Oneida Tribe Moves To Allow Same-Sex Marriage

The Oneida Nation of Wisconsin has joined a growing list of Native American tribes across the country that recognize same-sex marriages.

The tribe’s business committee voted this week to change a law that defines marriage as a contract between husband and wife to one between spouses. Oneida Spokesman Brandon Stevens said when Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban was struck down in federal court last year, the tribe decided to follow suit.

“The biggest thing was for the tribe that has full faith and credit with the state court that the marriages were held equal with those that are conducted through the state and local courts,” said Stevens.

The new tribal law takes effect June 10.

Since 2009, 10 other tribes, including two in Michigan and one in Minnesota, have explicitly recognized same-sex marriages under tribal law.

But the country’s two largest tribes, the Navajo and the Cherokee, still ban such unions. That puts those tribes at odds with the states that surround their reservations. The Navajo are spread across Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona, and the Cherokee are in Oklahoma. All those states have legalized same-sex marriage.

Twenty other tribes with reservations in one of 37 states that now recognize same-sex marriages also allow the practice. Most of those tribes have laws enacted in the 1950s that require them to conform to state marriage laws.