A federal law to protect Native families from being separated is on a likely path to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the 41-year-old law could be upended — threatening tribal sovereignty.
And while child welfare is the specific issue at the heart of the case, tribal advocates contend the real goal of the deep-pocketed effort to overturn the law is an erosion of tribal sovereignty to benefit special interests, particularly extractive industries, hoping to profit from tribal lands.