American Indian and Alaska Native individuals, like all people, are entitled to inalienable, fundamental human rights. In addition, tribes have fundamental collective human rights. NARF concentrates on enforcing laws regarding rights to equal protection and to be free from discrimination in voting, education, incarceration, and religion. NARF also helps develop laws that provide unique protections for Native collective rights, traditions, culture, and property such as sacred places, peyote, eagle feathers, burial remains, and funerary objects. NARF’s human rights work includes international forums like the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
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Indian Education
Historically, the United States has denied tribes the right and ability to govern the education of their own tribe members. The provision of formal education was one of the top promises that the United States made for the land that it purchased or acquired from tribes. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the United States largely contracted out the provision of Indian education to Anglo-American churches. By the late 19th century, the United States was directly providing education, in the form of government boarding schools, several of which were located far from tribal lands and operated under strict rule and harsh conditions. Reports and publications condemned these federal Indian schools such that by the mid-20th century, most of them were closed or transferred to states.
It is the consensus among many Indian leaders and educators, as well as the recommendation of many reports, that what is needed to improve tribal student education is tribal governance over that education. NARF’s most recent tribal education work has focused on restoring this governance. Beginning in the 1990s, NARF represented several tribes in developing tribal education codes to apply within tribal territory. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Education funded NARF to create the Tribal Education Departments National Assembly (TEDNA), which works to share best practices and information about tribal governance in education and to strengthen tribal governance in education.
During this new era of co-governance between tribes and states, NARF, TEDNA, and the federal agencies continue to develop the education governance capabilities of individual tribes. With tribal governance, Indian teachers, parents, and elders are more directly involved in school operations and curricula that reflect tribal histories, cultures, and sovereignty. NARF’s substantial work in the area of tribal education governance marks a landmark historical shift in federal Indian education law and policy and a return to tribal sovereignty over education.
NARF Cases, Projects, and Resources:
- Publication: A Manual for Chief State School Officers and State Education Agencies (2006)
- Publication: Tribalizing Indian Education Series (1994-2000)
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Indian Child Welfare Act
The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1978. A congressional investigation showed that American Indian and Alaska Native children were being removed disproportionately from their families by state agencies and state courts and placed in non-Native foster or adoptive homes or residential institutions. Congress found that many of these removals and placements were due to state officials’ inability or unwillingness to understand tribal cultures and societies. The impact of the removals and placements was extremely detrimental to the children, their families, and tribes. Broken families, loss of culture, and forced assimilation led to identity problems, incarceration, addictions, and suicide.
ICWA largely has been successful in increasing tribal authority over child placements and adoptions. A few states still are quite resistant to ICWA’s provisions and goals. In contrast, other states have actually passed state laws that allow tribes and tribal courts stronger protections than the federal law. NARF has litigated several high profile ICWA cases and is a well-respected resource on ICWA and child welfare issues. NARF has worked with tribes on several of the recent state tribal children welfare protection laws. With federal funding, NARF also has published and made available online A Practical Guide to the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is a powerful resource for tribal, state, and federal entities. More recently, NARF has started an internet blog, ICWA INFO (icwa.narf.org), which contains up-to-date information on ICWA resources, news, and events nationwide.
NARF Cases, Projects, and Resources:
- Brackeen v. Bernhardt – Indian Child Welfare Act
- Defending the Law that Defends Our Children
- Simmonds v. Parks
- V.B., BY NEXT FRIEND ANGEL SMITH V. MARTIN
- Native Village of Tununak v. State of Alaska
- Curyung v. Alaska
- State of Alaska v. Native Village of Tanana
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Voting Rights
For most Americans, the right to vote is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution; however, the federal government denied Native Americans voting rights until 1924, and some states waited until the 1960s to extend this vital right. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 also recognizes American Indians and Alaska Natives as a language minority group. The VRA requires states to distribute voter information in local languages and conduct bilingual elections to facilitate voting rights.
Yet, American Indians and Alaska Natives still face discrimination in voting, particularly in state elections. Some of NARF’s early voting rights cases addressed state laws that barred Indians from voting in state or local elections because they lived on reservations or other tribal lands. These laws were struck down for denying Indians the right to vote. Other states have enacted voting schemes such as districting that effectively dilute Indian votes.
Most recently, NARF has litigated two successful cases against the State of Alaska for failing to comply with the language requirements of the VRA. Several voting populations of Alaska Natives have received little to no oral or written assistance from the state in their native languages. As a result, many Alaska Natives were unable to vote at all, or voted in a way they did not intend. In the more recent case, the court ordered the translation of all pre-election materials and the posting of translators at all polling places.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated an entire VRA section; NARF is among a large coalition of civil rights groups working on a congressional amendment that would restore protections for minority voters. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision, many states have passed laws restricting voter access. NARF is reviewing these laws to determine whether Native voting rights are being restricted.
NARF Cases, Projects, and Resources:
- Montana Voting Rights Case (Western Native Voice v. Stapleton)
- Brakebill, et al. v. Jaeger (ND Voter ID Law)
- Spirit Lake Tribe v. Jaeger (ND Voter ID)
- Native American Voting Rights Coalition
- Toyukak v. Treadwell
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Religious Freedom/Sacred Places/Repatriation
American Indian and Alaska Native tribes are traditionally deeply religious societies. Given the history of hostility toward and misunderstanding of tribal religions, NARF has worked hard to protect Native religious freedoms and cultural property, including sacred places. After centuries of official efforts to convert American Indians to Christianity, coupled with outright suppression of Native religions – including by military force and massacre – in 1978 the U.S. Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA). AIRFA is a policy declaration that the United States will protect and preserve American Indians’ inherent rights to freely express their traditional religions, but AIRFA has virtually no enforcement or penalty provisions. Therefore, legal battles involving Native religious issues continue. They tend to involve the use of peyote, possession of eagle feathers, the rights of Native inmates, and the protection of Native sacred places.
Repatriation
To “repatriate” means to return someone to his or her homeland. Countless American Indian and Alaska Native human remains and religious and cultural objects have been and continue to be held by federal agencies and museums. Until 1989, federal policy firmly encouraged the acquisition and retention of these remains and objects. NARF was the leader in the landmark legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA),that halted this policy and encourages tribes to recover from federally funded institutions remains, funerary and sacred objects and cultural objects. Since the passing of NAGPRA, NARF’s repatriation legal work involves monitoring, litigating, or supporting cases that seek to interpret and enforce NAGPRA. Most recently, NARF assisted the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma in its efforts under NAGPRA to repatriate the remains of tribe member and Olympic medalist and athlete Jim Thorpe. NARF also monitors and submits comments on rule-making by the Department of the Interior, which is the federal agency that is charged with NAGPRA’s implementation.
NARF Cases, Projects, and Resources:
- Keystone XL Pipeline
- Protecting Bears Ears National Monument
- Wearing Eagle Feathers at Graduation
- Sacred Places
- Research Guide: Sacred Sites and Religion (National Indian Law Library website)
- Research Guide: Repatriation and Reburial (National Indian Law Library website)
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Boarding School Healing Project
With over a century of documented human rights violations in federal Indian boarding school, the mission of the Boarding School Healing Project is to secure a meaningful response from the U.S. government and churches as well as healing and reconciliation among Native American individuals, families, communities, and tribes. The Project is conducting education and outreach in Indian country and with churches, with the goal of developing a proposal to the U.S. Congress for response by the federal government. NARF also compiles research on historical trauma and healing.
NARF Cases, Projects, and Resources:
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International Matters
After 30 years of worldwide efforts, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. The Declaration affirms the rights of indigenous peoples across a broad range of areas, including self-determination, spirituality, land, and resources. NARF worked with the National Congress of American Indians and indigenous peoples worldwide to draft, support, and plan for implementation of the Declaration.
More recently, NARF also works in the Organization of American States on an American Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. Also, since the effects of climate change on indigenous peoples often deprive them of human rights, NARF works in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for a human rights-based approach to climate change.
NARF Cases, Projects, and Resources:
- Project to Implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the United States
- World Intellectual Property Organization Instruments on Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources, and Traditional Cultural Expressions
- United Nations and Indigenous Peoples
- UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – Indigenous Caucus
- OAS Declaration On the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- Research Guide: International Matters (National Indian Law Library website)
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