Supreme Court rejects "cancel culture" case
The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear former Kentucky high school student Nick Sandmann's case against several major media outlets for their coverage of his encounter with an Omaha tribe member at an anti-abortion rally in Washington.
Sandmann was part of a Catholic high school group attending the 2019 March for Life rally at the Lincoln Memorial. After a video of his face-to-face encounter with activist Nathan Phillips went viral, his family filed lawsuits against The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major media groups, accusing them of defamatory media reports.
Sandmann argued that his reputation was harmed by media reports of his interaction with Phillips, who was taking part in the Indigenous People's March at the same location.
In Sandmann's appeal to the Supreme Court, his lawyer said the case has "come to epitomize the high-water mark of the 'cancel culture.'" He also said Sandmann went from a "quiet, anonymous teenager into a national social pariah, one whose embarrassed smile in response to Phillips' aggression became a target for anger and hatred."
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South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem speaks before former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes the stage during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024.
South Dakota governor calls on feds to audit tribes in state
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem this week called on the Biden administration to conduct "public and comprehensive single audits" of all federal funds that have been given to the nine Native American tribes in that state.
In a statement released Tuesday, Noem said the audits would verify the need for the federal government to provide tribes with additional law enforcement resources.
"Law enforcement in Indian Country is failing to meet basic safety needs," Noem said. "For years, the level of actual funding drastically underestimates the true breadth of the challenges of Indian Country, made worse by the failed border policies of the Biden administration and exacerbated by the presence of drug cartel operations on South Dakota tribal reservations."
Single Audits, formerly known as OMB Circular A-133 audits, are required from all nonfederal entities — including tribes — that receive and spend $750,000 or more of federal financial assistance within a fiscal year, to make sure funds are being used effectively.
In two town hall meetings held on March 13, Noem alleged that Mexican drug cartels are operating on tribal lands in South Dakota and suggested tribal leaders may be benefiting from drug and sex trafficking.
In a statement released March 16, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star suggested that the governor should "clean up her own backyard" and stop insinuating that all drug trafficking comes from the Sioux reservations."
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FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, photo an election worker is seen inserting a ballot into a locked ballot box at the Montana Pavilion at MetraPark on election day in Billings, Montana.
Montana high court says laws restricting voting are unconstitutional
Montana's Supreme Court this week struck down four bills including two which would have made it harder for Native Americans to participate in elections.
These included a bill that would have cut off same-day voter registration and another that would stop the paid collection and submission of absentee ballots by third parties, a method of voting common in remote rural areas and on tribal reservations.
The decision affirms a September 2022 district court decision ruling both laws as unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs Western Native Voice, Montana Native Vote, the Blackfeet Nation, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the Fort Belknap Indian Community, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe filed suit, Western Native Voice v. Jacobsen, against HB 176 and HB 530 in May 2021.
They were represented by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Montana and Harvard Law School's Election Law Clinic.
"Today's decision is a resounding win for tribes in Montana who have only ever asked for a fair opportunity to exercise their fundamental right to vote," said NARF staff attorney Jacqueline De León. "Despite repeated attacks on their voting rights, tribes and Native voters in Montana stood strong, and today the Montana Supreme Court affirmed that the state's legislative actions were unconstitutional. Native voices deserve to be heard, and this decision helps ensure that happens."
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Non-eagle bird carcasses and bird feathers are stored at the Liberty Wildlife Non-Eagle Feather Repository in Phoenix, Arizona, Feb. 27, 2024.
Man pleads guilty to killing eagles in Montana
A Washington state man has pleaded guilty to killing federally protected eagles on an Indian reservation and elsewhere in Montana and conspiring to sell their feathers and other parts in the underground market.
Eagles are protected under two federal laws, the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which bans the taking, buying, selling and transportation of eagles both living and dead, their feathers, eggs and nests.
Native Americans have for centuries used eagle parts and feathers for spiritual and cultural purposes or to mark important achievements. Knowing this, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1970s set up the National Eagle Repository, which collects and stores eagles and eagle parts.
Enrolled members of federally recognized tribes may apply for a lifetime religious use permit and order loose feathers, talons and other parts. Schools may also request eagle feathers to present to enrolled tribe members at graduation.
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