~ Student lessons for the classroom ~
Ichishkiin ~ Warm Springs
(from page 5)
~ Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
Culture & Heritage Department ~
Around Indian Country
Supreme Court hears challenges to ICWA
The United States Su-
preme Court is considering
challenges to a law enacted
in 1978 to respond to the
alarming rate at which Na-
tive American and Alaska
Native children were being
removed from their homes
by public and private agen-
cies.
The U.S. Supreme Court
now has taken up challenges
to the law three times—in
1989, 2013 and 2022. The
current case is the most sig-
nificant because it raises
questions of equal protection
under the Constitution.
The justices heard three
hours of arguments earlier
this November.
Following the arguments,
legal scholars suggested the
justices appear likely to leave
most of the law in place.
The law includes a sever-
ability clause, which means
parts of it can be struck
down while keeping the rest
intact.
The high court isn’t ex-
pected to rule in the case un-
til next summer. Lower
courts have split on the case.
The Indian Child Welfare
Act, known as ICWA, has
long been championed by
tribal leaders as a means to
preserving their families, tra-
ditions and cultures. The law
requires states to notify
tribes in certain foster care
and adoption proceedings in-
volving Native American
children who are or could be
enrolled in any of the 574
federally recognized tribes.
Placement preference is
given to the child’s extended
family, members of the
child’s tribe or other Native
American families, but it
doesn’t prevent placement
with non-Native families.
NAGPRA not followed in repatriation of cultural items
SOUTH DAKOTA -
There is an iconic 1890 photo
etched deeply in the minds
of most people who have
ever seen it, a man, Chief
Big Foot, body frozen stiff
on bloody snow.
For millions of people
around the world, this image,
and the man, have become
a symbol of military aggres-
sion, injustice, and murder.
Over 250 Lakota, 47 of
them women and children,
were surrounded by elements
of the Seventh Cavalry and
while the process of disarm-
ing them was well underway,
a rifle shot rang out, initiat-
ing a mass slaughter.
Although the U.S. Con-
gress officially expressed
their “deep regret” for this
incident in 1990, they did
not apologize, and the history
since the massacre has been
filled with reactions and con-
sequences that resonate pow-
erfully to this very day.
The lineal descendants of
Chief Big Foot still survive,
like Calvin and Michelle
Spotted Elk, and there are
two salient facts misunder-
stood about their ancestor:
One, he was not Oglala,
and those who followed him
were not either; he came
down to the Pine Ridge Res-
ervation from his home on
Cheyenne River, the home
of the Four Bands,
Minnecoujou, Oohenunpa,
Itazipico, and Sihásapa.
Along with some Hunkpapa
from Standing Rock, these
are the people who died at
Wounded Knee.
The reasons why they
came are not germane to this
article, save that at no time
on that journey did they
threaten or kill white settlers.
But Wounded Knee is on the
reservation of the Oglala,
and so people assume this
was the tribe massacred.
The other misunderstand-
ing is his name. It was not
Big Foot. It was Spotted Elk,
and he was the half-brother
of Sitting Bull.
Calvin and Michelle were
not contacted let alone invited
to participate in the recent
repatriation of about nine
cultural items connected to
Wounded Knee from the
Founders Museum in Barre,
Massachusetts, despite de-
cades of efforts by Calvin to
get his grandfather’s cultural
items returned. Tunkashila is
the Lakota word for grand-
father, and it applies to an
actual grandfather and to
those who came before that
grandfather. “We found out
after getting back from a long
trip,” Michelle said, “that there
was going to be a voluntary re-
patriation of the artifacts, and
in 1994 Calvin and his father
went to Barre, Massachu-
setts…”
“…on our own money,”
Calvin adds.
“The items at that time,”
Michelle continued, “including
Chief Spotted Elk’s lock of
hair, they had to be returned
under NAGPRA (Native
American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act). So, Jas-
per, Calvin’s father, put in a
claim, and another gentlemen
(Leonard Little Finger) put in
a claim at the same time, and
there was the conflict.”
Kiksht ~ Wasq'u