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“The Little Traverse Bay Bands (LTBB) of Odawa Indians in Harbor Springs, Michigan made history March 3 when their council voted 5–4 to recognize same-sex marriages on their reservation.”
– Indian Country Today, Same-Sex Marriage Is A-OK With Little Traverse Bay Bands
“Although Oklahoma prohibits same-sex marriages, a gay couple has found a way to wed through Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal law in Concho, Oklahoma.”
– Indian Country Today, Gay Couple Weds in Oklahoma Through Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Despite State Ban.
“Last month, a same-sex couple got married in Oklahoma, a state that currently bans gay marriage. The couple was able to obtain a marriage license through the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, a federally recognized sovereign nation not subject to state laws. The tribe’s marriage laws are not gender-specific and, despite some internal disputes about same-sex unions, tribal leaders have stood behind the current law.
Shortly after, another gay marriage ceremony, the first for the Lake Leech Tribe, was performed in Minnesota on Nov. 15. The couple had been pushing for the right to marry under tribal laws for two years, but it wasn’t until after Minnesota legalized same-sex marriage in August that they were finally allowed to marry.
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overruling the Defense of Marriage Act forces the federal government to recognize these marriages. Since the DOMA strike-down in June, the number of tribes that have adopted same-sex marriage laws has doubled.
The tribes “are reaching back to ancient history of their particular culture’s oral tradition, anthropological tradition, historic documentation of settlers, to say, ‘OK, this is, in fact, a basic human right in our culture,’” Brian Gilley, a professor of anthropology at Indiana University and author of “Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country,” told Time magazine.
Oregon’s Coquille Indian tribe led the way by being the first to marry gay couples in 2009. In California, only the Santa Ysabel tribe in San Diego County allows same-sex marriage, a decision reached by their tribal court just last summer.”
– SF Examiner, Some Native Americans tribes support gay marriage.
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #46 – Equality (Two-Spirited).
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
