Tsosie delivers talk on indigenous peoples at Paris university

Professor Rebecca Tsosie presented a talk, “Indigenous People and Sustainable Development,” on June 26, at the University Paris Descartes.

Tsosie discussed indigenous peoples’ claims in relation to national and international policies on sustainable development and climate change, comparing the role of indigenous environmental ethics and tribal law with the legal and ethical frameworks that structure domestic and international environmental and human rights law.

She also addressed the problem of climate change and how national and international development policies should be restructured to take indigenous rights into account. Further, Tsosie advocated for an intercultural model of climate equity that can inspire new alternatives to guide environmental and development policies for a “sustainable” future.

Tsosie teaches in the areas of Indian law, Property, Bioethics, and Critical Race Theory, as well as seminars in International Indigenous Rights and in the College’s Tribal Policy, Law, and Government Master of Laws program. She has written and published widely on doctrinal and theoretical issues related to tribal sovereignty, environmental policy and cultural rights, and is the author of many prominent articles dealing with cultural resources and cultural pluralism. Tsosie also is the co-author with Carole Goldberg, Kevin Washburn and Elizabeth Rodke Washburn of a federal Indian law casebook. Her current research deals with Native rights to genetic resources. She annually speaks at several national conferences on tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and tribal rights to environmental and cultural resources.