White Earth Chippewa Indians Adopt New Constitution With Religious Protections

On Nov. 19, members of the White Earth Chippewa Nation in Minnesota adopted a new tribal constitution. (Full text.) According to the Indian tribe's website, the tribal council earlier this year voted unanimously to hold a referendum on the proposed draft that was the product of four Constitutional Conventions between 2007 and 2009.  In Tuesday's vote, 2,780 tribal members (79.61%) voted to approve the Constitution and 712 (20.39%) voted against it. According to Tuesday's Fargo Forum, the vote means that the White Earth Reservation is breaking away from the 5 other tribes that make up the Minnesota Chippewas. Included in the new constitution is this provision on religious freedom:

Chap. 3. Art. 1:The White Earth Nation shall make no laws that would establish a religion, or laws that would deny the free expression of religion, speech, or of the press and electronic communication.

This goes further than the provision in the federal Indian Civil Rights Act (25 USC Sec. 1302) which requires tribal governments to respect free exercise of religion, but does not ban the establishment of religion.  MRzine has further background on the White Earth Nation's new constitution.