As I said before, we are still having conflicting ideas between the two governments today. The Forum was created and now meets biannually to creatively respond to its mission. They discussion major issues such as Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the resolution of jurisdictional conflicts arising from disparate rulings among federal, state and tribal justice systems, and the need to educate state and federal judges on tribal law and culture. This is a huge accomplishment compared to the struggle between Indian law and American law (http://www.nyfedstatetribalcourtsforum.org/history.shtml).

            Personally, I feel this website with all the other were used in this module because they explain the conflicts we have read about in history and show their impact on society today. Academic websites consist of facts and sources that can be double checked and proven to be true. They also typically use .org, .net, or .edu as the ending of their web address. This website does this exact thing and also provides as much information as they can with resources supporting them. This website has the following in it:

• ·        The history of its subject
• ·        Project information they are working on
• ·        Indian Nations part of it
• ·        Treaties it is active in
• ·        Laws and decisions made by it
• ·        Forum conference information
• ·        Members
• ·        Events and announcements going on with its forum meetings
• ·        Additional resources for the website
• ·        And last but not least, different ways to contact them for any questions or concerns.

All of this information gives someone opportunities to learn as much as they want about the forum and the issues they are focusing on.

            This website proves to me the views I have had all along about Native Americans are completely true. They have fought hard and long for their laws and beliefs. Nothing has changed my perspective of them. They are tough and strong people who we could learn a lot from. Just the history of this webpage alone has proven this. For example, “On May 22, 2003, the committee met in Liverpool, New York, with representatives of New York’s nine state-recognized Indian Tribes and Nations to ascertain their interest in developing a federal-states-tribal courts forum…The initial meeting sought to identify topics of special concern to the Nations” (http://www.nyfedstatetribalcourtsforum.org/history.shtml). I enjoyed this web page and really found it useful in learning about the laws of New York and Indian relations.

References

http://www.nyfedstatetribalcourtsforum.org/history.shtml. Accessed November 2, 2014.