Lee Heidhues 6.19.2023
Native Americans left the Supreme Court last week with raised heads and full hands.
The Wall Street Journal published a totally callous and unfeeling editorial bemoaning last week’s Supreme Court decision in ‘Haaland v. Brackeen’ upholding the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act.
Even worse, many of the WSJ readers commenting agree with the editorial. This was my comment fighting the tide of White American colonialist thinking.
What all the Comments bemoaning the 7-2 Haaland v Brackeen ruling fail miserably to realize or admit.
Native Americans were in North America before the White colonialists; i.e. American occupiers stole their land and engaged in a pattern of systemic genocide.
The Supreme Court realizes thankfully, the totally clueless Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alioto notwithstanding, the Native Americans were the victims of White man’s Genocide. (In his dissent Thomas referred to Native Americans as “Indians.”)
This Decision is an important marker affirming their rights.
Fortunately Democracy Now, amongst other media outlets, chose to look at this important story in more historic terms. Not the narrow minded view of State vs Federal jurisdiction.
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/6/16/scotus_indian_child_welfare_act_nagle?jwsource=cl
Democracy Now spoke with Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle about a major victory at the Supreme Court in a case that could have gutted Native American sovereignty.
In a surprise 7-2 ruling Thursday, the court upheld the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which protects Native children from being removed from their tribal communities for fostering or adoption in non-Native homes.
The court rejected an argument from Republican-led states and white families who argued the system is based on race. Nagle has covered the case closely for The Nation and her podcast, This Land, and says the far right is attacking the Indian Child Welfare Act as part of a broader conservative agenda to destabilize federal Indian law.
She calls the decision “really encouraging,” noting it is “good not just for Native nations and families, but for the rule of law.”
Neil Gorsuch, a staunch conservative Justice, has become a leader on the Court affirming the rights of Native Americans. He wrote in a concurring opinion.
Often, Native American Tribes have come to this Court seeking justice only to leave with bowed heads and empty hands. But that is not because this Court has no justice to offer them. Our Constitution reserves for the Tribes a place—an enduring place—in the structure of American life.… In adopting the Indian Child Welfare Act, Congress exercised that lawful authority to secure the right of Indian parents to raise their families as they please; the right of Indian children to grow in their culture; and the right of Indian communities to resist fading into the twilight of history. All of that is in keeping with the Constitution’s original design.
Lee's Perspective 