Native Americans and the Supreme Court

We the People

National Constitution Center

History, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In celebration of Native American History Month, Jeffrey Rosen was joined by Keith Richotte Jr., author of the forthcoming book The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told: Native America, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution and Matthew L.M. Fletcher, author of The Ghost Road: Anishinaabe Responses to Indian Hating to explore how Native American law has evolved from the Marshall Court to the present day—tracing how the Court came to grant the federal government broad authority over tribal affairs, and how tribes have begun to reassert their sovereignty under the Roberts Court. This program was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall series on November 4, 2024. Resources: Keith Richotte Jr., The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told: Native America, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution (2025) Matthew Fletcher, The Ghost Road: Ashinaabe Responses to Indian Hating (2020) Matthew Fletcher, “Muskrat Textualism,” Northwestern Law Review (2022) Matthew Fletcher, “The Dark Matter of Indian Law: The Duty of Protection” (June 2023) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected] Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, friends. I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center,
0:07.2	and welcome to We the People, a weekly show of constitutional debate. The National Constitution
0:12.2	Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit, chartered by Congress, to increase awareness and understanding
0:17.8	of the Constitution among the American people. This is Native American Heritage Month, and I'm sharing a great conversation I had this week
0:26.1	with Keith Roshode Jr., author of the forthcoming book The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told,
0:32.5	Native America, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution,
0:36.6	and Matthew Ellen Fletcher, author of The Ghost Road,
0:40.3	Ashinaabe Responses to Indian Hating. We discuss Native American history and law through the stories
0:45.7	of landmark Supreme Court cases. Enjoy the conversation. Thank you so much for joining Matthew
0:53.7	Fletcher and Keith Rochotte.
0:55.9	Keith, why don't we start with you because your book is forthcoming.
1:00.2	It's an amazing tale that you tell in this important book.
1:03.6	And you describe how what's called plenary powers with regard to Native American tribes,
1:12.4	which started out as a doctrine rooted in racism and stereotypes, came to be rooted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Constitution.
1:20.2	Give us a overview of that incredibly important story.
1:24.1	Well, sure. Thank you. And first of all, I very much appreciate being here on what is clearly the most important political event in the United States this week.
1:34.9	So, okay, I guess I'm not funny today. That's okay. That's fine. The book is, as you say, Jeffrey, about plenary power.
1:43.5	And there's a doctrine in federal Indian law called plenary power, which is essentially the federal government asserting authority over Native America and essentially a limitless authority over Native America.
1:55.1	And when this doctrine was first articulated, in the version that I'm most interested in was first articulated in the
2:01.4	1880s, it was announced in the case called USV Kegama in which the court had to wrestle with
2:07.8	the scope of the authority, the U.S. authority over Native America. And in that case, the court could
2:15.6	not find any source, any constitutional source for authority
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -143 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from National Constitution Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of National Constitution Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.