David A.Cordero Heredia & Nicholas Koeppen, Oil Extraction, Indigenous Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation, and Genocide: The Case of the Tagaeri and Taromenane Peoples, 34 Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 117 (2021)
This Article utilizes the crime of genocide's requisite elements to analyze the massacres of the Tagaeri and Taromenane Peoples (Tagaeri-Taromenane). The Tagaeri-Taromenane are Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation in the Ecuadorian Amazon who are endangered by the oil and timber industries and the expansion of peasant settlements in their territory. This Article first provides a brief history of the Tagaeri-Taromenane massacres and then discusses the “intent to destroy a group” element of the crime of genocide as enumerated in international human rights jurisprudence. In concluding, the authors propose that the oil industry's public and private actors' direct control over the events that led to the massacres could establish criminal liability for those actors.
Bill Piatt, Moises Gonzales, & Katja Wolf, Law Schools Harm Genízaros and Other Indigenous People by Misunderstanding ABA Policy, 49 N.M. L. Rev. 236 (2019)
It is important from the outset to note that we are not urging that law schools in any fashion deny admission to tribally-enrolled Indians nor add to their burdens in the law school application process. We understand that some schools will continue to require “proof of citizenship” from an applicant as one method to establish Indian identity. However, for the reasons to follow, we would urge that schools which are going to continue to demand “papers” should also understand that a heritage statement is a meaningful method of ensuring that Indigenous diversity includes those “without papers” but who nonetheless can demonstrate their Indigenous heritage. Genízaros and others descend from slaves whose proof of tribal identity was stolen from them when they were captured and forced into slavery. They have *238 maintained their culture and identity through the oral traditions handed down from their ancestors. Recently, Genízaro scholars have begun the process of documenting the Genízaro history and experience. It is time for law schools, and as a result, other educational institutions, to recognize these realities.
Bill Piatt, Rennard Leaves Us Words of Thunder, 46 Am. Indian L. Rev. 271 (2022)
Rennard Strickland was a quiet, modest, genial man who made many contributions to legal education over the span of his career. Among his most important gifts are the words he wrote and spoke which alerted us to the extent that the legal system contributed to the genocide of Indigenous America. These words, these words of thunder, continue to resonate.
Bill Piatt, Respecting the Identity and Dignity of All Indigenous Americans, 6 How. Hum. & C.R.L. Rev. 83 (2022)
The United States government attempted to eliminate Native Americans through outright physical extermination and later by the eradication of Indian identity through a boarding school system and other “paper genocide” mechanisms. One of those mechanisms is the recognition of some Natives but not the majority, including those who ancestors were enslaved. The assistance provided to recognized tribes by the government is inadequate to compensate for the historical and continuing suffering these people endure. And yet the problem is compounded for those unrecognized Natives whose ancestors were enslaved and whose tribal identity was erased. They are subjected to a double-barreled discrimination. That is, they suffer the same discrimination and deprivation of resources as their recognized brothers and sisters yet are unable to qualify for government assistance. The system thus pits recognized Indians against unrecognized Indians in a struggle for inadequate resources. This leaves the majority of American Indians striving to survive as they attempt to maintain their Indian identity and dignity. While they continue to preserve the cultural and religious practices of their ancestors, they often find themselves to be the victims of “pretendian” attacks. This Article examines an approach to resolving this conflict, respecting the identity and dignity of all Indigenous Americans.
