Marcia Zug on Slate Supporting the South Carolina SCT ICWA Decision

Here.

An excerpt:

Veronica’s case is deeply troubling, and our hearts should go out to all involved, but the problems it highlights are not problems with ICWA. Rather, her case reveals the problems with ignoring ICWA. This case agonizingly demonstrates the importance of observing ICWA’s placement and termination procedures in order to prevent impermissible adoptions from occurring and then being invalidated later. Everyone involved in Veronica’s adoption knew she was an American Indian child, and if the ICWA requirements had been followed, Veronica would not have been placed with the Capobiancos in the first place. It was because of this mistake that Veronica was 2 years old rather than an infant when she was reunited with her father. The lesson from Veronica’s case is not that ICWA is some obscure loophole that should be closed. Rather, the ongoing court battle demonstrates that ICWA is a pivotal piece of American Indian legislation that cannot be ignored without traumatic consequences.

NYTs Article on the Impact of the 2012 Drought on Navajo Horses

Here.

NNN on Potawatomi Trail of Death Workshop at 2012 Potawatomi Gathering

Here.

LSJ: Anishinaabek Oppose Wisconsin Wolf Hunt

Here.

Primary materials:

Tribal Wolf Hunt Opposition Letter

DNR Response

 

Fletcher on IPR re: Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community Decision

Here.

 

Seattle Weekly: Fish vs. Farms on the Skagit Delta

Here.

An excerpt:

The Skagit delta farming system’s intricate rotation of some 80 vegetable and seed crops has been 150 years in the making. Dikes to keep the low-lying farmland dry and tide gates to prevent saltwater incursion into croplands are valuable to farmers, but not so much to Natives trying to revive salmon runs on the third largest American river on the contiguous West Coast.

The Swinomish Tribe’s priority is fish, not farms. And a century and a half of treaty law has put in their hands considerable power to press their case. In 1855, territorial Governor Isaac Stevens negotiated with western Washington tribes, trying to coax them into giving up millions of acres of land and retreat to reservations with prescribed boundaries. The Treaty of Point Elliott, signed by tribal leaders at a place later known as Mukilteo, included a guarantee of perpetual fishing rights. The treaty included this language: “The right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations, is further secured to said Indians in common with all other citizens of the Territory, and of erecting temporary houses for the purpose of curing them, together with the privileges of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their horses on open and unclaimed lands.”

ICT Article on Paul Ryan’s American Indian Outlook

Here.

IPR on Vanderbilt Casino Ruling

Here.

An excerpt:

A written statement from Bay Mills Chair Kurt Perron says the tribe ultimately plans legal victory, and to move forward with its “planned developments.” The tribe did not immediate elaborate on the statement’s meaning.

If Bay Mills is ultimately victorious, the tribe would likely be allowed to build casinos anywhere it wants, without state approval, as long as it buys the land with a specific pool of funds.

“Probably the biggest implication (of today’s ruling) in the long run is just to highlight exactly how difficult it is to shut down a casino opened by an Indian tribe under these circumstances,” says Matthew Fletcher, of MSU’s Indigenous Law Center.

The Vanderbilt Casino is widely regarded as a test site for its Upper Peninsula owner. The tribe has expressed interest in building in Port Huron, and perhaps elsewhere.

It’s not clear what implications this case might have for another Upper Peninsula tribe’s plans to build a casino in downtown Lansing.

NYTs on Fracking Controversy at Blackfeet

Here.

Casino Expansion Ballot Proposal Blocked by Michigan Court of Appeals

Coverage here.

Opinion here.