In June 2023, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in the case Haaland v. Brackeen, defending the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). While this case may have seemed primarily concerned with protecting Indigenous children, it also raised questions about tribal sovereignty, potentially impacting the sovereignty of tribal nations. Cook County Higher Education is hosting a series of three sessions that explore the origins of U.S. federal Indian policy in settler colonialism, with a particular focus on Ojibwe relations in the Great Lakes. These sessions will delve into the social, political, and institutional structures that resulted from this historical context.

In this session, Dr. Jacob Jurss provided an engaging introduction to fundamental concepts and pivotal legislative acts that have significantly shaped federal Indian law. This session introduced key concepts, including Indigenous borderlands, the Doctrine of Discovery, and the Marshall Trilogy. These early foundations of federal Indian law continue to exert influence and shape relations between Indigenous Nations and the United States today.

Resources:

• Powerpoint –  http://mycche.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Cook-County-Lecture-2-Slides.pptx
• United States Definition of Genocide – https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-19-genocide-18-usc-1091#:~:text=Genocide%20is%20defined%20in%20%C2%A7,committed%20within%20the%20United%20States.
• Recording: Understanding the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples – https://mycche.org/aiovg_videos/genocide-indigenous-peoples/
• Royce Map: Treaty Cession Map – https://data.glifwc.org/ceded/reference.maps/Minnesota.Map33.png
• Sandy Lake Tragedy 1850 – https://wisconsinfirstnations.org/mikwendaagoziwag-they-are-remembered/
• Action Incident – https://www.usdakotawar.org/history/acton-incident
• Dakota War of 1862 – https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/us-dakota-war-1862
• Dakota 38 – https://ictnews.org/news/traumatic-true-history-full-list-dakota-38
• From the “Sioux Massacres” to the “Dakota Genocide”: The US Dakota War In Minnesota’s Newspapers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33gJZKcUVfA
• Dakota 38 Documentary – https://www.smoothfeather.com/dakota38
• Carlisle  Boarding School – https://carlisleindianschoolproject.com/
• How many Native American boarding schools were there in Minnesota? – https://www.startribune.com/native-american-boarding-schools-minnesota/600211771/
• List of Indian Boarding Schools in The United States – https://boardingschoolhealing.org/list/
• Radio: Grand Portage Elder John Morrin shares about his parents being taken to boarding schools – https://wtip.org/archives/it-happens-here-episode-10-taken/
• United Nations Definition of Genocide – https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/Genocide%20Convention-FactSheet-ENG.pdf
• Boarding Schools Tad Johnson Talk – https://wtip.org/us-starts-review-of-boarding-schools-dark-history-ahead-of-presentation-in-grand-portage/ & Recording: Building a better future: a look at Native History and how inequality led to racism – Hosted by The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa – https://mycche.org/aiovg_videos/building-a-better-future-a-look-at-native-history-and-how-inequality-led-to-racism-hosted-by-the-grand-portage-band-of-lake-superior-chippewa/
• The Grand Portage Story (including info about Boarding Schools in Chapter 6) – https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/story/index.htm
• Suggested Readings:
  • Erik M. Redix The Murder of Joe White: Ojibwe Leadership and Colonialism in Wisconsin (2014) – https://msupress.org/9781628960310/the-murder-of-joe-white/
  • Gwen Westerman and Bruce White. Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota (2012). – https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/mni-sota-makoce-the-land-of-the-dakota
  • Waziyatawin. What Does Justice Look Like?: The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland (2008). – https://livingjusticepress.org/product/what-does-justice-look-like/
  • Brenda J. Child Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (2000). – https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803214804/ 
    • Author Talk | Brenda J. Child – https://grandmaraisartcolony.org/event/author-talk-brenda-child/
    • Jingle Dress Dancers in the Modern World with Brenda J. Child – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ed_F560rNU & https://grandmaraisartcolony.org/event/film-screening-jingle-dress-dancers-in-the-modern-world-ojibwe-people-and-pandemics/
    • Radio: U of MN Professor Brenda Child discusses the role that the Federal Boarding School system played in the dispossession of Native American – https://wtip.org/archives/it-happens-here-episode-11-90-million-acres/
  • Jacqueline Fear-Segal and Susan D. Rose. Carlisle Indian Industrial School  Indigenous – https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496207692/
  • Histories, Memories, & Reclamations (2016). – https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1dwssxz