issue as Native American Medicaid claims help provide more than $800 million annually to offset drastic shortfalls in Indian health care coverage. The legal challenge to ICWA is more immediate. The case, which began as Brakeen v. Zinke (now Brakeen v. Bernhardt ) originated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. On October 4, 2018, Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that ICWA was unconstitutionally based on race. To reach this decision, the Judge ignored decades of federal court precedent that affirmed inherent tribal sovereignty and the government-to-government relationship between tribal nations and the United States as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, countless federal laws, and treaties between tribal nations and the U.S. government. On March 13, 2019, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the appeal to Judge O’Connor’s misguided decision. The Trump Administration defended ICWA before the Fifth Circuit, joined by dozens of tribal governments and Native organizations in support of ICWA—urging reversal of the decision below. Congress enacted ICWA in 1978 to put a stop to concerted efforts by state child welfare and private adoption agencies to separate Native children from their families. (Note: these concerted efforts came nearly a century after the United States, through the policy of forced Assimilation, sanctioned the taking of Native children from their homes and forcing them into government and religious boarding schools.) The Act is needed now more than ever to ensure that Native children have the opportunity to grow up rooted in their cultures, language and traditions. Historic 2018 Midterm Election Election Day, November 6, 2018, will be remembered as a historic night for Indian Country. Since the First United States Congress convened on March 4, 1789, more than 12,000 individuals have served as Representatives, Senators or both. However, no Member of Congress has been a Native American woman. That changed on January 3, 2019, when two Native women, Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna) and Sharice Davids (Ho Chunk Nation) made history as they were sworn in to serve in the 116th Congress. They join Rep. Tom Cole (Chickasaw Nation / R-OK) and Rep. Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee Nation / R-OK) to make up the largest ever Indian Country delegation in Congress. While Representatives Haaland and Davids broke a huge barrier in the U.S. House of Representatives, Native candidates also made history in state races across the country. Oklahoma voters elected Kevin Stitt (R-Cherokee Nation) as the nation’s first Native state governor. Peggy Flanagan (DFL-White Earth Band of Ojibwe) was voted in as Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor—the first Native woman elected to a state executive office. All told, at least 58 Native Americans were elected to state legislatures in the 2018 midterms. These elected leaders will not only help educate their colleague and the general public about the governmental status of Indian tribes and the solemn treaty and trust obligations to Indian Country, but in developing solutions and building coalitions to further advance the mission to protect and preserve tribal sovereignty and Indian self- determination. This is the beginning of a new and exciting era for Indian Country!
8 INDIAN GAMING - ANNUAL REPORT 2019
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