Telling Them What They Want to Hear: Involvement with the Indigenous Populations as a Lawyer-Legal Anthropologist in Alaska and Canada

For some purposes — most notably when the legal question of tribal sovereignty is pursued — Alaska has held firm to the principle that all Alaskans are subject to a single law and that village tribes lack legal authority. Yet in practice the history of Alaska bush justice has been to employ informal, extralegal approaches until formal law could muster sufficient resources to intervene and displace informal law.This paper describes the tension between official and unofficial approaches to solving problems such as alcohol, gasoline sniffing, and substance abuse and the attendant social disorder in rural Alaska villages where the structures of formal law and law enforcement are largely absent, and explores the role lawyers can play to improve the legal system within villages

Smooth the Dying Pillow: Alaska Natives and Their Destruction [original paper]

A slightly revised version of this paper was published as: Conn, Stephen. (1990). "Smooth the Dying Pillow: Alaska Natives and Their Destruction." Law & Anthropology: Internationales Jahrbuch für Rechtsanthropologie [International Yearbook for Legal Anthropology] 5: 167–183. Special issue on "Group Rights: Strategies for Assisting the Fourth World." Vienna, Austria: VWGO-Verlag. (http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9786).The policy for Native self-determination in Alaska developed by the Congress and the state has sought to replace a tribal model of governance with a body of legislation which confirms land rights without the direct political involvement of Alaska Native villages. However, the author argues, the absence of tribes as formal political structures has contributed to a loss of self-determination among Alaska Natives and to serious negative effects on Native village life.[Introduction] / The Pre-Land Claims Agenda: 1955–1965 / The Land Claims Era: 1967–1972 / 1988 — A Watershed / Footnotes / Bibliograph

Alaskan Bush Justice: Legal Centralism Confronts Social Science Research and Village Alaska [chapter]

This paper was revised and shortened for inclusion in the volume "People’s Law and State Law: The Bellagio Papers", which serves as the “proceedings” volume for the first conference of the Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences held at Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy, September 1981. The paper as originally presented in 1981 can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9750.This paper traces the history of the bush justice system in rural Alaska, describes the relationship between traditional Alaska Native dispute resolution mechanisms and the state criminal justice system, and analyzes bush justice research between 1970 and 1981 and its effects on state agency policies and changes in the rural justice system. Innovations by researchers were well-received by villagers and field-level professionals, but not by agency policymakers. Hence, most reforms made in the 1970s had vanished by the early 1980s. The author concludes that further reforms will be ineffective unless Alaska Natives are drawn into the decisionmaking process as co-equal players negotiating on legal process from positions of power.The environment for research / What is the bush justice system in Alaska? / The early years of the relationship / The later years / Impact on council justice in the 1970s / Village efforts / Professional perspectives / Magistrates as guardians of due process / The researchers' perspective / The problem board experiment / The court experiment with problem boards / Paralegals / Projects accomplished and their bureaucratic response / The present / Notes / References / APPENDICES [ORIGINAL] / Appendix 1. Public Officials Assessments of Quality of Justice and Selected Public Services [ca. 1978] / Appendix 2. Comparison of Alaska Villages, Alaska Statewide, and United States Crime Rates [1977] / Appendix 3. Statewide Juvenile Arrest Rated per 100,000 Individuals [1978] / APPENDICES (ACCESSIBLE

Device enables measurement of moments of inertia about three axes

Device measures moments of inertia of an irregularly shaped mass about three mutually perpendicular axes by the standard pendulum and torque methods. A fixture suspends the test mass at one point and can be adjusted to allow oscillation of the mass

Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America [original paper]

A revised version of this paper was published in the "proceedings" volume for this conference: Conn, Stephen. (1991). "Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America." La peine, Quatrième partie. Mondes non européens [Punishment – Fourth Part. Non-European worlds], pp. 97–107. Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin pour l'histoire comparative des institutions [Transactions of the Jean Bodin Society for Comparative Institutional History] #58. Brussels: De Boeck Université. (http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9753).Using northern Athabascan villages as examples, the author discusses how punishment in indigenous societies was traditionally interwoven with other societal functions. The influence of alcohol and the western legal process changed post-colonial societies and their methods of punishment because punishment decisions in indigenous societies were traditionally arrived at through group deliberation, whereas the western legal system works in a hierarchical fashion. The author concludes that imposition of western-style decision-making disrupted tradtional law ways in post-colonial society

Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America [chapter]

This paper was originally presented at the Conference on Punishment of the Jean Bodin Society for the Comparative History of Institutions, Barcelona, Spain, May 1987. The paper as originally presented can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8276.Using northern Athabascan villages as examples, the author discusses how punishment in indigenous societies was traditionally interwoven with other societal functions. The influence of alcohol and the western legal process changed post-colonial societies and their methods of punishment because punishment decisions in indigenous societies were traditionally arrived at through group deliberation, whereas the western legal system works in a hierarchical fashion. The author concludes that imposition of western-style decision-making disrupted tradtional law ways in post-colonial society

An Evaluation of Herbicides for Control of Wild Oats in Barley: Efficacy, Phytotoxicity, and Barley Variety Susceptibility Studies

The control of wild oats (Avena Jatua L.) in Alaskan spring-planted barley was investigated in a series of experiments conducted from 1981-1984. Rates and times of applications of triallate (a preemergence, soil-incorporated herbicide), diclofop, barban, and difenzoquat (postemergence herbicides) were investigated in relation to control of wild oats and barley yield in 1981-1982. Because of very high wild oats populations. none of the herbicides controlled wild oats to the point of· allowing a barley harvest. Generally, wild oats were best controlled when herbicides were applied at an early growth stage and at the highest application rates. Control of wild oats with triallate was the same whether incorporated using parallel or perpendicular passes of a spike-tooth harrow. In 1983-84 both single herbicide treatments and combinations of herbicides were studied. Barban, diclofop, and difenzoquat were applied alone or with triallate applied in the fall or spring in emulsifiable concentrate or granular formulation. Wild oats population levels were lower in these 2 years, and applications of even single herbicides provided good wild oats control. Of the individual herbicides, diclofop provided the best control of wild oats. In general, when triallate was applied in conjunction with diclofop, barban, or difenzoquat, control of wild oats was better and higher barley yields were obtained than when a single wild oats herbicide was applied. When triallate was applied in the fall, the granular formulation provided better control of wild oats than the emulsifiable formulation. In a study of the response of eight barley varieties ('Eero', 'Paavo', 'Galt', 'Otra', 'Otal', 'Datal', 'Udal', 'Weal') to high rates and late times of application of the four herbicides, none of the varieties were differentially susceptible. Diclofop decreased heights of all varieties and decreased test weights

No Need of Gold — Alcohol Control Laws and the Alaska Native Population: From the Russians through the Early Years of Statehood

This study revises two manuscripts by Stephen Conn on alcohol control and Alaska Natives: "Alcohol Control and Native Alaskans — from the Russians to Statehood: The Early Years — Alcohol Control in Village Alaska" (1980) and "Town Law and Village Law: Satellite Villages, Bethel and Alcohol Control in the Modern Era — The Working Relationship and Its Demise" (1982) which were prepared under a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).Based on two earlier works by the author — "Alcohol Control in Village Alaska and Town Law" and "Town Law, Village Law" — this history traces the use of legal resources to control alcohol consumption among the Alaska Native population from the period of Russian domination through Alaska statehood in 1959 and makes a detailed examination of alcohol-related issues in Bethel in the decade immediately following statehood.Introduction / PART I / The Russian Period / The Military Period / The Navy and the Missionaries / The First Organic Act / The Revenue Cutters / Indian Police / Expansion of the Population and New Liquor Controls / Enforcement in the Early Twentieth Century / Teacher Missionaries / Renewed Efforts at Temperance / Beyond Prohibition / Influence of the Military / In the Towns and Villages / Implications of the Historical Review / PART II / The 1962 Meeting / The 1963 Meeting / The 1965 Meeting / Accidents and Deaths a Focal Point / Translation of an Interest into a Demand / Village Council Reaction to the New Rules on Drinking / 1967 Meeting / The Reign of Councils / The Problem from a Traditional Perspective / Conclusion / Afterword / FOOTNOTES / APPENDIX / Report of Governor of Alaska [1916]. Liquor Traffic Among the Natives / Arrests by Special Officers, Fiscal year ended June 30th, 1925 / Letter to Gov. Geo. A. Parks from Special Officer H.E. Seneff, July 1, 1930 / Letter to Gov. John W. Troy from Special Officer H.E. Seneff, July 1, 1933 / Excerpts from Fishnet 2 Council Hearings 1964–66 / BIBLIOGRAPH