Link to job announcement (PDF) here.
Link to apply here.
The closing date for the legislative affairs associate is this Friday, June 24.
Legislation
SSA Decides on Appeal Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act Retroactive Up to 3 Years
Download decision from the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review here.
The Social Security Administration argued a Pueblo Pojoaque member was overpaid social security income benefits because she did not claim an elder stipend for years 2012 and 2013. The ALJ held the Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act of 2014, which excludes a tribal member’s benefits from tribal welfare programs, was retroactive to its signing by three years.
Fletcher & Singel on the Historical Basis for the Trust Relationship between the US and Indian Children
Fletcher & Singel have posted “Indian Children and the Federal Tribal Trust Relationship” on SSRN.
Here is the abstract:
This article develops the history of the role of Indian children in the formation of the federal-tribal trust relationship and comes as constitutional challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) are now pending. We conclude the historical record demonstrates the core of the federal-tribal trust relationship is the welfare of Indian children and their relationship to Indian nations. The challenges to ICWA are based on legally and historically false assumptions about federal and state powers in relation to Indian children and the federal government’s trust relationship with Indian children.
Indian children have been a focus of federal Indian affairs at least since the Framing of the Constitution. The Founding Generation initially used Indian children as military and diplomatic pawns, and later undertook a duty of protection to Indian nations and, especially, Indian children. Dozens of Indian treaties memorialize and implement the federal government’s duty to Indian children. Sadly, the United States then catastrophically distorted that duty of protection by deviating from its constitution-based obligations well into the 20th century. It was during this Coercive Period that federal Indian law and policy largely became unmoored from the constitution.
The modern duty of protection, now characterized as a federal general trust relationship, is manifested in federal statutes such as ICWA and various self-determination acts that return self-governance to tribes and acknowledge the United States’ duty of protection to Indian children. The federal duty of protection of internal tribal sovereignty, which has been strongly linked to the welfare of Indian children since the Founding, is now as closely realized as it ever has been throughout American history. In the Self-Determination Era, modern federal laws, including ICWA, constitute a return of federal Indian law and policy to constitutional fidelity.
Rep. Pearce (R-NM) Introduces PROTECT to Congress
Link to concurrent resolution here.
The summary of the resolution upon introduction:
By Mr. PEARCE (for himself, Mr. COLE, and Ms. MCCOLLUM):
Con. Res. 122. Concurrent resolution supporting efforts to stop the theft, illegal possession or sale, transfer, and export of tribal cultural items of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians in the United States and internationally; to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, and Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
The press release from Pearce’s office: https://pearce.house.gov/press-release/pearce-introduces-resolution-protect-tribal-artifacts.
The press release from the Association on American Indian Affairs, which puts this issue in its international human rights context: https://internationalrepatriation.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/breaking-pearce-introduces-protect-patrimony-resolution/.
Manitoba Path to Reconciliation Act
Bill text here.
D.C. Circuit Briefs in Patchak v. Jewell
GTB Testimony before Mich. House Natural Resources Committee on Commercial Net Pen Aquaculture
Here:
NIWRC Urges the Supreme Court to Uphold Firearm Protections for Native Survivors of Domestic Violence
Link to press release here.
Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents here.
The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center submitted an amicus in support of the DOJ’s case against two Maine men who violated federal law for possessing firearms when convicted of domestic violence. The men argue that their reckless misdemeanors shouldn’t bar them from owning guns.
“Petitioners attempt to conflate ‘reckless’ domestic violence crimes with ‘accidents,’” NIWRC’s attorney, Mary Kathryn Nagle, a partner at Pipestem Law, PC, states. “Domestic violence crimes prosecuted under tribal law, however, are not accidents. Tribal Courts that prosecute for ‘reckless’ domestic violence crimes establish a standard that requires demonstrating the defendant acted with a ‘conscious disregard’ for the safety and welfare of the defendant’s intimate partner. There is no doubt Congress intended for the Lautenberg Amendment to cover these crimes.”
Six Tribes signed onto the brief: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa, Nottaweseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi, Seminole Nation, and Tulalip Tribes. They are urging the Supreme Court to uphold the convictions for VAWA and Native women, who are more at risk to gun and domestic violence by repeat offenders.
MCN Adopts Free Press Legislation for Mvskoke Media
Muscogee (Creek) Nation introduces protections for tribal media
NORMAN, Okla. – The Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN) added free press protections for the tribe’s media division, Mvskoke Media, with the passage of a free press act.
The MCN National Council passed NCA 15-218 by a unanimous vote of 14-0 during the Sept. 26 meeting at the tribal headquarters in Okmulgee, Okla. MCN Principal Chief George Tiger signed the legislation into law Oct. 8.
The council cited access to information and a need for an independent media with stronger objective reporting by the tribe’s media department as findings of support for the amendment.
Reps. Thomas Yahola, Pete Beaver, Johnnie Greene, David Nichols, Dode Barnett, Joyce Deere, Frank Coachman, Mark Randolph, Lucian Tiger, David Hill, Robert Hufft, James Jennings and Adam Jones co-sponsored the legislation.
The department includes a semi-monthly newspaper, weekly radio and television broadcasts and graphic design and printing services.
Mvskoke Media was previously organized under the tribe’s executive branch.
Sterling Cosper, editor of the tribe’s official newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News, said the passage of the act is a positive first step toward an independent press.
“Officially confirming the fourth estate to the framework of our government is an imperative exercise in tribal sovereignty and self-governance,” he said. “We intend to perpetuate this exercise by immediately utilizing the protective provisions of this bill to fulfill its purpose of bringing fair and balanced accounts of MCN affairs to the citizens.”
Jason Salsman was named interim manager of the department earlier this year. He is also the multimedia producer and host of Native News Today, the only all-Native news format currently airing on network television in the state of Oklahoma.
“The citizens will get timely, pertinent news from credible journalists with excellent sources and documentation to back their work,” Salsman said. “The fact that the fourth largest tribe in America will fund a department to be the watchdog sends a clear, concise message that transparent government is a top priority. My hope is that many others will do the same.”
The amendment established an independent three-member editorial board, which oversees Mvskoke Media, without influence from the tribal government.
The executive branch, legislative branch and Mvskoke Media are each responsible for nominating one member to the newly established three-person editorial board. Each member will serve a three-year term.
Travis Snell and Rebecca Landsberry were confirmed as board members by tribal resolution Oct. 31 during the MCN National Council quarterly session.
As of press time, a third member has not yet been nominated.
Snell is a member of the Cherokee Nation and serves as the associate editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, the oldest Native American newspaper. The Phoenix is one of a handful of tribal media outlets with free press protections currently in place. He is a longtime member of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA).
NAJA is a nonprofit organization educating and connecting its membership through programs that promote diversity and defend challenges to free press, speech and expression. NAJA currently has more than 500 members across the U.S., and Canada covering Native communities through local, tribal and mainstream media.
Landsberry is a Muscogee (Creek) citizen and former editor of the Muscogee Nation News. She is the current NAJA interim executive director and treasurer for the Native Health News Alliance.
Landsberry says freedom of the press empowers tribes.
“It is essential for these journalists covering stories in Native America to have autonomy and the means to hold those in power accountable to the citizens,” she said. “This historic act will continue to strengthen tribal sovereignty and is a tremendous accomplishment for NAJA members there in Mvskoke Media, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Indian Country.”
Cosper said the next step will be to add a freedom of information act (FOIA).
“We encourage citizens and officials alike to strengthen our role in the checks and balances system by supporting the passage of a FOIA, which will provide attributive documentation for the content of our coverage,” Cosper said.
Cosper said the department aims to ask for citizen input with adding free press language directly into the MCN Constitution, in addition to the new code of law.
“Through this, citizens would vote to add us as a functioning body of the foundational document for MCN government with their approval being the only means to reverse it,” Cosper said.
MCN is the fourth largest Native American tribe in the U.S., and includes more than 79,000 citizens across the globe. It is the third tribe in the state of Oklahoma to enact free press protections, following the Osage Nation’s passage of the Independent Press Act in 2008 and the Cherokee Nation’s Independent Press Amendment in 2009.
Senate Indian Affairs Committee to Review TLOA
Hearing set for Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 2:15PM EST.
Link to announcement here.
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