Indigenous Pueblo culture and tradition in the justice system: Maintaining Indigenous language, thought and law in judicial review

In this paper Christine Zuni Cruz considers several issues that have emerged from her personal experience working as an Associate Justice on the Pueblo Appellate Court in the United States. These concerns relate to maintaining the culture of the Pueblo within an acknowledged western, and specifically Anglo-American, framework of justice. The key elements discussed include language, process and knowledge. This paper provides a North American perspective on the interface between Indigenous law and western legal frameworks. It therefore has resonance in the contemporary Australian landscape, where efforts to secure Indigenous rights and interests in land encounter difficulties both in regards to language and the challenges of accommodating Indigenous interests within western legal structures.