Kitzen Branting, 25, formerly Kitzen Doyle, is a member of the Coquille
Indian Tribe on the southern coat of Oregon. She has been in a loving, committed
same-sex relationship with Jeni Branting, 27, since they were both high school
students. They have since graduated from Evergreen State College in Olympia. WA. They registered as a domestic partnership in Washington State during
2007. They plan to marry in 2009-MAY, with Coquille Chief Ken Tanner officiating.
The Brantings joined with some other tribal members in the fall of 2007 to urge the council to adopt marriage equity. Kitzen said:
"I wanted my tribal family to say, 'Yes, we recognize that you
are equal to any other tribal member, and you are just as important, and your
spouse should have the same rights as any other spouse'."
Jenni said:
"We just want to have a celebration with our families. We just
want to do what everyone else does."
Brett Kenney, the tribal lawyer, was unable to find any other Native group
that had legalized SSM in modern times. The tribe's culture committee reviewed their group's
history. Chairperson Jack Lenox concluded that, among the Coquille tribe in the past:
"... same-sex domestic relations were accepted with no
exclusions from tribal citizenship, the community, auspices or spiritual
activities."
Most of the individuals who testified in a public hearing before the
committee supported SSM. 1
Brian Gilley, a University of Vermont anthropology professor and author of
the book "Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian
Country" said that the Coquilles are probably the first tribe in the U.S. to
legalize same-sex marriage (SSM). 2
Chief Tanner said that Native Americans are:
"sensitive to discrimination of any kind. For our tribe, we
want people to walk in the shoes of other people and learn to respect
differences. Through that, we think we build a stronger community. ... I think
it is going to have a very positive impact on this tribe."
The law that extends the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples
was passed with a vote of 5 to 2. It is expected to take effect in 2009 after
additional laws covering divorce and child custody are passed. As long as one of
the spouses is a member of the tribe, the couple receives all of the tribal
benefits of marriage.
A minority of tribal members have strong feelings against marriage equity,
even though it has been a part of their heritage.
Conflict with state law:
Although Oregon voters passed an amendment to the state constitution defining
marriage as a union only of one man and one woman, the Coquille Tribe is a
federally recognized sovereign nation and is thus not subject to the state
constitution.
Conflict with federal law:
Because the tribe has federal status, all marriages -- both same-sex and
opposite-sex -- would be recognized by the federal government. However, the 1996
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the federal government from considering
"...same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose." This
probably means that the
over 1,000 federal benefits and obligations of marriage would not be granted to
same-sex married couples among the Coquilles.
This new tribal law could trigger a
lawsuit that would test the limits of tribal independence and could challenge
the constitutionality of the DOMA law. Using the reasoning that the U.S. Supreme
Court employed in Romer v. Evans (1996) to overturn
Colorado's Amendment 2, the court could find the federal and state DOMA laws to
be unconstitutional.
References:
"Bill Graves, "Gay marriage may test Native American sovereignty,"
Religion News Service, 2008-SEP-04, at:
http://pewforum.org/
