Richard Deertrack, member of the Law Center's Board of Directors, member of Taos Pueblo, and former client, wrote in the Fall 1997 issue of the Green Fire Report:

Many Indian tribes…don't feel they can have an effect on environmental issues and they feel they are at the mercy of the federal laws and Congress, and the administration and the courts because they don't understand the process. This is where the Law Center-people who are dedicated and who know the process, who are experts and know the language-are so important to Indian tribes and other communities.

Environmental issues challenge the sovereign rights of Indian tribes…The Law Center enhances the ability of the tribes to set up internal mechanisms to develop and use laws for our own protection, to protect our sacred areas, our water, our land, and anything else of value to the tribe. The Law Center gives us the tools to bridge the gap between traditional and western concepts of law, to use the court system to help the tribe protect their sovereignty and culture.

Major cases, current and past, under the Native American Representation Program:

• Crownpoint Uranium Project

  Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM)/Southwest Research and Information Center - Hydro Resources, Inc. -- initiated in 1997 -- our clients are fighting proposed uranium mining in Navajo communities. The mining threatens the sole source of drinking water for over 10,000 Navajo citizens.

• Picuris Pueblo mica mine case

  Picuris Pueblo - Oglebay Norton Specialty Minerals and Franklin Industrial Minerals -- initiated in 1998 -- our clients successfully fought the largest mica mine west of the Mississippi River, which was located on the tribe's aboriginal lands. The Pueblo is now reclaiming the site.

• Taos Municipal Airport Expansion

  Taos Pueblo - Town of Taos and the Federal Aviation Administration -- initiated in 1996 -- our client is fighting the expansion of the Taos Airport, which threatens the culture and environment of Taos Pueblo.

• Los Alamos National Laboratory Open Burning Permits

  TEWA Women United/Embudo Valley Environmental Monitoring Group/Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety - Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) -- 2005-2006 -- due to our work, and that of our clients, LANL cancelled two air quality permits that would have allowed it to openly burn toxics such as depleted uranium, diesel fuel, and explosives.

• Counselor Chapter gas drilling

  Counselor Chapter (a Navajo community near Cuba, NM) - Bureau of Land Management -- 2003-2004 -- we worked with our client to successfully pressure the Bureau of Land Management to remove two parcels of land from oil and gas leasing. Although the parcels contained land important to Navajo citizens for historical, religious and cultural reasons, the BLM failed to contact the tribe prior to offering the lands for drilling.

• Los Alamos National Laboratory Water Quality Issues

  Pueblo of San Ildefonso - Los Alamos National Laboratory -- 1996-1997 -- our clients fought LANL on three issues: protection of the environment from past, current and future contamination by the Laboratory, protection of sacred sites from Laboratory activities, and the recognition of San Ildefonso Pueblo as a sovereign nation by the Department of Energy.

• North-Central New Mexico Solid Waste Authority Proposed Landfill

  Santa Clara Pueblo - North-Central New Mexico Solid Waste Authority -- 1996 -- Our client successfully fought the location of a regional landfill adjacent to the Pueblo's boundary.

• Zuni Salt Lake Mine

  Research and Policy Analysis, the Water Information Network, the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, the Zuni Mountain Coalition, and several individuals - Salt River Project -- 1996-1997 -- our clients fought to protect Zuni Salt Lake from dewatering that would be associated with a coal mine.

photos, top from left: former Law Center Attorney Doug Wolf meets with members of Picuris Pueblo, courtesy of Don Usner; a Picuris Pueblo member stops a logging truck from entering the mica mine site; Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr. signs the Dine Natural Protection Act, which bans uranium mining in Navajo Indian Country, as members of ENDAUM, SRIC and the Law Center look on; a school bus in Church Rock, NM, courtesy of Ossy Werner.

photos, above: a Picuris Pueblo member protests at the entrance to the mica mine in 2002. Below: the sign at the Crownpoint chapter well, where many local residents who do not have running water in their homes draw their water.