Tribal Sovereignty and Legal Protections for American Indians and Alaska Natives

The Seattle Indian Health Board is alarmed by the Trump administration’s recent efforts to roll back decades of hard-fought protections for American Indian and Alaska Native people by re-classifying AI/ANs as members of a racial group, rather than as enrolled members of sovereign governments. The administration’s view is that AI/AN people cannot receive "different" treatment under federal law because this would raise constitutional and federal civil rights concerns. But this view is completely at odds with the federal Constitution and with hundreds of years of statutes and jurisprudence.