Jay Daniels: A red line against assaults on tribal sovereignty

These past few weeks have created quite a stir within Indian country. The two most significant issues are the recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court remanding Baby v. Adoptive Couple back to the South Carolina State Supreme Court using a narrowing defining of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the pending State of Oklahoma (“State”), Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Tiger Hobia, as Town King and Member of the Kialegee Tribal Town Business Committee; Et. al. (“Kialegee”), Defendants-Appellants, appeal before the Oklahoma Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals (“Court”).

How sad that the Adoptive Couple may one day have to tell this little Cherokee girl that they challenged her in court. It’s under the guise of their challenging the biological father, but the case name is Baby v. Adoptive Couple. How would you feel to find out that you are one of the most significant Indian court cases in history and the plaintiff was your adoptive parents? The adoptive mother made a statement to a journalist recently “We beat the Cherokee Nation.” Was their intent to beat the Cherokee Nation, or to adopt the baby? That’s the history of Native Americans. It’s not so much that non-Indians believe they are right in their fight, but they love the feeling when they can take something away from us. They enjoy sitting back after it’s over and being able to say “We beat them.” Classic confrontation and it’s still happening today.

There are assaults on our casinos, smoke shops, water rights, unwanted mining on our trust lands or close proximity to reservations, lack of adequate supervised development of oil fields, taxation issues around the country, etc. We are given a bone here and there while they attempt to backdoor Indian Country by eroding our inherent right and sovereignty. We are forced to focus on winning a battle but sometimes losing the war. It’s one step forward and two steps backwards. Never able to completely move ahead because we are forced to move behind in key issues not only affecting tribes today but potentially drastic implications down the road for all of Indian Country.