This article is the first part of a two-part analysis that maps out a tribal role in the growing conservation trust movement, which uses transactional property mechanisms to achieve natural resource protection on private lands. Since conquest, tribes have been divested of their traditional...

The legal “cornerstone” of federal Indian law is the federal trust obligation. The duty was formulated by courts long ago to protect native nations against federal actions that harm the retained tribal property and resources. Yet in recent years, courts have diminished the force of the...