Civil Liberties Watch: Supreme Court Ruling Rocks Indian Country

A February, United States Supreme Court Ruling has sent rumbles through Indian Country. The ruling in Carcieri v. Salazar handed down by the Roberts court throws into dispute the sovereignty of land recovered by tribes not recognized before the 1934 enactment of The Indian Reorganization Act. The decision turns on its head over 70 years of legal interpretation by the courts and by the Department of the Interior. The Narrangasett Tribe inside Rhode Island are the immediate losers in the case but have vowed to fight what they see as the " latest attempt at Judicial Termination" referring to the illegal state dissolution of the tribe in 1810.