Showing posts with label Tribal governments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tribal governments. Show all posts

Friday, July 08, 2022

Tribal Court Dismisses Trespass Charges Against Members Holding Religious Ceremony To Block Pipeline

An Ojibwe Tribal Court has dismissed civil trespass charges against three members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe who took part in an 8-day ceremonial gathering blocking construction of a pipeline by Enbridge Energy Corp.  A press release from the Civil Liberties Defense Center gives more background:

Pipeline construction threatened sacred waters, including the Mississippi headwaters, as well as the concomitant ability to hunt, fish, gather, and engage in religious and cultural practices central to Anishinaabe people, and threatened the safety and wellbeing of Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits as part of the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives.  In the face of these threats, Indigenous Water Protectors and their invited guests lit a ceremonial fire, gathered in prayer, and camped on the matting that stretched over the Mississippi River so that Enbridge’s pipeline could be built through it.  

Fire Light Camp participants were originally charged and prosecuted for trespass by the State of Minnesota in Clearwater County District Court.  The cases of several Indigenous participants were subsequently transferred to White Earth Tribal Court....

In White Earth Band of Ojibwe v. Beaulieu, (White Earth Band Tribal Court, June 27, 2022), the court concluded that the Tribal Code defines trespass as returning to property "without claim of right." Here defendants had the right to hold religious ceremonies (with invited guests) on land ceded to the United States. The Tribal Code recognizes "the rights to travel, use and occupy traditional lands and spiritual places for cultural purposes are part of each tribal members' individually held, historically inherent and inalienable rights that have existed from time immemorial."

Thursday, June 09, 2016

LDS Church Sued In Tribal Court Over Child Abuse

St. George News yesterday reported on a suit filed this week against the Mormon Church and several of its affiliates alleging that LDS leaders did not take adequate steps in the 1970's to protect Native American children from sexual abuse after they were placed in Mormon foster homes. The suit stems from "Indian Placement Program" or "Lamanite Placement Program" which operated from the late 1940's until around 2000 and took children from their Navajo homes in order to convert them to Mormonism. Plaintiff contends that the LDS Church workers told him to remain in his Mormon foster home in northern Utah until the end of the school year even though he complained that his foster father was sexually abusing him.  Interestingly the suit was filed in Navajo Tribal Court in order to avoid statute of limitations issues that would otherwise arise under Utah law. Three other Native American plaintiffs have previously filed similar lawsuits, beginning in March of this year.  Last week, the LDS Church filed suit in Utah federal district court to enjoin the Tribal Court from proceeding in those suits, arguing that Tribal Courts lack jurisdiction over  nonmember activity that occurred outside the reservation.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Will A Supreme Court Decision Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Apply To Tribal Governments?

Today's New York Times carries an article titled Among the Navajos, a Renewed Debate About Gay Marriage.  The two largest Indian tribes-- the Navajo Nation and the Cherokee Nation-- ban same sex marriage, though at least ten smaller tribes have legalized same-sex unions.  The national debate on the issue is causing some Navajos to consider repealing a 2005 tribal law--  the Dine Marriage Act-- which prohibits same-sex unions on the Navajo reservation. The Times article quotes an expert as saying that even if the Supreme Court decides that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, this will not affect tribal bans. That conclusion is based on the principle that tribes were not signatories to the Constitution and are not bound by it. The Times article, however, fails to mention the Indian Civil Rights Act which does bind tribal governments.  25 USC Sec. 1302 provides in part:
No Indian tribe in exercising powers of self-government shall... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws or deprive any person of liberty or property without due process of law....
Thus the invalidation of same-sex marriage bans on either 14th Amendment equal protection of due process grounds would appear to demand a similar result under Section 1302.