Click the link to read the gust column on the Indianz.com website (Harold Frazier). Here’s an excerpt:
Today, we do not doubt that the Supreme Court will lose further legitimacy by striking down college admissions that take account of the racial animus that so many students and families have suffered in the Harvard and North Carolina cases. No person shall be denied by any state the equal protection of the laws under the 14th Amendment and Congress has the authority to implement this directive by legislation. Clearly, where the Federal, state, local and societal institutions have infringed on minority rights for generations, Congress can act to allow redress and to promote diversity in education to provide a more meaningful environment for education for all. In Dobbs in June 2022, the Supreme Court lost legitimacy with women by undermining reproductive rights and women’s right to life. Apparently, the Supreme Court does not know that child birth can be fraught with life and death challenges. We know because, confined to Indian health care, our Native women have had high maternal health challenges for decades. Before Dobbs, the Supreme Court lost legitimacy in Bush v. Gore when it ruled that America has more legitimacy when states do not count votes. Later, the Supreme Court struck down voting rights because, in its view, racism in America is over. The Supreme Court has lost its connection to America’s truth.For Native Americans, the Supreme Court lost legitimacy long ago…
In 1903, the Supreme Court overruled the 1867 Kiowa Treaty provision that required three-quarter consent of the Kiowa People for any cession of Indian treaty lands. The Supreme Court said that under the Federal trust responsibility — read White Man’s Burden — America had the power to change Native lands into cash without Native Nation consent.Treaties are made by mutual consent between nations. The Supreme Court’s rulings concerning Native Sovereign Nations are genocidal, contrary to the Constitution, and in violation of our natural law rights for centuries…The Constitution, framed by “We the People … excludes “Indians not Taxed” from U.S. citizenship, because Lakota had our own Native Sovereign Nation, our own democracy, laws and traditions. When America asked for safe passage across our lands for settlers on the Oregon Trail, we agreed and America recognized our homeland in the 1851 Treaty. In the 1854 Kansas—Nebraska Territory Act, the United States pledged to honor native rights of person and property and to rigidly follow our treaties. The 1861 Dakota Territory Act repeated these legal assurances.When America found gold in Montana, miners sought to overrun our homelands and the Government sent the Army. Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, One Horn, and Sitting Bull fought for our lands. In the 1868 Treaty, America pledged “war shall forever cease,” recognized our self-government, and pledged to respect our permanent home, including the Black Hills…For one hundred years, the Supreme Court sat idle raising procedural barriers to justice. In 1980, in United States v. Sioux Nation, the Supreme Court held that America’s taking of our Black Hills treaty lands was unconstitutional, yet for the past 40 years there has been no justice.In June, in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, the Supreme Court held that the 10th Amendment gives states governing power on Indian reservations. Not true. Native Sovereign Nations are prior sovereigns and states agreed not to encroach on Indian lands as part of the bargain of their statehood. Our treaties are the Supreme Law of the Land, nothing in the state constitutions withstanding…
Natural justice, the Constitution and our treaties establish an enduring nation-to-nation relationship between America and Native Sovereign Nations based upon mutual consent. It’s time for America to honor its word.
