Tribal leaders in Washington, D.C., show solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the #NoDAPL movement. Photo from National Congress of American Indians
Gyasi Ross (Blackfeet / Suquamish), the editor at large for Indian Country Today, calls on President Barack Obama to reject the Dakota Access Pipeline to protect his legacy in Indian Country:
From an objective standpoint, President Obama has unquestionably been the “best” president ever in recognizing and respecting the Nation-to-Nation relationship of Native nations to the United States. That’s a loaded statement. “The best.” Almost every other President’s relationship with Native communities has been terrible and neglectful. In fact, the relationship between Presidents and Native nations was (almost) always so bad that, really, as long as Obama didn’t talk with his mouth full of food and/or pass gas while meeting with Native leaders, he would be considered “pretty good.” But Obama has exceeded that extremely low standard. He has, as a factual matter, largely respected the nation-to-nation legal foundation of the United States. He did not do us any favors by doing so—he simply did what every President is supposed to do. The Supreme Court said so. “The Constitution, by declaring treaties already made, as well as those to be made, to be the supreme law of the land, has adopted and sanctioned the previous treaties with the Indian nations, and consequently admits their rank among the powers who are capable of making treaties.” However, although every President is supposed to recognize this relationship, Obama is really the first President that honored this relationship. Yet, Obama’s legacy hangs in the balance in regards to how he deals with Native nations. No Native nation wants the Dakota Access Pipeline and every nation recognizes that it is a violation of treaty rights and racist as hell. There has never been this much consensus, from Native nation to Native nation on one issue. Its construction is a violation of treaty rights, as the Yankton Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Tribe have brilliantly pointed out. But as the Standing Rock Sioux also points out, the pipeline is also a violation of the trust responsibility, the duty to consult, tramples on Native sacred sites in violation of federal law and really, really is just some shady ass racial profiling that explicitly prioritizes Native people’s health below that of white people.Read More:
Gyasi Ross: Obama’s Legacy On the Line: The Dakota Access Pipeline Could Tarnish His Place in History (Indian Country Today 9/24)
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