The Navajo Nation Supreme Court, the judicial body responsible for upholding Navajo law, made an unprecedented visit to the University Law School Friday.
The court tried the case of a Navajo man from New Mexico named James Kelly. In a lower court, Kelly had been convicted of reckless driving and vehicular homicide. He appealed to the supreme court, arguing the convictions violated the double jeopardy prohibition in the Navajo Bill of Rights. He argued that the charge of reckless driving is embedded in the other conviction.
The proceedings began at 1:30 p.m. in Hutchins Hall with two of the court’s attorneys conducting oral arguments before three justices. The presentation of oral arguments was followed by a panel discussion.
No decision has been handed down.
In a country where indigenous people are an ethnic minority, the Navajo Supreme Court travels around the country to increase public awareness of its existence, said Gavin Clarkson, a visiting professor at the University Law School and a member of the Choctaw Tribe.
Other universities the court has visited include Harvard and Stanford.
The court’s visit was a component of American Indian Law Day, an annual event organized by the University’s Native American Law Students Association.
Expanding from Gallup, New Mexico to Flagstaff, Arizona, the Navajo Nation inhabits the largest land area of the 265 indigenous tribes in the United States. With a population of about 300,000, the Navajo Nation has its own executive, legislative and judicial branches.
The most powerful manifestation of tribal sovereignty is the tribal court, said Paul Spruhan, the permanent law clerk of the Navajo Supreme Court. The task of the courts is to define and interpret the relationship between tribal law and federal law, said Navajo Supreme Court Chief Justice Herb Yazzie.
There is a fundamental difference in the aims of the federal court system and the tribal court system. In the eyes of Yazzie, in the federal system, someone is meant to win and someone is meant to lose.
Yazzie said the task of the tribal system is to ensure the reestablishment of harmony in society. This harmony is reached when all individuals feel that their thoughts, positions and needs are considered, Yazzie said in his opening remarks.
This difference is not meant to suggest total cleavage between the two courts. Yazzie said the courts must work together to coexist peacefully. Within the tribal system, there is a push-pull relationship between statutory law and common law. Common law is adopted from traditional values and cultural norms of the Navajo tribe, especially those passed down orally.
Over time, there has been an erosion of the tribal common law, said Justice Rudy Bedonie.
As a result of pressure to assimilate into “Western” culture, tribal societies began to eschew their traditional values, forgetting what it was like when “Indians were red men,” Bedonie said.
In 2000, Navajo leaders passed legislation mandating the use of common law in Navajo tribal courts, Justice Lorene Ferguson said. Common law has always been in the background, but in the last few years, there has been a strong push to get back to Navajo values.