Top 5 Ways Senators Used Indian Affairs Hearing to Push Their Pet Projects
Rob Capriccioso
May 17, 2013

Even a person only casually acquainted with Native Americans who viewed the May 15 hearing of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in which U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell appeared for the first time could quickly comprehend that there are aplethoraof issues for her to deal with on the tribal front.
Which is a big reason why some Indian affairs experts are questioning why some senators chose to push some issues tangentially related to Indian affairs—and some not related at all.
"It's disappointing that senators currently serving on the committee are neglecting their fiduciary obligations to the Indian tribe, and instead advancing their pet projects that are beyond the scope of the committee's responsibilities,” said Derek Bailey, former chair of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. “It saddens me that some U.S. senators fail to comprehend this country's solemn obligations to the Anishinaabek [Native Americans].”
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Juvenile Inmates Found to Be at No Greater Risk for Prison Rape
By ERICA GOODE
Published: May 16, 2013

Youth advocates have long argued that juveniles incarcerated in adult prisons and jails are at heightened risk for rape and other forms of sexual abuse because of their age. But a government survey released on Thursday found that juveniles did not report significantly more sexual victimization than adult inmates.
The survey, which also examined sexual victimization among adult inmates, offers the first national estimates of the prevalence of sexual abuse among juveniles housed in adult facilities. The report’s lead author said he believed the findings “are far more reliable and representative of the experiences of such youth nationwide than the anecdotal data from the past.”
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United States: Native American Adoption Decision Pending From U.S. Supreme Court
14 May 2013

In this most recent U.S. Supreme Court term, the Court has heard two cases involving the domestic relations of a state. In addition to the arguments on same sex marriage, on April 16th, the Court also heard argument on the adoption of a three-year girl. The law at issue is the Indian Child Welfare Act. 
The Act, passed in the 1970's gives Indian tribes exclusive jurisdiction over any child custody proceeding involving a Native American child who resided or was domiciled on Native American land. The Act was passed to address the removal of Native American children by public and private adoption agencies and it places priority on allowing the child to grow up in the traditions of their culture by allowing the tribe and the child's relatives a say in the placement of the child. What is unusual about this Act compared to most state's custody laws is that is significantly broadens the class of individuals that have standing to raise issues about the adoption. Most states limit standing to the biological parents and, under some laws, the grandparents of the child.
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Negotiating the Perilous Space Between Indian Tribes and Universities
Tanya Lee - May 14, 2013

The complex relationship between American Indian tribes and mainstream universities was the focus of a May 9 Nation Building Symposium sponsored by the Harvard University Native American Program in partnership with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development Honoring Nations Program.
Harvard University and Dartmouth Collegewere established explicitly for the education of Native American and English young men. Dartmouth’s 1769 charter from King George III specified that the college would be created “for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land ... and also of English Youth and any others.”
Darmouth’s N. Bruce Duthu, professor of Native American Studies and chair of the college’s Native American Studies Program, told the gathering that after 200 years of more or less forgetting its mission, in the 1970s Dartmouth got serious about recruiting American Indian students. This year, he said, the college has its highest percent of Native students ever.
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