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Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Deanell Reece Tacha, chief justice for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, spoke at the fourth annual Native Nations Law Symposium on the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas on Monday.

Tacha said the federal courts are often called to resolve jurisdictional disputes in Indian Country. She noted that the U.S. Constitution recognized tribal governments but is not specific.

"Here is the empowering document of this entire government, and those are the only two references to what were pre-existing sovereigns," she said, The St. Joseph News-Press reported. "The result has been a very difficult and interesting history for what sovereignty means in the context of the native nations."

Tacha's court covers tribes in the states of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.

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Justice discusses juridiction issue (The St. Joseph News-Press 8/26)

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