Though Rep. Ben Hornok rallied a last-minute debate against it, the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a state version of a federal law ordering courts to keep American Indian children out of non-native foster and adoptive homes when American Indian homes and institutions are available.
The Wyoming Senate on Tuesday voted down a bill that would have given Gov. Mark Gordon the ability to make agreements with tribes specifying special, off-reservation hunting rights some tribal members have through their federal treaties.
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Though members of multiple tribes oppose it, the state Senate on Thursday advanced a bill giving Gov. Mark Gordon authority to establish hunting agreements with tribes whose treaties contain special hunting rights.
The House Appropriations Committee has advanced a bill continuing a hotly disputed federal law designed to keep Indian children out of non-native foster and guardian homes, whether the children live on Indian reservations or not.
A Senate Committee passed a bill that would give Gov. Mark Gordon authority to establish off-reservation hunting agreements with certain tribes despite claims that the bill would undermine tribal sovereignty.
Though the Wind River Indian Reservation has been “dry” for decades, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe is attempting to gain a liquor license. It would be the only one on the reservation.
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The Wyoming Senate is slated this week to hear the second of two proposed laws aimed at making non-native families the last resort for placing American Indian foster children.
Though at first in support of legislation underpinning an off-reservation hunting agreement with Wyoming that would define tribal members’ treaty right to hunt any unoccupied lands throughout the state, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe’s government on Friday sent Gov Gordon a letter withdrawing its approval.
Citing constitutional concerns now that the school is under federal control, Wyoming lawmakers are on track to pull about $3 million in state funding from St. Stephen’s Indian School on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
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While some Wyoming legislators push to codify the Indian Child Welfare Act on a state level in case the federal law is overturned, several foster moms say the law discriminates against the very children it was designed to protect by denying them permanent homes.
