Thursday, July 21, 2005

Indian Claims Commission Index Nears Completion: A law student at the University of Denver has joined the NILL staff to help complete, for the first time, the full index to the Indian Claims Commission Decisions. The Indian Claims Commission was formed as a result of the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946 to once and for all settle all land claims between American Indian tribes and the United States government. This special tribunal ruled on over 500 claims from 1946 to the mid-1970s. The decisions of the Commission were published by the Native American Rights Fund up to 1976 (NARF), but since the Commission was extended again to 1978, the index had been finalized by NARF before the term of the Commission had officially ended and the last decisions had been made. The index of the decisions provides access to the 43 volumes of decisions by tribal name, case docket number, and topical references. A complete index for all decisions should be created by January 2006. Since the first incomplete index was created in the early 1970s, no electronic copies were preserved. NARF/NILL will seek funding to merge the main index with the index supplements to create one master electronic file and one cumulative print index