University of Wisconsin-Madison

The University of Wisconsin (UW) Law Library - in partnership with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians, the UW Law School Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center, the National Indian Law Library, and the Open Law Library - will develop The Digital Publication of Tribal Laws Pilot Project. The project will develop an open law library platform that will empower libraries to improve access to tribal laws published into the public domain. It will demonstrate the benefits of the combined platforms for tribes, their members, academia, the legal profession, and the public by creating a fully functional tribal legal ecosystem. This ecosystem will comprise: two independent tribes using the publishing platform to publish their laws in standardized formats without copyright or contractual use restrictions; and two independent libraries using the library platform to incorporate those laws, and future updates, into their open access digital repositories. This functionality will enable all library users to search current laws of multiple tribes through curated, federated collections.