Andrew Cohen: The Mikkanen Nomination and the White Man
[Andrew Cohen has served as chief legal analyst and legal editor for CBS News and won a Murrow Award as one of the nation's leading legal analysts and commentators.]
According to the latest census figures, Oklahoma continues to have the second-largest Native American population in the country (next to Alaska). The reasons for this are as clear as they are old. The "Trail of Tears" -- the forced deportation of tens of thousands of native peoples from the southeastern states in the 1830s, one of the most shameful episodes in American history -- literally ended there, in the eastern part of Oklahoma, in what was then called simply "Indian Territory." Whereas America's native population is now 1 percent of the country's total, Oklahoma's population of Native Americans is now 8 percent, one in about every 12 residents.
Just a glance at the state map reveals the extent of Indian influence upon the state. Here are the names of some of its counties: Kiowa, Comanche, Pottawatomie, Pontotoc, Choctaw, Pushmataha, Sequoyah, Muskogee, Cherokee, Ottawa, Nowata, Okmulgee, Okfuskee, Seminole. There are reservations there -- indeed, within the past two weeks, the Osage Nation, in the northern part of the state, announced that had applied to the U.S. Department of Interior for an edict that would ensure that its casinos remain open while tribal leaders fight in court over the designated status of their land. Even the state's name itself -- Oklahoma -- is a Choctaw word meaning "red people."
So guess how many federal judges in Oklahoma, and in the rest of the United States, have ever been of Native American descent? Over the past nine generations since the Trail of Tears started depositing its survivors, the number is two. Let me repeat: Of the thousands of federal judges who have served across the nation over the past 224 years since Article III of the Constitution created our federal judiciary, there have been only two Native American jurists, according to statistics at the Federal Judicial Center, the official source of such biographical information about the federal judiciary....
Read entire article at The Atlantic
According to the latest census figures, Oklahoma continues to have the second-largest Native American population in the country (next to Alaska). The reasons for this are as clear as they are old. The "Trail of Tears" -- the forced deportation of tens of thousands of native peoples from the southeastern states in the 1830s, one of the most shameful episodes in American history -- literally ended there, in the eastern part of Oklahoma, in what was then called simply "Indian Territory." Whereas America's native population is now 1 percent of the country's total, Oklahoma's population of Native Americans is now 8 percent, one in about every 12 residents.
Just a glance at the state map reveals the extent of Indian influence upon the state. Here are the names of some of its counties: Kiowa, Comanche, Pottawatomie, Pontotoc, Choctaw, Pushmataha, Sequoyah, Muskogee, Cherokee, Ottawa, Nowata, Okmulgee, Okfuskee, Seminole. There are reservations there -- indeed, within the past two weeks, the Osage Nation, in the northern part of the state, announced that had applied to the U.S. Department of Interior for an edict that would ensure that its casinos remain open while tribal leaders fight in court over the designated status of their land. Even the state's name itself -- Oklahoma -- is a Choctaw word meaning "red people."
So guess how many federal judges in Oklahoma, and in the rest of the United States, have ever been of Native American descent? Over the past nine generations since the Trail of Tears started depositing its survivors, the number is two. Let me repeat: Of the thousands of federal judges who have served across the nation over the past 224 years since Article III of the Constitution created our federal judiciary, there have been only two Native American jurists, according to statistics at the Federal Judicial Center, the official source of such biographical information about the federal judiciary....