Even if a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this spring makes same-sex marriage the law, it would leave a handful of Native American reservations where it isn’t recognized.
The Supreme Court could decide by June whether gay couples can marry in remaining states and U.S. territories where it’s not allowed. But the sovereign status of federally recognized tribes means a Supreme Court ruling wouldn’t directly affect their laws.
The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the Navajo Nation, with about 300,000 members each, maintain decade-old laws that don’t recognize same-sex marriage. Neither tribe has shown much sign of shifting.
Since 2011, at least six smaller tribes have revisited and let stand laws that define marriage as being between a man and a woman, according to an Associated Press review of tribal records.
SOURCE: JONATHAN DREW and FELICIA FONSECA
Associated Press
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