Beyond Right or Left--An Indian for SCOTUS

The Presidency of Barack Obama represents one of the few chances for America to right an old wrong by placing an American Indian on the Supreme Court. With the next nomination, the future direction of the Supreme Court will be determined. Advocacy groups on both the right and left will be priming their money pump to fight whoever is nominated with a an intensity we have not seen in decades. President Obama,already famed for his political rope-a-dope, could stop everyone in their tracks by nominating someone from the group that almost always gets the worse end of the stick of any Supreme Court decision--the American Indian or the the original people.

Americans accept that there is a so-called Jewish seat on the Supreme Court, named after late Justice Brandeis. American Jews number just 5.3 million of our population. According to the 2007 census figures, there are now 4.5 million American Indians. Jews faced the Holocaust and the constant problem of anti-semiticism. American Indians chronically face the possibility of being legally terminated by the Government. Tribes such as the Western Shoshone have sought a legal identity for years, while in 2007 the Black Caucus, supported by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn actually submitted legislation to "terminate" the Cherokee tribe, something the United States once tried to do with the Trail of Tears and the forced removal of the Cherokees from their homeland in the Carolinas. The story of other attempts to liquidate the American Indian are well-known and documented. No other minority, with the possible except of slaves in the South, has faced such a dark fate and still suffers from a government impervious to their needs.

Native Americans became full citizens of the United States under the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Today, there are 562 federally recognized tribal governments, while many more are recognized only at the state level. The federal government holds 55.7 million acres in trust for the Indian tribes. Native Americans constitute sgnificant minorities in Alaska (13%), New Mexico (10%), South Dakota (9%), Oklahoma (6.8%), Montana (6.3%), North Dakota (5.2%) and Arizona (5%). In actual numbers, California, Arizona and Oklahoma contain the most native Americans.

Since the 1970s, there has been a native American rennaissance that has produced a flowering of talent in almost every field, including the legal profession. One remembers fondly the days when our own Senate had Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a world class artist, among its members. The Obama campaign has drawn a number of the next generation native Americans in its orbit and included among them are several good candidates for the Supreme Court nomination.

The possible candidates for Scotus include:

Larry Echohawk--Current Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. First native American elected to statewide office in Idaho, former attorney to the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, Attorney General for Idaho, Law professor at Brigham Young University, A Pawnee and a Morman. The last would win over the Morman corridor Republicans.

Arlinda Locklear--the first native American woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court. A Lumbee from North Carolina she has practiced Indian law cases for 35 years and now is at Patton Boggs.

Tom Tso--If you want someone who looks the part of both the classic Indian profile and a Supreme Court Justice. Justice Tso has served as the Chief Justice of the Navajo Nation's Supreme Court. he would be the one to intimidate Justice Scalia.

Keith Harper--Cherokee. Selected as one of the 50 most influential minority lawyers in America. He was an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund. He has clerked at the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He has served on the Supreme Court of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians from 2001-2007. He serves as an Appellate Justice on the highest cout for the Mashantucket Pequot. Today, he is one of the lead attorneys in the Cobell (or Indian Trust) case. He served on the Obama-Biden Energy and Environment Campaign. He would make an excellent choice because he's wired into Washington.

And the Indian Country's choice and nominee of several Indian publications and websites around the country, Larry's brother John.

John EchoHawk--A Pawnee, he serves as the Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund since 1977, but with the organization since 1970. He has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal since 1988. He was on President Obama's Transition Team. John was the first graduate of the University of New Mexico's special program to train Indian lawyers, and was a founding member of the American Indian Law Students Association, while in law school. He is admitted to practice law in Colorado. He is called by native American themselves the Thurgood Marshall of Indians.

Louis Gray, the former publisher of The Native American Times and an Osage, eloquently endorsed EchoHawk in an editorial:

"EchoHawk is the Cool Hand Luke of big time Indian lawyers. Unshakeable and deliberate in all his decisions,EchoHawk never rattles under the most intense pressure. He is a man who has not served as justice but that is not a prerequisite. In fact some would say he has not record to destroy or pin him down on. But, he is a first class constitutional lawyer. You can't debate the Native American in the highest court in the land without understanding the constitution. He has no peer."

Gray continues to write in his piece on what I believe is the core issue about having an Indian on the Supreme Court:

"It is not unthinkable or unreasonable for an Indian to be on the highest court. By some counts, depending on the term, Indian cases can dominate the docket. And they have always,always been decided by men and women who didn't have one drop of Indian blood in them. And lately, that has meant a negative outcome for Indian people. We have to count on the wisdom and kindness of people unlike us to do the right thing.

If you think it's not important then why has the court been dominated by white men? And only when the political muscles were flexed did the court see an African American and women seats to the court of courts. It's not unusual for an ian to be seated,it's time and it's right" Amen, brother.

It also might put an interesting spin on the original intent of the Constitution. Where these men and a woman would come out on abortion or gay rights, no one knows. That's why as the second choice for Obama,an Indian makes sense.