Facing what they consider to be the biggest threat to tribal sovereignty in a generation, Native leaders at a national conference in Prior Lake this week reactivated a task force to defend tribal independence.
An impending Supreme Court ruling challenging the federal Indian Child Welfare Act loomed over this year's annual National Congress of American Indians' (NCAI) Mid Year Convention & Marketplace.
Tribal and U.S. leaders at the conference spoke of the uncertainty and anxiety in Indian Country since the nation's high court took up the Haaland v. Brackeen case last November. The case is a challenge to the 45-year-old Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, a federal law that many credit with better outcomes for Native youth.
The law was passed in response to the practice of removing Indian children from their homes and placing them in boarding schools or white-family foster homes. It requires child welfare agencies to notify tribes when a Native child is removed from a home, and to prioritize placement with extended family members or other tribal families.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, including three white families who wanted to adopt Indian children, argue that the law is race-based and violates the Constitution's equal protection guarantee. They argue that it discriminates against non-Native parents looking to adopt, as well as Native children who are victims of neglect or abuse. A Minnesota couple, Danielle and Jason Clifford, is one of three white families at the center of the case.
A decision in the case is expected in the coming days, NCAI President Fawn Sharp told a crowded ballroom at the Mystic Lake Center this week. It is the first time in over a decade that the gathering of more than 800 tribal leaders and NCAI members from around the country is being held in Minnesota. The conference ends Thursday.
Leaders said the court decision could set a precedent for many aspects of longstanding tribal sovereignty — a tribe's ability to govern themselves. Sovereignty was not something the United States gave to tribes, but something that has always existed, said Jacob Jurss, visiting assistant professor of history at Macalester College.
At the conference, Sharp described the uncertainty and fear in the community. "We don't know what's in front of us with the courts," she said. "It's going to be a difficult road ahead for Indian Country."