Indianz.Com > News > Albert Bender: U.S. Supreme Court takes Indian Country back in time
Rogue Supreme Court’s latest Indian law decision a huge step back in time
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
People's World
As the retrograde Supreme Court has taken steps back in time on abortion rights, blurring the time-enshrined separation between church and state, limiting the authority of the EPA to control carbon emissions, lowering restrictions on the carrying of firearms, and restricting Miranda rights, it has now also struck a reactionary blow against the tribal sovereignty of this land’s Indigenous nations.
The court is imposing Trump’s vision, through his appointees, on the U.S. which is out of touch with the vast majority of the nation’s people. This is the rule of right-wing tyranny.
On Wednesday, June 29, the rogue court ruled in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that states have concurrent jurisdiction, with the federal government, in cases of non-Indians committing crimes against Indians on Native American reservations.
This granting of states’ rights to intrude onto Native lands reverses over 200 years of one of the most enshrined tenets of federal Indian law, beginning with the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790 and proclaimed in the decision of Worcester v. Georgia issued by the John Marshall court in 1832.
- “To begin with, the Constitution allows a state to exercise jurisdiction in Indian Country. Indian Country is part of the state, not separate from the state.”
- The astonishing decision continues: “…as a matter of sovereignty, a state has jurisdiction over all of its territory, including Indian Country.”
Albert Bender is a Cherokee activist, historian, political columnist, and freelance reporter for Native and Non-Native publications. He is currently writing a legal treatise on Native American sovereignty and working on a book on the war crimes committed by the U.S. against the Maya people in the Guatemalan civil war He is a consulting attorney on Indigenous sovereignty, land restoration, and Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) issues and a former staff attorney with Legal Services of Eastern Oklahoma (LSEO) in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
This article originally appeared on People's World. It is published under a Creative Commons license.

Advertisement
Search
Filed Under
Tags
More Headlines
Native America Calling: The legacy of Elvis for Native Americans
National Congress of American Indians loses top executive after a year
Mother Jones: ‘We’ve been under these genocidal policies for 500 years’
Pokagon Band brings in new council members
NAFOA: 5 Things You Need to Know this Week
Cronkite News: Fight over copper mine at sacred Apache site continues
Chuck Hoskin: Cherokee Nation offers relief for farmers and ranchers
Native America Calling: The new book-banning trend
Native America Calling: Saving the migratory Monarch butterfly
White House releases fact sheet on internet in tribal communities
DVIDS: San Carlos Apache Tribe dedicates building to fallen veteran
Native America Calling: The Native perspective in ‘Grounded in Clay’
Indian gaming revenues hit record $39 billion despite COVID-19
Native America Calling: Housing security in the Arctic
Ernestine Anunkasan Hupa: Living the life, thanks to Tim Giago
More Headlines
National Congress of American Indians loses top executive after a year
Mother Jones: ‘We’ve been under these genocidal policies for 500 years’
Pokagon Band brings in new council members
NAFOA: 5 Things You Need to Know this Week
Cronkite News: Fight over copper mine at sacred Apache site continues
Chuck Hoskin: Cherokee Nation offers relief for farmers and ranchers
Native America Calling: The new book-banning trend
Native America Calling: Saving the migratory Monarch butterfly
White House releases fact sheet on internet in tribal communities
DVIDS: San Carlos Apache Tribe dedicates building to fallen veteran
Native America Calling: The Native perspective in ‘Grounded in Clay’
Indian gaming revenues hit record $39 billion despite COVID-19
Native America Calling: Housing security in the Arctic
Ernestine Anunkasan Hupa: Living the life, thanks to Tim Giago
More Headlines