Court Says Havasupai May Sue Universities

The Havasupai Tribe may sue the Arizona state university system over claims that researchers took blood samples from tribal members under false pretenses. 

The Arizona Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a trial judge's conclusion that the Havasupai Tribe did not comply with legal requirements before filing suit. That gives the tribe and some individual members the chance to sue for damages.

The tribe argues that researchers from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona are doing analysis on the blood samples that was not authorized by the tribal members. The tribe charges that the research being done directly undermines their core religious convictions. That includes the belief that tribal members always have lived in the Grand Canyon and their ancestors did not, as the research seeks to show, migrate across the Bering Strait from Asia. Read the full story here.