The Supreme Court on Thursday handed a major win to Native Americans by rejecting a challenge to a federal law aimed at protecting children and buttressing tribal identity. In a 7-2 vote, the court turned away a series of claims seeking to invalidate parts of the Indian Child Welfare Act enacted in 1978 to keep Native American children within tribes. Among the provisions challenged was one that gives preference to Native Americans seeking to foster or adopt Native American children. The court, in a ruling authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, said the challengers did not have legal standing to contest whether the preference provisions violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment by discriminating on the basis of race.
A group of Navajo Nation citizens blocked two top Biden administration officials from crossing into their territory last Sunday in response to a recent federal oil and gas leasing ban. The Navajo protesters — who held signs saying “Go Home” and No Trespassing” — created a road blockade preventing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bryan Newland, who heads the Bureau of Indian Affairs, from proceeding to a nearby event in northwestern New Mexico. Haaland and Newland were scheduled at Chaco Culture National Historical Park to celebrate a recent oil leasing ban.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
