“[This] I Know from My Grandfather”: The Battle for Admissibility of Indigenous Oral History as Proof of Tribal Land Claims

Hope M. Babcock, Georgetown University Law Center

Abstract

Both the United States and Canada have faced similar judicial hurdles in determining land title claims between Indian and non-Indian claimants. The results have varied greatly between the two court systems, largely because of different evidentiary rules and different attitudes toward indigenous claimants.