Despite some concerns about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, some Indian groups are urging her confirmation and Harvard is defending her record on Native issues.

“Elena Kagan as dean [of Harvard Law School] had such a strong interest in the issues of Indian country and Indian law that she allocated funds from her discretionary funding to support work in that area,” present dean Martha Minow tells Rob Capriccioso of Indian Country Today, here.

One concern deals with the fact that Kagan failed to appoint someone to Harvard Law’s Oneida Chair,, largely supported by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York with the understanding that a full-time tenured faculty member would be dedicated to Indian law. Still, Capriccioso talks to folks who say that shouldn’t necessarily be a decisive factor in whether to support Kagan:

But Robert Anderson, who was selected after Kagan’s tenure to hold a 5-year guest position as Oneida chair, said her actions were consistent with what she could do in her position.

“It’s not really the dean’s decision to hire a person with tenure; the faculty ultimately has to decide,” said the Minnesota Chippewa tribal citizen who directs the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington.

Anderson said he supports Kagan’s high court nomination, given her background and his knowledge of her ideology from when they both served in the Clinton administration. He’s also confident that she met many scholars at Harvard who imparted the importance of understanding Indian law.

Meanwhile, the Native American Rights Fund has circulated a briefing paper that says Kagan “offers another fresh opportunity for Indian country,” and leaders of the United South and Eastern Tribes approved a resolution supporting her.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Chippewa, Elena Kagan, Harvard Law School, Martha Minow, Native American Law Center, Native American Rights Fund, Oneida Chair, Oneida Nation, U.S. Supreme Court, United South and Eastern Tribes, University of Washington

Navajo comedian Vincent “Muttonman” Craig dies
Family members posted a note on Vincent Craig’s Facebook page thanking friends and family for their support as the legendary Dine comedian and singer-songwriter battled cancer, according to the Navajo Times, here. He was only 59. The note was posted late last night and the Times promises updates.

Supreme Court nominee Kagan falls short on Native issues
That’s the assessment by the legal experts quoted in this story by Indian Country Today’s Rob Capriccioso. He writes that “her positions on tribal and Indian legal issues are unknown, and she has lacked engagement on some major Native topics.” And, he reports, that when Kagan was dean of Harvard Law School, she failed to hire a permanent scholar to fill the Harvard Law School’s Oneida chair, largely funded by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York.

Tohono O’odham police arrest 10 in huge bust of alleged coke smuggling ring

It was, according to this Tucson Arizona Star report, the largest drug enforcement operation in the history of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Nine tribal members and one other person were arrested yesterday in an early-morning sweep in Sells, Ariz.

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle tells the Star that the arrests marked the culmination of a five-month, multi-agency investigation led by the Tohono O’odham Police Department.

And, it marked the first time tribal police officers have executed federal warrants on the Tohono O’odham Nation. It was part of an effort that saw tribal officers trained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Indian Affairs so they could makes arrest on federal charges, which carry more severe penalties than tribal ones.

Pine Ridge principal on tap for Obama administration post
Robert Cook, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who is principal of Pine Ridge High School, is expected to be appointed to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education, according to this Rapid City Journal story. Cook recently completed a term as president of the National Indian Education Association.

Native pop art in new Heard Museum show
Not just niche art is how the Heard Museum is describing its new exhibit by Native American and other pop artists. ” ‘Pop! Popular Culture in American Indian Art,’ ” reminds us, if we need reminding, that Indians also are participants in the culture at large, and that Native American art is not merely a niche art: It is part of the global art conversation,” writes Richard Nilson of the (Phoenix) Arizona Republic, here.

The show features work by iconic pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, but also works by Native artists such as Fritz Scholder and T.C. Cannon.

In fact, Ryan Singer has a riff on Warhol’s famous Campbell’s Soup can, with is painting, “Sheep Is Good Food,” of a mutton stew can.

As painter Jaune Quick-to-See Smith says in the exhibit, “I appropriate Pop Art because it is symbolic of the American mainstream culture.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Andy Warhol, buffalo post, Bureau of Indian Affairs, cocaine, Dine, Drug smuggling, Elena Kagan, Fritz Scholder, Gwen Florio, Harvard Law School, Heard Museum, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, National Indian Education Association, Native American Art, Native American comedy, Native American news, Navajo, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Oneida Chair, Oneida Indian Nation, Pine Ridge High School, pop art, Roy Lichtenstein, Ryan Singer, T.C. Cannon, Tohono O'odham, U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. Supreme Court, Vincent Craig, Vincent Muttonman Craig

Seems like every time a U.S. Supreme Court justice retires, somebody wonders wistfully whether it isn’t time for a Native American justice.

This piece by Indian Country Today’s Rob Capriccioso does more than wonder.

Even as President Barack Obama meets today with Senate leaders to talk about a replacement for Justice John Paul Stevens, Capriccioso details the efforts to include a Native candidate in the mix:

John Echohawk (Native American Rights Fund photo)

To remedy the situation, some Native American-focused organizations are rallying for an Indian face on the bench. John Echohawk, director of the Native American Rights Fund, has been floated as the most common name, even receiving a nod in The Nation publication, which is influential in some Washington circles.

Richard Guest, a legal expert with NARF, said officials with his organization are soon to have a meeting with White House officials regarding Echohawk’s qualifications, which range from tribal and federal expertise to nonprofit and legal aid issues….

The National Native American Bar Association is also pushing for a Native candidate, sending the White House a letter April 14 to make that case.

The reasons are compelling. As Capriccioso’s story points out, the court has a mixed record on decisions affecting tribes, something that experts attribute largely to lack of knowledge. Those same experts admit a Native justice would be a long shot.

On the plus side, he cites a USA Today poll last year indicating a majority of American people saying they’d like to see an Indian nominated to the court.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, John Echohawk, Justice John Paul Stevens, National Native American Bar Association, Native American news, Native American Rights Fund, President Barack Obama, U.S. Senate, U.S. Supreme Court

So says Walt Shotwell in this guest column for the Des Moines Register.

His “intriguing possibility” for whomever President Barack Obama nominates to replace retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens? A Native American judge. As Shotwell says:

Who is more entitled to serve on the Supreme Court than a Native American, an Indian whose ancestors roamed this land long before the nation was born?

Symbolically, it would be a sort of payback, however meager, for the many injustices heaped upon Native Americans.

Today, about 2,000 Native Americans are lawyers (and a handful are judges), so Obama would have plenty of qualified candidates from which to choose.

As Shotwell notes, right-wing talk show hosts would scream pandering, just as they did when Obama nominated Sonia Sotamayor.

And he asks, maybe naively: What senator would want to vote against a Native American, whose culture preceded all Americans?

Only one way to find out the answer to that question!

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Justice John Paul Stevens, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Native American news, President Barack Obama, U.S. Supreme Court, Walt Shotwell

Here‘s a worrisome report from the ever-vigilant Rob Capriccioso of Indian Country Today on the effect that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on campaign finance regulations is likely to hit Indian Country.

The ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission removes contribution limits on corporations and unions. Capriccioso writes about the likely fallout on Indian Country:

Tribal observers largely said the outcome could negatively impact tribes, as few have the kinds of influence with lawmakers as corporations and unions have. By lessening restrictions on those groups, many said the court has made it all the more difficult for tribes to be heard in the American political system.

“Native American interests have already been largely ignored in Washington,” said Heather Dawn Thompson, past president of the National Native American Bar Association and partner at the D.C. law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.

“Even before this ruling, it has been an uphill battle for tribes with corporate and union interests active in political contributing, often against tribal interests.”

And Daniel McCool, a political science professor at the University of Utah, says tribes could be outspent in areas particularly important to them, such as health care, banking and gaming. McCool is the co-author of the 2007 book “Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote.”

“In general,” he says, “it’s a bad decision for the Democratic process, but particularly for Native Americans.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Native Vote: American Indians, and the Right to Vote.", buffalo post, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Daniel McCool, Heather Dawn Thompson, National Native American Bar Association, Native American news, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, the Voting Rights Act, U.S. Supreme Court, University of Utah

The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by Native Americans that challenged the Washington Redskins’ team name as perpetuating offensive stereotypes, USA Today’s high court reporter Joan Biskupic reports here.

“For almost 40 years the Native American community has sought to retire Pro-Football’s ‘Redskins’ trademark,” the National Congress of American Indians wrote. “The mark is patently offensive, disparaging, and demeaning and perpetrates a centuries-old stereotype.”

The group’s challenge in the Harjo v. Pro Football case noted that “hundreds of high schools and colleges have discontinued their use of Indian names and mascots.”

The NCAI characterized the pro team as a disrespectful holdout, adding, “To many Native Americans, the term ‘Redskins’ is associated with the barbaric practice of scalping,” Biskupic writes.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Harjo v. Pro Football, National Congress of American Indians, Native American news, U.S. Supreme Court, Washington Redskins

The dispute over the Washington Redskins name – which TMZ calls “the most offensive team name in professional sports” – has finally reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This is a derogatory term for Indians that sticks out like an anomaly,” says. Philip Mause, who represents a group of Native Americans in the case known as Susan Harjo v. Pro-Football, Inc.
“No other group still has to deal with this kind of a term being used” in such a public and widespread way, he says.

The case began with a petition in 1992 to cancel the Redskins trademark under the Lanham Act, which bars trademarks that “disparage … persons living or dead … or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.” That’s according to this report in the Legal Times blog.

The reporting on this fascinates us. You’ve got the very straightforward Legal Times account, and TMZ’s “most offensive team name” comment.

This NBC report assures readers, “Don’t worry, you probably won’t have to tape over the Redskins’ logo on your favorite jersey anytime soon.”

And the comments, here, on the Talk Back site run by the D.C.-area station WTOP speak for themselves.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Native American news, U.S. Supreme Court, Washington Redskins

With this poll, that is. It’s by U.S. News & World Report, out just in time for today’s Senate debate on the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor, who if confirmed would be the first Hispanic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. The poll shows that half of the 1,000 people questioned would like to see a Native American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court if President Obama gets another pick.

(Pause for the blogger’s Dance of Joy.)

Fifty percent doesn’t sound like much? The next-closest response was in favor of an Asian justice, with 19 percent. At which point, the poll starts to make us queasy, given the idea that ethnic and other groups can be ranked in terms of desirability. For instance, only 2 percent of those polled wanted to see a Muslim justice.

We’ll try to avert our eyes from the ickiness of such rankings (just this once, as avoiding ickiness seems to result in herds of elephants hanging around in the room), and concentrate on the positive. Given the incredibly convoluted wrangling surrounding all legal issues Native, and the jaw-dropping length of time it takes to settle such cases – Indian trust funds, anyone? – the idea has merit.

You know what’s got even more merit? The concept that we might, someday, cease to be the sort of place where it takes someone from a certain group sitting on the high court to make for representative justice.

But there goes Buffalo Post, veering off into dreamland again. Silly, silly blogger.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Indian law, Native American news, Sonia Sotomayor, U.S. News & World Report, U.S. Supreme Court