Could Indian Reservation “Termination Policy” Return Under Trump? Worrying Signs are There

The blog Alaska Indigenous is issuing a warning that Federally recognized tribes should brace for possible termination policy under Trump. The blog begins:

Whether we like it or not, Saglutupiaġataq (“the compulsive liar” in Iñupiatun) is now president of the United States and Republicans control Congress. Federally recognized Alaska Native and American Indian tribes should brace for the worst, including the possibility that Congress may move to terminate federally recognized tribes.

The termination era of 1953 to 1968 involved Congress stripping tribes of their lands and criminal jurisdiction. The policy was thinly disguised as an attempt to lift American Indians and Alaska Natives out of poverty by assimilating them into mainstream society. However the real goal was to privatize and ransack American Indian and Alaska Native lands.

Trump’s DAPL Order: What it Says, What’s Next, and Ways to Respond

From Mears Park rally against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

By now, you’ve heard that President Trump signed an executive memorandum to put the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on the fast track. He also signed an executive order that will weaken environment reviews for a number of infrastructure projects.

Below are links to the verbatim language that Trump signed, a brief look at what’s coming next, and what you can do to stop the pipeline, including tweeting the President and weighing in on the current DAPL environmental impact statement.

Lecture: Future of Indian Law Under a Trump Administration

Suzan Harjo (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee), a poet, writer, and leading Native American rights advocate, will be speaking tonight on the future of Indian law under a Trump administration at Mitchell Hamline Law School, 875 Summit Ave, St Paul. The talk will be held in Room 323 starting at 6:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Here is the announcement.

According to an online bio of Harjo posted by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, she is the former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians and has advocated for decades for laws to promote Native nations’ sovereignty, languages and religious freedom, as well as pass the National Museum of the American Indian Act. Harjo is one of seven Native people “who filed the 1992 landmark case Harjo et al v. Pro Football, Inc., against the disparaging name of the Washington football team.”