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tannerallread.bsky.social
Tanner Allread
@tannerallread.bsky.social
5.4K followers 350 following 63 posts
Milanovich Fellow, UCLA Law | Ph.D. in History, Stanford | J.D., Stanford Law | Indian Law Scholar and Legal Historian | Okie | Chahta | Queer | he/him/his
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Reposted by Tanner Allread
mjsdc.bsky.social
Washington Supreme Court Justice Mungia has an extraordinary opinion condemning "the underlying racism and prejudices that are woven into the very fabric" of SCOTUS opinions about Native people.

"We must clearly, loudly, and unequivocally state that was wrong.”
www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf...
MUNGIA, J. (concurring)—I concur with the majority’s opinion.1 And yet I dissent. Not from the majority’s opinion, but I dissent from the racism embedded in the federal case law that applies to this dispute. FEDERAL INDIAN LAW IS A PRODUCT OF THE RACIST BELIEFS ENDEMIC IN OUR SOCIETY AND OUR LEGAL SYSTEM While it is certainly necessary to follow federal case law on issues involving Native American tribes and their members, at the same time it is important to call out that the very foundations of those opinions were based on racism and white supremacy. By doing this, readers of our opinions will have no doubt that the current court disavows, and condemns, those racist sentiments, beliefs, and statements. Since the founding of our country, the federal government has characterized Native Americans as “savages”: They were “uncivilized.” They had little claim to the land upon which they lived. At times, the federal government attempted to eradicate Native Americans through genocidal policies. At other times, the federal government employed ethnic cleansing by forcibly removing children from their parents’ homes to strip them from their culture, their language, and their beings.2 Federal Indian case law arises from those racist underpinnings. The majority correctly cites to Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1, 8 L. Ed. 25 (1831), which is one of the foundational cases involving tribal sovereignty. That opinion is rife with racist attitudes toward Native Americans. Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for the majority, describes a tribe’s relationship to the federal government as one of “ward to his guardian.” Id. at 17. In effect, the opinion presents tribal members as children, and the federal government as the adult. That theme would follow in later opinions by the United States Supreme Court—as would the theme of white supremacy. Cherokee Nation began with the premise that Native American tribes, once strong and powerful, were no match for the white race and so found themselves “gradually sinking beneath our superior policy, our arts and our arms.” Id. at 15. The white man was considered the teacher, the Native Americans the pupils: Meanwhile they are in a state of pupilage. Their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian. Id. at 17. This characterization of superior to inferior, teacher to student, guardian to ward, was repeated in later United States Supreme Court opinions. In Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U.S. 553, 23 S. Ct. 216, 47 L. Ed. 299 (1903), often characterized as the “American Indian Dred Scott,” 3 the Court used that rationale to justify ruling that the United States could break its treaties with Native American tribes. These Indian tribes are the wards of the nation. They are communities dependent on the United States. Dependent largely for their daily food. Dependent for their political rights. . . . From their very weakness and helplessness . . . there arises the duty of protection, and with it the power. Id. at 567 (quoting United States v. Kagama, 118 U.S. 375, 383-84, 6 S. Ct. 1109, 30 L. Ed. 228 (1886)). Our court also carries the shame of denigrating Native Americans by using that same characterization: “The Indian was a child, and a dangerous child, of nature, to be both protected and restrained.” State v. Towessnute, 89 Wash. 478, 482, 154 P. 805 (1916), judgment vacated and opinion repudiated by 197 Wn.2d 574, 486 P.3d 111 (2020). 3 See A Returning to Cherokee Nation, Justice William Johnson’s separate opinion was less tempered in how he considered the various Native American tribes: I cannot but think that there are strong reasons for doubting the applicability of the epithet state, to a people so low in the grade of organized society as our Indian tribes most generally are. Cherokee Nation, 30 U.S. at 21. Native Americans were not to be treated as “equals to equals” but, instead, the United States was the conqueror and Native Americans the conquered. Id. at 23. In discussing Native Americans, Justice Johnson employed another racist trope used by judges both before and after him: Native Americans were uncivilized savages. [W]e have extended to them the means and inducement to become agricultural and civilized. . . . Independently of the general influence of humanity, these people were restless, warlike, and signally cruel. . . . . But I think it very clear that the constitution neither speaks of them as states or foreign states, but as just what they were, Indian tribes . . . which the law of nations would regard as nothing more than wandering hordes, held together only by ties of blood and habit, and having neither laws or government, beyond what is required in a savage state. Id. at 23, 27-28. This same characterization was used by Justice Stanley Matthews in Ex parte KanGi-Shun-Ca (otherwise known as Crow Dog), 109 U.S. 556, 3 S. Ct. 396, 27 L. Ed. 1030 (1883). Justice Matthews described Native Americans as leading a savage life.
October 10, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Tanner Allread
statecourtreport.org
NEW: There are 574 federally recognized American Indian tribes in the United States, each with their own unique legal system. @milov-cordobam.bsky.social and Dan Lewerenz provide a brief overview of the tribal courts, law, and constitutions that shape governance for American Indian tribes.
Tribal Courts and Constitutions of American Indian Tribes
Tribal courts and constitutions shape governance for American Indian tribes, balancing sovereignty with federal law in their unique legal systems. 
statecourtreport.org
August 18, 2025 at 4:21 PM
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rebeccanagle.bsky.social
IMO, if Indigenous nations are sovereign, then we are responsible for our mistakes. We cannot hold the United States accountable for the wrongs of history committed against us, but not take account for our wrong of chattel slavery. On the long path of repair, citizenship is only the first step.
July 25, 2025 at 1:02 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
This is huge!! A win for Freedmen and another step in the right direction for Native nations upholding treaty rights!
nondocmedia.bsky.social NonDoc @nondocmedia.bsky.social · Jul 23
The #Muscogee Nation Supreme Court affirmed a district court’s ruling that Muscogee #Freedmen are entitled to tribal citizenship. The ruling, which ends a decades-long battle, strikes references to "by-blood" requirements from all of the tribes's laws.

nondoc.com/2025/07/23/m...
Muscogee high court rules 1866 treaty requires Freedmen citizenship, strikes 'by blood' language
The Muscogee Nation Supreme Court ruled July 23, 2025, that Freedmen descendants can be tribal citizens, voiding a 1979 constitutional change
nondoc.com
July 24, 2025 at 2:18 AM
tannerallread.bsky.social
Couldn’t think of a better book on the constitutional history of the early American republic! The Interbellum Constitution (and really all of Alison’s work) is masterful scholarship!
shearites.bsky.social SHEAR @shearites.bsky.social · Jul 19
Congratulations to Alison LaCroix on winning The SHEAR Book Prize. #SHEAR2025
July 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
So well deserved! Go read Sarah’s amazing scholarship on abolition and Black activism in New York!
shearites.bsky.social SHEAR @shearites.bsky.social · Jul 19
Congratulations to Sarah L.H. Gronningsater on winning The James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize. #SHEAR2025
July 20, 2025 at 9:13 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
This was a really fun panel!! And it was an honor to sit alongside and be in conversation with some of the best constitutional historians: Mary Sarah Bilder, @rachelshelden.bsky.social, @janemanners.bsky.social, & @jdmortenson.bsky.social. And thanks to @jgienapp.bsky.social for organizing this!
July 20, 2025 at 8:49 PM
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rebeccanagle.bsky.social
At a moment when the problems our world is facing feel insurmountable, I found a lot of inspiration in this. My friend and reporter Allison Herrera sat down with recently freed Leonard Peltier, one of the longest-serving political prisoners in the U.S.
Leonard Peltier talks freedom, future after nearly 50 years in prison
After spending most of his life behind bars, Leonard Peltier now lives in a home on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa reservation in North Dakota. He says he has no regrets but still harbors…
www.mprnews.org
July 11, 2025 at 12:17 AM
tannerallread.bsky.social
Nice to have my work on tribal constitutions become directly relevant to my own tribe. Read what I had to say hear:
nondocmedia.bsky.social NonDoc @nondocmedia.bsky.social · Jul 3
Citizens of the #Choctaw Nation are voting on 5 proposed constitutional amendments alongside their July 12 Tribal Council elections, including one which would lessen the nation's Bill of Rights and jeopardize same-sex marriage and adoption protections.

nondoc.com/2025/07/03/a...
Among 5 Choctaw constitutional amendments on ballot, one would lessen 'Bill of Rights'
Five Choctaw constitutional amendments are on a July 12, 2025, ballot alongside the nation's regularly scheduled Tribal Council elections.
nondoc.com
July 3, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Tanner Allread
toreydolan.bsky.social
The Oklahoma Supreme Court (post-McGirt v. Oklahoma) has been making a mockery of law through its egregious and incoherent misapplication of fundamental Indian law principles. Yesterday, they did so once again re: income taxes: turtletalk.blog/wp-content/u...
turtletalk.blog
July 2, 2025 at 7:03 PM
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crispinsouth.com
Happy to share that my Note, “Transplanted Rights in the Choctaw Nation: Threats to Sovereignty and Potential Solutions,” has been published in the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights!

Link below if #LawSky #LawTwitter wants to check it out!
sites.utexas.edu
June 10, 2025 at 4:16 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
Someone want to help arrange this for me as a PhD graduation gift?? Have been wanting to do a long train trip for years!
jpbrammer.bsky.social JP @jpbrammer.bsky.social · Apr 26
some wealthy patron should give me a bunch of money to write an essay about spending a week in a fancy sleeper car on a train. I probably wouldn't have anything insightful to say but the whole time I'd be like "WHEEEEE!!"
April 26, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Tanner Allread
alexfay.bsky.social
I’ve been sitting on a paper. I’ve been reluctant to share this Elk v Wilkins piece because it was written almost entirely before the current birthright citizenship travesty. It’s coming out in Wash. U’s upcoming symposium volume.
Abstract Table of Contents
April 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
Read the experts, @bethanyberger.bsky.social & Greg Ablavsky, on the accurate history of Native peoples and birthright citizenship 👇
bethanyberger.bsky.social Bethany Berger @bethanyberger.bsky.social · Apr 19
Trump & his lawyers rely on the 14th Amendment's treatment of Native people to redefine birthright citizenship. In our Essay coming out in the NYU Law Review Online, Greg Ablavsky & I show how wrong that argument is. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Subject to the Jurisdiction Thereof: The Indian Law Context
<p><span>Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
papers.ssrn.com
April 19, 2025 at 6:56 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
I’m a former fellow, and highly recommend that people apply!
gauthamrao.bsky.social Gautham Rao @gauthamrao.bsky.social · Apr 1
SHEAR offers fellowships to scholars examining African diasporic, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian American, and/or Pacific Island history from 1776 to 1861. Scholars from underrepresented backgrounds, early career, contingent faculty encouraged to apply.

shear.org/about-us/she...
SHEAR DEI Research Fellowships – SHEAR
shear.org
April 1, 2025 at 3:41 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
This fellow Choctaw scholar totally agrees 👇
toreydolan.bsky.social Torey Dolan @toreydolan.bsky.social · Mar 28
My ancestors have not lived and died fighting for Choctaw Nation’s sovereignty, including negotiating the Nation’s powers over U.S. citizens within the Nation, for legal scholars to play in my face like this.
March 28, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Tanner Allread
toreydolan.bsky.social
Immigrants are not Indians. Full stop. Indian law re: Indians is not applicable to non-Indians.
March 28, 2025 at 4:51 PM
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alexfay.bsky.social
I have an article forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review! And now it’s up on SSRN.

Comments, suggestions, and criticism are welcome.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Courts of Indian Offenses, Courts of Indian Resistance
<p><span>In the late nineteenth century, the Department of the Interior created the Courts of Indian Offenses with the express goal of eliminating elements of N
papers.ssrn.com
March 19, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Tanner Allread
arielagross.bsky.social
This will be amazing!! RSVP now to hold your spot- 6 brilliant constitutional law and history scholars discussing how the stories we tell about the past shape our future. MCLE credit available. @acslaw.bsky.social @marthasjones.bsky.social @olatij.bsky.social @fpeterson.bsky.social
March 17, 2025 at 5:40 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
Very important article and 🧵 from @briandelay.bsky.social!
March 17, 2025 at 9:30 PM
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kathleenduval.bsky.social
I’m thrilled to share that Native Nations has won the Bancroft Prize www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/a...
Histories of Native America and the Port of Los Angeles Win Bancroft Prize
The award, one of the most prestigious among scholars of American history, honors “scope, significance, depth of research and richness of interpretation.”
www.nytimes.com
March 5, 2025 at 7:35 PM
tannerallread.bsky.social
Come join us if you’re in the Bay Area! It’s going to be a great event with an amazing lineup of federal judges, Indian law scholars, and practitioners!
law.stanford.edu Stanford Law School @law.stanford.edu · Feb 20
On Feb. 21 & 22, Stanford Law Review will host their symposium discussing a quarter century of Federal Indian Law in the Supreme Court. Leading scholars will present cutting-edge research alongside other prominent thinkers and practitioners.

RSVP today: law.stanford.edu/event/stanfo...
February 20, 2025 at 6:37 PM