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Today, Accountable.US released a new report exposing the fossil fuel industry’s ties to the petitioners seeking to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act in the upcoming Supreme Court case Brackeen v. Haaland. Both the law firm representing the petitioners, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, and many of the right-wing groups filing amicus briefs in support of them have deep ties to Big Oil or received funding from them.

 

If the case is successful, legal experts are concerned the ruling would greatly erode Tribal sovereignty and risk tribal protections for natural resources, a goal that Big Oil and other extractive industries have been chipping away at for years. 

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Big Oil and its right-wing allies have fingerprints all over this latest attack on Native American communities. For decades the oil and gas industry has attempted to use our court system and shadowy right-wing organizations to undermine legal protections for tribes. Make no mistake, they want to erode tribal sovereignty so they can rob tribes of their natural resources and exploit them to line the pockets of wealthy industry executives."

Kayla Hancock, Director of the Power and Influence Program at Accountable.US

In addition to Big Oil’s concerted attacks in the courts, the extractive industry has a long history of environmental racism targeting Native American communities. The industry often locates production sites near Native American communities, exposing them to dangerous pollution linked to increased rates of cancer, heart disease, and premature death.

 

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