Camping bans push some unhoused people to live in the desert

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In June, the US Supreme Court ruled in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that the state has the jurisdiction to prosecute non-Native Americans for crimes committed on tribal land, unraveling a 2020 ruling known as McGirt.

With Brittany Harlow of Verified News Network in Tulsa, I wrote about how the ruling connects with the United States’ centuries-long relationship with Native American communities—a relationship marked by broken promises, stolen resources, cultural loss, discrimination and violence.

Native American women are more likely than women in other racial and ethnic groups to experience violence. Some worry the Castro-Huerta ruling could make Indigenous women more vulnerable to violence.

“In determining who has the right to prosecute, does that mean cases are going to fall through the cracks?” said Karen Kaniatobe, education coordinator for the Native Alliance Against Violence.

Read more here. This story is part of a collaborative project with Verified News Network. It was funded by the Oklahoma Media Center with support from the Native American Journalists Association.

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– Mollie Bryant
Founder and editor, BigIfTrue.org