Guest Opinion. The United States Supreme Court’s history and jurisprudence is rooted in a colonial violence, Indigenous land dispossession, genocide, and slavery, but we are still surprised when, in 2022, it determines a woman no longer has a Constitutional right to bodily autonomy. Why? I turned this question inward and now share my thoughts as an Indigenous woman, as a lawyer in the field of federal Indian law, and as someone who has an interest in seeing this country turn from its violent colonial origins toward mutually beneficial governance practices rooted in trust.

Guest Opinion. The Cherokee Nation’s 7,000 square-mile reservation is a special place, full of vibrant culture and fascinating history. Through public art, we honor and enhance our culture and history. Public art ensures that all people on our reservation, whether they live here or are just visiting, can find beauty and curiosity about the Cherokee people’s rich heritage.

Two issues were on the table during the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs’ hearing June 22: the Department of the Interior’s landmark investigative report on Indian Boarding Schools, and legislation intended to work in tandem with the department’s initiative to address trauma and bring healing to boarding-school survivors and their communities.

On June 18, the remains of 13-year-old Wade Ayers were set to go home to the Catawba Nation in South Carolina for the first time since he was sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania in 1901. But at the disinterment ceremony, U.S. Army archaeologists excavating under Wade’s headstone found remains inconsistent with those of a 13-year-old boy, which were “instead found to be that of a girl of the approximate age of 15-20.”