Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program

The National Jurist Recognizes Arizona Law Among Best Schools for Practical Training The National Jurist Recognizes Arizona Law Among Best Schools for Practical Training Thursday Suzi Morales #7 ranking reflects valuable clinic experience in diverse practice areas, serving clients from all walks of life Image As a student in the University of Arizona Innocence Project, rising third-...

IPLP alumnus and Professor of Practice Leo K. Killsback wrote this Earthjustice article about the proposed Keystone 2.0 pipeline and the cultural and relational significance of land to Indigenous peoples.

https://earthjustice.org/experts/leo-killsback/a-warriors-path-and-the-pipeline-that-could-cut-it

https://earthjustice.org/experts/leo-killsback/a-warriors-path-and-the-pipeline-that-could-cut-it

A Warrior’s Path and the Pipeline That Could Cut It Earthjustice will stand with our partners to challenge Keystone 2.0 in court if the government agencies charged with avoiding such devastation fail to follow the law.

IPLP SJD candidate Ljavaus Guo recently presented her research at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's Fifteenth Annual Conference, held July 22-24 in Wallmapu, Chile (the ancestral and historical territory of the Indigenous Mapuche nation).

Guo's article, “Indigenous Self-Determination and Taiwan’s Emerging Carbon Market: Indigenous Exclusion and the Need for Early Intervention,” examines how Taiwan’s developing carbon market may exclude Indigenous Peoples from meaningful decision-making. The article also explores how Indigenous self-determination, land rights, knowledge systems, and governing institutions can be incorporated into climate policy from the beginning.

“NAISA showed me that an academic conference can be more than a place to present research. It can bring scholars and Indigenous communities together in reciprocal relationships that support Indigenous rights, self-determination, and nation-building.”

Congratulations to Guo on this impressive achievement!

“We’re dealing with an administration right now that is not particularly conciliatory in any way…and [is] willing to move far outside of the boundaries which other administrations have been willing to operate under,” Richotte said. “What that means for Indian Country is hard to tell right now, but it is a reminder that the fight for sovereignty is constant, and one needs to be ever vigilant.”

Professor Keith Richotte is quoted in this Mother Jones article about the proposed Border Wall through Tohono O'odam land.

DHS Wants To Build A Border Wall Through Tohono O’odham Land. It’s Another Instance of The US Undermining Tribal Sovereignty. The nation says the wall would be "devastating" to its lands and people.

Professor Elisa Marchi participated at a side event held during the twenty-eighth meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-28) in Nairobi. The event focused on findings from an IUCN-led scoping study carried out in collaboration with the IPLP which highlighted a critical issue for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: ensuring effective access to grievance, redress and remedy for Indigenous Peoples affected by conservation initiatives.

The latest issue of the Arizona Attorney Magazine features several articles by IPLP and Arizona Law alumni as part of its Special Focus series on Indian Law.
• Leo K. Killsback (’25), Tribal Banishment and Disenrollment in Arizona’s Indian Country
• Hallie Bongar White (’91), Death, Culture and a System in Transition
• Jonah Rappazzo and Justin Ruggieri (’00), Time Is of the Essence

Arizona Attorney - Special Focus : Indian Law Welcome to our eighth annual issue focused on Indian Law and practice.

The next tribal court certificate course, Tribal Criminal Law and Procedure, starts Aug 24, 2026. Register today!

The Tribal Courts & Justice Administration (TCJA) professional development certificate provides a strong foundation in the workings of tribal courts and justice systems, preparing you for a wide range of tribal-justice related careers. The curriculum covers the foundations of Native American law and policy, with a focus on federal Indian law, tribal courts, tribal criminal law, and tribal family law - all taught by industry leading faculty in the field.

To learn more, please visit our website pascuayaqui.arizona.edu

Faculty from the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) Program had a strong presence at the 19th annual session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), held July 13–17, 2026, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Professors Elisa Marchi and Heather Whiteman Runs Him helped organize and presented at multiple events and engaged with EMRIP officials and Indigenous human rights experts. As part of the annual session, IPLP co-sponsored three EMRIP events:
• UNDRIP at 20: Charting the Next Twenty Years of Indigenous Peoples' Human Rights
• Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact: Lessons from EMRIP's Dialogue with Brazil
• From Advisory Opinions to Advocacy: Indigenous Peoples and International Climate Jurisprudence, featuring Professor Elisa Marchi

During the “From Advisory Opinions to Advocacy” event, Professor Marchi highlighted the many ways programs like IPLP have helped to advance Indigenous human rights, noting IPLP’s role in the historic Awas Tingni case and ongoing projects like the Indigenous Rights & Protected Areas Initiative (https://indigenous.arizona.edu/)

EMRIP Vice-Chair and IPLP alumna Anexa Brendalee Alfred Cunnungham made several presentations, including on EMRIP's country engagement with Brazil, where she specifically acknowledger the support provided by IPLP.

📸 credit Melanie Nelson

This summer IPLP students are gaining valuable experience serving Native clients and communities, and advancing tribal sovereignty, in a wide range of fields including Native serving non-profits, legal advocacy organizations, private law firms, and tribal governments.

Marisella is working as a Summer Intern with the Pascua Yaqui Attorney General's Office, where she is conducting legal research and drafting memoranda while learning about the wide range of legal issues that arise across tribal council and the tribe's various departments.

IPLP alumna Melemaikalani (Mele) Moniz, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, has kept a swift pace over the course of the fall and summer organizing research projects, presenting at conferences, and publishing her research. We are so proud to see the impact of her work!

On May 13, 2026, she moderated a panel at the Abundant Intelligences Student Symposium on Indigenous Futures, titled "Indigenous Knowledges: Confronting the ongoing colonialism of western institutions," where she discussed how Indigenous relationality can inform the construction of AI systems across disciplines.

On May 16, 2026, Moniz participated in the Sacred Traditions, Embodied Ritual, and Cultural Memory panel at The University of Oxford. The paper she discussed, E Ola Mau: The Sacredness of Hula in Native Hawaiian Identity, examines how the multi-dimensionality of hula informs Kānaka ‘Ōiwi identity construction and how its appropriation and commodification relegate this sacred form of dance to mere performance, which further inhibits the reclamation and full expression of our identity as a people existing since the beginning of time.

On June 10, 2026, she gave a poster presentation of my paper, Toward A Decolonial Framework for Artificial Intelligence, at the Big Thinking Summit in Edmonton, Canada. Moniz’ paper investigates the intersection of AI, settler colonialism, and technological imperialism within the context of Oceania and will be included as a chapter in the forthcoming book, AI and Indigenous Peoples. The following day, she presented her paper, The Abundant Soils Papahonua, at the same conference.

On June 24, 2026, a paper Moniz wrote for the 12th International Indigenous Librarians' Forum, Reconceptualizing Repatriation: Native Hawaiian kuleana in repatriation as an exercise of sovereignty, was published as part of the conference proceedings. In her paper, she seeks to address the limitations of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) on Kānaka ‘Ōiwi by reconceptualizing the colonial construct of “repatriation” to consider how colonization in all its forms impacts the capacity of Kānaka ‘Ōiwi to identify, receive, and reintern nā iwi kūpuna and moepū.

“Mahalo piha to Professor Robert A. Williams, Jr. for his mentorship, steadfast encouragement, and heartfelt aloha. Mahalo piha to Professor Rebecca Tsosie for her time, invaluable feedback, and unwavering support. Not only have Professor Williams and Professor Tsosie been integral to my development as a Native legal scholar, but their many contributions have made it possible for me to give my contribution. In honoring my ancestors, I too honor them as part of my intellectual moʻokūʻauhau or genealogy as their scholarship remains foundational to my becoming.”