Today's Opinions

Rice: Nothing scary in a Carcieri fix

Recent newspaper reports suggest that there is concern in Rhode Island, and perhaps elsewhere, that a Carcieri fix to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 will allow tribes to acquire trust land wherever they choose, resulting in tribes building Indian casinos willy-nilly outside their reservations and without appropriate input from the state. These reports appear designed to create unjustified fears of an Indian gaming boogey man hiding in a closet of the Carcieri fix. Read more »

Mause and Moorehead: Climate change indecision can be costly

This year began with congressional and presidential commitments to addressing global warming. At the same time, those Indian tribes with energy resources continued to consider energy development as an economic development strategy. All tribes, whether energy producers or not, will be affected by proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Read more »

LaDuke: A shot at true self-determination

LaDuke: A shot at true self-determination

We have a shot at being self-determining or we can be the victims. This is a time of tumultuous change, economic downturns, accelerating climate destabilization and the depletion of oil supplies, meaning loss of access to cheap petroleum. If we don’t act, we will be caught in a very difficult place as indigenous peoples. Read more »

Trahant: Indian country as the 51st state – and short topics

Trahant: Indian country as the 51st state – and short topics

I’ve written a post for Kaiser Health News that advances the meeting with tribes and President Barack Obama Nov. 5. I’ll write something again after the meeting and post it here late Thursday. Read more »

Bordeaux: The time for action is now!

The Sioux Nation has prepaid for our health care. In our treaties, our Indian nations ceded millions of acres of land; land that America now calls home. In exchange, we preserved our Indian reservations as permanent tribal homelands, under tribal self-government, and secured the United States’ pledge of health care, education and assistance to make our reservations livable homelands. Read more »

Marketplace insights

Marketplace insights

The Native American workplace is often identified as having a very casual work atmosphere. For most Native businesses and organizations, dress requirements and workplace etiquette are not strongly enforced. Read more »

Wildcat: The climate is changing. … and it better

In a little less than three weeks, from Nov. 18 – 21, at the Mystic Lake Casino and Resort of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux, Winona LaDuke and I will convene the second Native Peoples Native Homelands Workshop. Only 11 years ago, in the fall of 1998, the first Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop was convened in Albuquerque as the first U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change was being developed. Read more »

Trahant: The debate that drags on and on

Trahant: The debate that drags on and on

How long will the health care reform debate drag on? The Hill newspaper says “deep into December and possibly beyond by a lengthy floor debate.” Read more »

Cristobal: Decolonizing is pueblos’ first step

On Aug. 10, 2008, we honored the Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo) leader Pope who led the Pueblo Indian Revolt, which took place Aug. 10, 1680. It was not simply a revolt as portrayed in New Mexico’s colonial history, but the only successful indigenous revolution against the powerful sovereign of Spain, and long before the American Revolution of 1775 – 1783. Read more »

Newcomb: The smoking gun

We now have conclusive evidence: In a legal brief filed in the case Tee Hit Ton, the United States government traced the origin of Indian title in U.S. law to the ideology that discovering Christian sovereigns had the right to take over and acquire the lands of “heathens and infidels.” Read more »

  • Columnists Bios
    Kara Briggs
    Kara Briggs, Yakama and Snohomish, is a journalist. She edited the 2007 book, "Shoot the Indian: Media, Misperception and Native Truth." She lives at the Tulalip Tribes reservation in Washington State. She can be reached at briggskm@gmail.com.

    Steven Newcomb
    Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, is indigenous law research coordinator in the education department of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego County, co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and author of ''Pagans in the Promise Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery'' (Fulcrum Publishing, 2008). He lives in San Diego and can be reached at snewcomb@sycuan.org.

    Steve Russell
    Steve Russell, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Texas trial court judge by assignment and an associate professor of criminal justice at Indiana University. He is a columnist for Indian Country Today. He lives in Bloomington and can be reached at swrussel@indiana.edu.

    Charles Trimble
    Charles E. Trimble, Oglala Lakota, was principal founder of the American Indian Press Association in 1970, and was executive director of the National Congress of American Indians from 1972-1978. He is retired and resides in Omaha with his wife. He can be reached at cchuktrim@aol.com.

    Kevin J. White
    Kevin J. White, Ph.D., Akwesasne Mohawk, is an assistant professor at SUNY Oswego in the Native American and American Studies programs. He has been involved since 1999 with the late John C. Mohawk’s Pinewoods Community Farming Inc. Iroquois White Corn Project. He can be reached at kwhite3@oswego.edu.
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