Score 2 for the Indians

     This last month has seen 2 refreshing developments in the ongoing struggle of indigenous people to reclaim what once belonged to them, stolen by custom or treaty. In the first, a federal judge ruled that a portion of Oklahoma granted, by treaty, in the 19th C, to the Creek Nation, was still to be officially considered a reservation and under the tribe's, neither state of Oklahoma nor federal jurisdiction. It didn't mean that "Injuns are comin' - t' take away our land!" but it does mean that the tribe is allowed to adjudicate certain cases outside of any "constitutionally formulated" whiteman-style jurisprudence, set up since the great land grab of 1888. The judge ruled that since Congress had never said otherwise since the treaty was set in place, that the tribe still retains its sovereign dominion... over quite a large area of the state, including the city of Tulsa. This can possibly also mean that other tribes such as Cherokee who were removed by Pres. Jackson with the Creeks and Choctaws may themselves have righteous claims to the same opinions.
     In the other development, a ranch that had been out of Indian hands for over 250 years on the Little Sur River in California was purchased by the Essalen tribe, the original inhabitants, and will be a preserve for endangered species such as red legged frog and California condor. In this case, the land itself has been returned from the clutches of the 'wasichus" and every small step forward like this only serves to help to rectify the immense injustices done to the native people in my native state, and country.
     So score one for Sitting Bull  and the good guys. Wouldn't he look so much better than Andrew Jackson on the $20 dollar bill?