Way back when the City of Sherrill case was headed to the U.S. Supreme Court I had a conversation with a non-Indigenous lawyer friend of mine about it. He concluded that it was an excellent case and “theoretically” it should be won if it were a case involving just white folks. But since it involved the Oneidas his comment was, “This is going to be a case where the Supreme Court just makes sh%& up and the Oneidas are going to lose just cuz.”

I asked him, “What do you mean ‘just cuz’?” He smiled and said, “Just cuz you’re Indians. Do you really think these guys are going to allow you to get land back – even if it’s the right thing to do?”

And now we have Nebraska, et al. v. Mitch Parker, et al. sitting in the Supreme Court. And once again we’re in a situation where the Justices can just go ahead and make #@%& up and there’s not much that can be done about since they are the end of the line for U.S. justice.

What’s being said here is that the Indigenous nation and/or people have no claim or right just cuz we’re here and our presence automatically precludes any rights, interests or claims. It’s a pretty crude way of asserting the Doctrine of Discovery.