John Roberts Gives Indians Something To Worry About

Indian Country Today writes, “Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has as sparse a judicial record on Indian law as on other hot-button issues, but briefs he wrote as a private lawyer in several major Native cases show a radical, possibly alarming critique of what he called the ''decidedly mixed legal legacy'' of federal Indian policy. “

The alarm comes from Roberts’ work on behalf of the State of Alaska in which he wrote the State’s brief in the 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case Venetie v. the State of Alaska. The Supreme Court agreed with Roberts’ position that most Native lands in Alaska were not part of “Indian Country.”

Many will argue that Roberts was just acting as a private attorney so nothing much should be written into his arguing such positions. However, in a 1997 interview with the Anchorage Daily News leading up the to the Venetie arguments, Roberts said that he took the case because he believed the Supreme Court would agree to hear the state's appeal, and that he believed in the state's position against Indian country in Alaska. "It's a very important case," he said, "an interesting issue."

The Venetie case made, according to Indian Country Today, “…under the shadow of North Slope oil finds and plans for a trans-Alaska pipeline, the act made a radical break in policy and transferred nearly $1 billion and 44 million acres - not to Native governments, but to Native-owned and operated business corporations. The land could be bought and sold without restriction.”

The Supreme Court case arose when the tribal government of the Gwich’in regained control of its Aboriginal land on the southern slope of the Brooks Range and asserted its sovereign power of taxation.

The News-Miner reports as a private lawyer much sought-after in Supreme Court cases, Roberts also argued against Alaska Native subsistence fishing rights in the famous Katie John v. Alaska case. He defended the state’s authority over navigable waters in the subsistence fishing case. John said the federal government had an ownership interest in the waters and thus was bound by the federal subsistence preference law to manage the waters to provide for her traditional Native fish camp on the Copper River. The 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the suit brought by John, an 83-year-old Ahtna Athabascan, rejecting Roberts' brief on behalf of the state.

A spokesperson for the Gwich'in Steering Committee said the Roberts nomination ''signals [the] potential for further erosion of tribal rights.'' Said steering committee representative Luci Beach, ''In two landmark cases, Roberts has argued that the rights of the state of Alaska supercede the sovereignty and subsistence rights guaranteed to Native peoples by the federal government ...This is sadly indicative of the Bush administration's disregard and contempt for basic tribal and human rights, which has also been signaled by Bush's incessant push to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) regardless of the impact to the land or the people.''

Anyway, speaking of the Gwich’in, they have joined with a number of other groups who are together calling themselves the Arctic Refuge Action in taking a "Save ANWR" message on the road. Vans emblazoned with images of polar bears and caribou are now traveling around the country, in a campaign intended to mobilize opposition to oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"We will be carrying two messages to the people we meet," said Rebecca Brown, one of the van's two drivers. "The first is that there is still time to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- Congress will be voting on drilling in the fall, so now is the time to stand up for the Arctic Refuge.

"The second is that, working together, we can accomplish that goal by making our voices heard in Washington, D.C."

"There is no substitute for getting out and talking with the people who care about protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," said Shoren Brown, national director of outreach for the Alaska Coalition.

The Arctic Refuge Action coalition says it also is organizing a rally for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to be held in Washington, D.C., in September. Sources: Anchorage Daily News, News-Miner (Fairbanks, Alaska), Crosswalk.com, Indian Country Today, Arctic Refuge Action