The Local Crank

Musings & Sardonic Commentary on Politics, Religion, Culture & Native American Issues. Bringing you the finest in radioactive screeds since 2002! "The Local Crank" newspaper column is distributed by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.

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Location: Cleburne, Texas, United States

Just a simple Cherokee trial lawyer, Barkman has been forcing his opinions on others in print since, for reasons that passeth understanding, he was an unsuccessful candidate for state representative in 2002. His philosophy: "If people had wanted me to be nice, they should've voted for me."

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Supreme Court Poised to Screw Over Indians Yet Again

Try to contain your shock. The stakes in this case (pardon the gaming metaphor) are much higher than just Rhode Island. If the Indian Reorganization Act (the basis for land-into-trust applications) is held to apply only to tribes that were federally recognized as of 1934, then all the tribes who struggled for decades to obtain recognition after that year, and those who are still struggling, will have practically no chance to obtain a viable, economically-sustainable land base, particularly in light of the Oneida case, where the courts ruled that even though it was undisputed that Oneida land was illegally stolen by the State of New York, the only way they could get it back was through land-into-trust.

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2 Comments:

Blogger MB said...

I saw this a few weeks ago when it was announced, and just felt my heart fall. It could have a huge impact on Eastern and California tribes, and just when we were making inroads on sovereignty and recognition.

So depressing. You know this SCOTUS will screw us over, once again.

3/14/2008 1:22 PM  
Blogger The Local Crank said...

Yeah, it's the old Catch-22; you can't do land into trust unless the Feds "recognized" your tribe before 1934, but before 1934 there was no mechanism to force the Feds to recognize any tribe. Kind of like the Oneida case where the Courts said the Oneidas waited too long to sue, even though Indians weren't even recognized as having standing to sue until at least the Standing Bear case. We can't win for losing.

3/14/2008 1:56 PM  

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