Native Americans

According to a news release from the tribe Thursday, the change results from a unanimous vote of the Oneida Business Committee.

Even if a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this spring makes same-sex marriage the law, it would leave pockets of the country where it isn’t likely to be recognized any time soon: the reservations of a handful of sovereign Native American tribes, including the two largest.

The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska announced its new policy following a unanimous vote by the council’s governing board to define legal marriage without a gender requirement.

Tradition reigns on the Navajo reservation, but the national debate over same-sex marriage is prompting some to re-examine a 2005 tribal law called the Dine Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex unions on the reservation.
(The New York Times)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An effort to repeal the Navajo Nation’s same-sex marriage ban has been energized by court decisions in some states to allow such unions.

FARMINGTON, N.M. — A Navajo Nation official says the tribe’s own law prohibiting same-sex marriage isn’t affected by the New Mexico Supreme Court’s decision legalizing marriage for gay and lesbian couples in New Mexico.

OKLAHOMA CITY — In a conservative state referred to as the buckle of the Bible Belt, two men legally married Thursday in a small ceremony at a chapel on an old military fort west of Oklahoma City.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Darren Black Bear hasn’t thought too much about his upcoming nuptials. Maybe khaki pants, and he doesn’t mind if guests show up in Halloween costumes even though the wedding will be a rare sight: He and his partner are getting legally married in Oklahoma even though the state bans same-sex marriage.

NESPELEM, Wash. — The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington state are the latest Native American tribe to recognize same-sex marriage.

HARBOR SPRINGS, Mich. — With an exchange of rings and a kiss, two men became spouses Friday during a ceremony at a northern Michigan Indian reservation after the tribal chairman signed a measure approving same-sex marriage in a state where it’s officially banned.