In November 2020, NCAI formed the Tribal Citizenship Policy and Protection Task Force, by Resolution.
According to its proposed "Charge," the Task Force was to "[e]valuate and monitor external political and legal threats to Tribal citizenship" and "undertake...work as necessary to help NCAI defend against emerging threats to Tribal citizenship."
Two such threats were the first Trump administration's "treatment of Native Nations as racial groups under Medicaid rules and disregard of Tribal citizenship data as a basis for federal COVID-relief funding."
But within months, the NCAI Executive Board ignored both the Resolution and proposed Charge, essentially killing the Task Force. That is because any effort that remotely touches Indigenous or Tribal human rights, most notably the right to belong, is anathema to NCAI politicians.
Now the Trump administration questions whether Tribal citizens enjoy American birthright citizenship and ICE is reportedly interrogating Tribal citizens in Arizona and New Mexico.
Imagine if NCAI had undertaken the work over the last four years to help meaningfully defend these and any further assaults on Tribal citizenship and sovereignty.
Imagine if Indian country writ large was more intentional about Tribal citizenship protection vis-a-vis either Tribal or U.S. constitutional law. See "The Original Peoples Deserve Freedom" (2024) ("Tribal citizens’ right to belong as Americans is not even protected by the Fourteenth Amendment....Tribal citizens remain exempt from America’s central promise."); "Tribal Nationhood Requires Civil Rights Protection" (2022) ("there is no national tribal organization…that advocates for the universal protection of Indigenous civil rights").
Gabe Galanda is an Indigenous rights attorney and the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman. He has been named to Best Lawyers in America in the fields of Native American Law and Gaming Law from 2007 to 2024, and dubbed a Super Lawyer by his peers from 2013 to 2024.
