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Inter-tribal marriages are common in Indian Country but one couple's union has turned into a big mess.
James Ironshell, a member of the
Rosebud Sioux Tribe, married Eloise, a member of the
Meskwaki Tribe, 13 years ago. Ironshell said he has been targeted by the Meskwakis ever since.
"Not only is it saddening, it's really confusing," Ironshell, 49, a U.S. Army veteran, told The Des Moines Register. "This is 2008."
Ironshell has been arrested for trespassing on the Meskwaki Reservation twice, ticketed six times and thrown out of a tribal powwow. He still has pictures of a sign that someone posted on the reservation. It said, "J. Ironshell: Go Home."
The tribe is now seeking to permanently remove him from the reservation because he lives in tribal housing with his Meskwaki wife. The couple has two daughters -- Aileena, 12, and Abigail, 7.
"All these white women who live here have more rights than I do," Eloise Ironshell, who works at the tribe's casino, told the paper.
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